4,195 Miles And The Ice Cream Looses

Virgina Creeper Trail, Monticello, Very Nice Swamp, Victory Monument Yorktown, THE END




Interesting that only one person and I think that was me voted for a seven week finish and it's been exactly 49 days with 46 riding and 3 rest.

I left Damascus VA last Friday taking the VA Creeper Trail which is a Rails to Trails route, pretty straight forward an old rail bed where they remove the tracks and put down crushed gravel should have been okay for a road bike. At the end of the trail I need to hop on the Appalachian Trail for only about a quarter mile. Very long story short the AT is not suitable for a road bike while going downhill the trailer jack knifed crushing my derailer and ripping out the cable from my rear shifter. From this point on I was left with a single speed of course I could change gears by breaking the chain but this gets tedious. For the next two days I was still in pretty good hills so road all the time in a very low gear for the last two days I've been in my biggest gear, not perfect but so close to the end of this nothing really bothered me much. The weather the last four days has been excellent low humidity and high 80's....perfect. Friday I rode from Damascus to Christianburg via the Creeper Trail and Thomas Jefferson forest. Closer to Christianburg I started seeing really nice colonial style homes. Saturday was Christianburg to Lexington which has the National War College and home of Stonewall Jackson. From this point I was immersed in Revolutionary and Civil War Virginia. Sunday was a 4,000 foot steep climb over 2 miles onto the Blue Ridge Parkway which rolls along through several states but I only took it for about 40 miles, very scenic overlooks. I finished Sunday in Charlotesville home of the University of Virginia. Monday morning up early and off to Monticello home of Thomas Jefferson. $15 admission fee, I gave a $20 and got a dollar bill and two freshly minted two dollar bills change. I thanked the lady for not giving me 100 nickels and asked why John Adams wasn't on the two dollar bill...she was not amused. Next was Ash Lawn home of James Monroe and finally Scotch Lawn home of Patrick Henry. Remainder of Monday was filled with really nice horse farms and very expensive well maintained colonial homes I finished Monday in Ashland. I've been blowing by presidents homes all day.....seems like half of them are from VA and I seem to loose my attention span for it pretty quickly although I will stop at Mount Vernon Thursday prior to a pit stop in DC. Today was Ashland to Yorktown stopping at Jamestown for several hours. Jamestown was the first English settlement in the Americas and much to see there....a few years back they celebrated the 400 year anniversary so much is very new and up to date great interpretive tours and really knowledgeable guides. Early this afternoon I made it to Yorktown and spent a few hours touring around the old battlefields and such prior to going swimming. Tomorrow off to Williamsburg. Thursday I'll rent a car and start heading north. Looking forward to seeing some of you over the next several days. At some point I'll post some sort of conclusion to this excursion but not just yet.

Rain, Rain, Rain

Strip Mining, Breaks Interstate Park (KY/VA), Terrifying Coal Truck, Appalachian Trail Coming Into Damascus

