Kiki Bikes Across America

Lunch stop on our way to Blacksburg!

Today was a bit on the grueling side, yet not horribly grueling. We had some climbing throughout the day with the rolling hills into Blacksburg. Our goal was to get to Catawba, VA for lunch – since the maps showed symbols of food and services. We got there and there was nothing open – the gas station/general store was closed. However, a few guys from the Appalachian Trail told us of this place called the Homeplace – it was the only place open to get food. It was a real mansion kind of house and they had set prices for all you can eat. We stopped there and had a real home-style cooked meal in a sense – all you can eat, was definitely appealing too. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, beans, coleslaw, apple cobbler, cherry cobbler and ice cream, lemonade and ice tea. It was definitely tasty and filling. A few of the AT hikers were chatting with us – they were from Boulder, CO and said we should go through there. We’ll see – I’d like to see a couple friends up there, but it’ll also depend on timing and how tired I am by that point.

After lunch, we had a little over 20 miles to go and knew we had to climb another mountain to drop down into Blacksburg. Luckily, George took the lead for about 10 miles or more and kept a good fast pace of 17-20 mph going. The roads had improved and were smoother surfaces so made riding a lot faster and easier. The hills had let up at this point and were a bit more rolling and we could pedal fast down and then more normal paced to get back up the next rolling hill. We made great time on those 10 miles or so.

George of the jungle

3 miles from Blacksburg we hit the mountain and it was the worst – we climbed something like 800 ft (maybe more) – I’d have to check the GPS again. But it was a really steep climb up and then a slight break down into Blacksburg, yet still a few hills on the residential streets. Finally, at 6pm we arrived at Allison’s to spend the night. After cleaning up and organizing ourselves, we went to the laundromat to wash clothes and then to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Afterwards we did a Walmart run to do a little restocking on things.

And finally I conked out around 12:15 after having to work on my back a little more with the tennis ball and TENS unit.

GPS/Computer Stats:
I forgot it back at Allison’s so don’t have stats for today … but I do know we have come 375 miles thus far on our ride across the country!!! We’re almost done with our first map from Adventure Cycling Association!

Snake count: 3 today, 11 to date 
Dog chases: 0 today, 3 to date 
Aches/pains:  A bit of back pain today – not too fun on the hills, but I made it to Blacksburg alive and well. I called a few chiropractors and left messages seeing if I could get an appointment in the morning. I got a call back and will be seeing someone at 8am tomorrow morning! Woohoo!