Kiki Bikes Across America

Archive for May 30th, 2009

Another slightly tiresome day – not as bad as yesterday though. We did a lot of climbing, about 10 miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway prior to exiting onto Route 56 going down to Vesuvius, VA. The ride down was amazing – 3 miles of downhill, getting speeds up to 40mph and then realizing my breaks were overheating. We all had to stop and let our breaks cool off for a bit and then we continued the last mile down the mountain. We had a pretty relaxing ride from mile 14 till mile 30 or so. Then we did a bit of an uphill into Lexington where we had lunch at Subway. After Lexington (mile 37), we were sluggish in getting going again and wound up taking a break alongside the road. Then a nice lady came out (Dorothy Perkins) just near Natural Bridge, VA and offered us water and let us spray ourselves with the hose outside. We sat down and talked to her for a bit and she said she was trying to fix up her house alongside the road for cyclists to use to camp, cook, etc. She was very friendly and we stayed for maybe 30 minutes before continuing on. She told us how to cut off 2 miles from our route which was definitely nice at the end of the day.

Camp spot behind Rescue Squad buildings in Buchanan, VA

We finished the day with some big rolling hills and wound up rolling into Buchanan, VA around 5:30pm and went to the Volunteer Rescue Squad to ask if we could camp on their grounds. They said yes and so we set up camp and then they came and checked on us a while later and  even brought us an entire case of water. Apparently the water in Buchanan has been contaminated and we can’t drink any of the well water, so would have to buy it otherwise, but the chief dropped a case off for us which was really nice.

The guys made a Burger King dinner stop and I cooked cheese rotini for dinner and then we cleaned up and I came to Main Street to use the internet in front of the public library and go grab some snacks at the Burger King.

Anyway, so things are going well – we’re all getting along great and have lots of fun and inside jokes are becoming more prevalent now. We’ve kind of gotten a pace going and know roughly when to take lead and rotate and such and everything’s going reall well. Tomorrow night we’re aiming for Blacksburg and will stay with Allison Long and her roommate down there before meeting Paul, our 4th rider, on Monday morning. 

We’re hoping our first rest day will occur after we get out of Virginia, so probably anoter 2-3 days – I’m not really sure!

GPS Stats:
62.1 miles
5:50 moving time
42.3 max speed
10.7 avg speed 

Computer Stats:
63.32 miles
5:42:31 moving time
44.0 max speed
11.1 avg speed 

Snake count: 2 today,  8 to date
Dog chases: 0 today, 3 to date 
Aches/pains: moderate back pain, nothing too horrible. Always feel great in the evening, just climbing hills with 65+ lbs of gear doesn’t do my back much fun.
Favorite piece of gear: voice recorder

P.S. Almost got caught for the second time cleaning up after the day – had just finished changing clothes and wiping down with wipes and no more than 3 minutes later the firechief came by to check on us… and rode past just where I had been.