I'm in Damascus about 100 miles east into VA pretty much where NC, TN, and VA converge. Damascus is one of those little gems that you're fortunate enough to stumble upon every so often. The Appalachian Trail, TransAmerica Bike Trail, confluence of several dam release rivers, and a large cave system....long story short it's an outdoor mecca full of some really interesting and unique folks. Last night in the little town bar locals showed up with fiddles and banjos. I've heard the songs before but never quite played like I heard them last night. Also one of those bars where someone buys you a drink just because you're sitting next to them, very friendly indeed. So friendly that I opted to take a rest day today first one since CO. I hiked a few miles on the Appalachian Trail, worked on the bike which was in bad bad shape (new brake pads, rear tire, cables), did laundry, and my favorite part of the day called up Continental and cashed in some miles for a round trip ticket to Istanbul leaving September 8. I figure after this I'll need a vacation prior to whatever is next :) It's been raining pretty much 24/7 the last four days so taking today off was pretty easy and so far extremely enjoyable. I'm staying at a cross between a B&B and hostel in Damascus so interesting people to chat with there as well. Since last posting I can happily confirm that Hazard, KY is indeed the same as that from Dukes of Hazard....many General Lees and no shortage of Boss Hogs, Couters, and such although no Daisy. The last several days I've been riding through the coal belt that straddles KY, VA, TN, and I guess to some extent OH and NC. I've been pretty fortunate to travel around the world and see quite a bit but no where have I seen a practice more devastating to the environment than Strip Mining. You've heard the commercials, 50% of our electricity comes from coal these days it's being referred to as "clean coal", yeah right. To simplify they lop the entire top of a hill / mountain off to get to narrow bands of coal. When done they simply plant some strain of grass that dies quickly as there's no top soil. Erosion is horrible as are all sorts of heavy minerals winding up in the water supplies and crops. Sometimes they blast off huge tracts of land which cracks locals peoples water wells. You get extremely dirty riding around this area everything is covered in coal dust or now that it's raining coal sludge. I could go on and on. I spend a lot of time at gas stations (laughing at people paying $3.65/gallon) getting a drink or candy bar or whatever and I always talk to the people hanging out. To put it real blunt one old guy said, "we shit on our own plate". No idea if this is accurate but the figure thrown out is only 1 in 500 people locally benefit financially from mining. Perhaps the worst part is that the older folks walking around hacking and wheezing as result of old style coal mining as well as the young ones are out of work because this new method of strip mining is so much more EFFICIENT. Of course the coal needs to be transported, the coal trucks in this region are far more terrifying than the log trucks were, they certainly make every effort to avoid you when they can see you but the roads are so crooked and steep in the Appalachians that often they don't see you till they are directly behind you and of course there is little or no shoulder. So far I've always heard them coming and aside from minor scares it's not been an issue. The dogs are still chasing me but as it's been several hundred miles and countless encounters that I really don't give it much attention anymore. Of course I still speed up and try to avoid them but I've come to the conclusion that chasing bikes is a game for them and they'll get really close but they don't want to get run over as much as I don't want to get bit. Aside from the strip mining the Appalachians are gorgeous! Extremely lush, ensconced in fog, loaded with very small family farms. I don't think anyone really travels far and it doesn't seem like many work. It's a very different type of riding than the Rockies much steeper more curvy worse road surface generally quite a bit more violent normally ending up with me standing up on the pedals dripping in sweat or rain it's been hard to distinguish. Overall I'm enjoying riding in Appalachia the most so far maybe because I've never been as bicycle fit as I am at the moment, not sure. I've got roughly 2 more days in the Appalachians followed by a gradual downhill to Yorktown. Attention all ice cream truck drivers: your time is getting short very short!!!

Lincoln - Dry, Moist, Wet

A Lincoln Boyhood Home, Typical Eastern KY Road, Turtle Rescue, Crossing Ohio River

It's been incredibly humid since crossing the Mississippi a little better today but still pretty bad. I'm currently in Booneville, KY with hopes of making it to Hazard, KY this evening. Not sure if that's the Bo and Luke Duke town but we'll see. Last Thursday I crossed the Ohio river by Ferry into KY. On the IL side the city was Cave In Rock named for a massive cave that water eroded in the limestone. On the KY side it was immediately Amish country, they are very much intrigued by the cyclists passing by and it was very enjoyable talking with some of them, I made certain to let them know that I love electricty, cars, and such....some of them do too. Friday I camped at Falls of Rough, KY really just a large reservoir tourist type spot. Friday was the last night that I camped as the humidity has been unbearable although that's not what I was referring to in the title. In KY there are counties and/or towns that do not sell alcohol; Dry is nothing, Moist is only in restaurants / bars, Wet is normal. I very much realize that I'm smack in the middle of the Bible Belt but I must admit I do not feel any more virtuous in the Dry areas. On the positive side I do see much less roadside litter in the Dry areas. The amount of beer cans on the side of the road in KY is alarming....Bud Light is certainly the most popular. Saturday was Falls of Rough to Bardstown where I began to get caught up in the Lincoln triangle. Turns out that Abraham Lincoln was born in KY and spent his first 14 years here. Perhaps just me but I always thought he was from IL.....The Land Of Lincoln, actually he moved to IL at 35 to run for Senate sort of like Hillary Clinton "comes from NY". Anyway, there are at least 5 boyhood homes of Lincoln along with the birthplace the place he almost drowned, the tree he fell out of, etc.... His family moved around Hodgenville, KY quite a bit. Early on KY was never surveyed well and folks were constantly battling over clean land deeds the Lincolns always seemed to loose. The Lincolns moved to IN when Abraham was 14 as result of his father being outspoken on slavery. Day 40 of this trip, yesterday, was from Bardstown to Berea, passed a few more Lincoln homesteads....at this point the Lincoln thing is getting a bit silly. He was born in 1809 so of course the big bicentennial is approaching. Last several days the roads have been really small one laners meandering around little hills or knobs. This morning those little hills have been getting larger as I'm entering into Appalachia the last mountain range of this trip. I'm giving up on roadkill pictures as the humidity is making them too disgusting even for me. Instead I'm shifting to preventing roadkill by removing turtles from the road so far I'm up to 13......they probably crawl right back as soon as I leave. Earlier today on roughly a 3 miles stretch I noticed that just about every mailbox had the same last name, must be chaos for the Postal Service. Onward!!!

