Sunday May 27, 2012, 56 miles - Total so far: 371 miles*
* Miles ridden on the TransAm route
Odometer miles - Today - 55.7 Total to date - 403.2 miles
End of map 12 - On to map 11
As I described previously, there are 12 maps provided by Adventure Cycling Association to get us across the country. Today we completed map 12 and tomorrow we move on to map 11 - they're going in reverse for us because we're going east to west.
Today was another hot day, but it
was only 56 miles and not quite as much climbing as yesterday. We got started about 7:30 after getting cold
breakfast from the camp mess hall. We
could have had bacon and eggs, but it didn’t start until 8:00 and no one wanted
to delay their start due to the heat.
Today’s ride took us through
Troutville, Daleville, Catawba, Ellett and ended in Christiansburg. Much of the ride was through the Catawba
Valley which featured beautiful scenery and very lightly traveled country roads
with a lot of shade. It was a beautiful
ride. There was a long gradual climb
over much of the middle of the route, then we had to climb over 500 feet in the
last couple of miles into Christiansburg.
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| Tree growing from the top of a silo on the road past Daleville, VA |
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| The Catawba Valley |
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| Interesting yard art |
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| Impressive modern railroad bridge over our route near Ellett, VA |
We’re spending the night at St.
Paul’s Methodist Church near the center of town. We’ve got several large air-conditioned rooms
on the top floor, a place to park our bikes indoors and a very large kitchen. The kitchen is an especially good thing since
this is my first day to share cooking duties.
I’m working with Monica and we’ve got a large ham, broccoli salad, collard greens and some other goodies. Monica’s a
pretty experienced cook, so mostly I’m just the extra pair of hands and the
clean up crew.
We finished our ride about 2:00pm,
then after Nicole got back from taking the early arrivals for showers she
shuttled the rest of us to the local aquatics center. Most of the group stayed for over an hour for
swimming. I just showered and came back
to the church to help with dinner, though I did wash out some of my socks and
small items in the shower.
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| The temperature was 92 when we arrived in Christiansburg |
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| Huey working on his bike with the St. Paul's Methodist Church steeple in the background |
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| St. Paul's Methodist Church - our overnight site in Christiansburg |
Dinner went great! The church has an incredibly well equipped kitchen. They've got two ovens, all the utensils you could need and full table service. Everyone got plenty to eat and didn't have to use their own table service. Plus we've got lots of leftover ham for lunches on Monday.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI am so Glad that you got to spend some of
the cash on useful items like WINE! That's what
I would have done and PSYCHED that you grasped
the momment!! I see that you have been riding
hard everyday so far. When is your first rest day?
Did you see the news from this past Friday that
the Dragon Capsule from SpaceX became the first
successful private investor funded vehicle to
dock with the International Space Station? The
capsule was unmanned and it was super cool
watching the docking happen Friday morning.
Glad ALL is going well so far on the trip. I'm
enjoying your blogs and pictures!
Hi Don,
DeleteIt is a bit unusual to have 10 riding days in a row, but a couple were a bit short. The leaders are free to make up the schedule and arrange the rest days. Paul and Nicole did it this way to allow a day later on in a better place for scenery or extra activities.
The first rest day is coming up in Damascus, VA after the ride on Tuesday. I don't think they anticipated a couple of >90 degree days this early in the summer and at the higher elevations we've been.