Popeye's Birthplace

Mill at Alley Springs, Crossing the Mississippi into Illinois, Popeye, Little levee along Mississippi

This morning I'm in Carbondale, IL having a bit of a lazy start. If I ever get moving today I'll end up taking a ferry across the Ohio river into Kentucky at Cave in Rock, I'm guessing there's a big hole in a rock there but weird name for a town. I've made it out of the Ozarks a bit grueling although really enjoyable riding. Alley Springs turned out to be pretty neat, MO #1 tourist spot for photos and such on any MO tourist propaganda Alley Springs is on the front page. Heading through southeastern MO I began seeing many confederate flags....somewhat amusing as they're predominately flying in front of the most dilapidated ratty trailers I've ever seen and from what I can tell the people living in them are pretty angry. On the off chance that any toothless confederates are reading this I think bleeding gums, marrying your cousin and outhouses are really cool. I've also been getting chased by many confederate dogs an entire pack yesterday.....not sure what they feed them in these parts but they are amazingly speedy. Yesterday I crossed the Mississippi leaving MO into Chester, IL. Turns out that Popeye was born in Chester, IL a town that also claims to have sent out Lewis and Clark on their journey (they did cross the river from Chester), there are more statues and pictures of Popeye then people in Chester. I got a burger in Chester for lunch and tried out the "I'll gladly pay you the second Tuesday of next week for a burger today"....they did not find it funny and I left town quickly. After Chester I rode a portion of the levee system along the Mississippi. Where I was at it was comprised of three levees the closest to the river being the lowest which I thought was backwards. Each levee had huge valves about every 1/2 mile or so to regulate the water. In the picture above you can see the left side is still flooded and was unable to be planted while the right side is planted. This was the case the entire way on the outside set of levee resulting from the flooding a few months ago. I finished week 5 off on Tuesday at just over 3,000miles with about 1,200 more to go.

Name That Critter

Name that critter, they've pies in MO too, typical rollers in the Ozarks, this game went on for hours

An hour or so after my last posting I experienced my second mechanical disaster. I managed to suck up a piece of steel belt tire into me rear derailer. Most unfortunately I didn't stop pedaling in time and the rear cog blew up. I ended up turning the bike into a single speed and heading for Hutchinson KS where there was a bike shop. By the time I reached Hutchinson it was getting dark so I pitched my tent on the outskirts of town and went to sleep. Around 3AM I woke up to crackling thunder lighting and buckets of rain. Ended up pretty wet by morning....good times! Managed to get the bike fixed Thursday AM and headed to Eureka KS. Along the way I passed George Washington Carvers initial homestead where he performed much of his early agricultural experiments. The terrain began getting hillier and greener as I moved into the Flint Hills section of eastern KS. Day 31 of my journey was from Eureka KS to Pittsburgh KS. Terrain continued to get hillier and greener with really fun hills where you could carry your speed from one to the next. Temperatures and humidity last few days have been perfect. Early Saturday morning I finally left Kansas after 580 miles and entered into Missouri. Never really thought much about MO but it's a beautiful state full of great hardwood leafy trees, lakes, and rivers. MO also has the northern half of the Ozarks which is the only geological uplift feature between the Rockies and the Appalachians. Needless to say the entire southern half of MO which is where I'm passing through is a roller coaster. They're not too high topping out at around 1,700ft but nothing is flat it's continually going from 200ft to 800ft back to 300ft and up to 1,500ft and so on....it's really fun riding but grueling. All the towns are very small with I'm guessing under 500 people but all seem to have at least 5 churches. I'm currently in Summersville pretty much in the middle of MO. I think I'll be crossing the Mississippi Wednesday afternoon. I'll spend some time this afternoon checking out Alley Springs. I'm told under most of MO there's an enormous aquifer filtering through limestone caves. Well, all this water shoots out at Alley Springs. No idea, more on this later. I'll spend this evening camping along the Current River in Eminence. Two random tid-bits. 1) I used to love q-tips....I've now gone 31 days w/out them and have come to the conclusion that they aren't not necessary, I can still hear just fine. 2) Bike locks....I've now carried a two pound bike lock something like 3,000miles and not used it once, either folks don't like fluorescent green or they're good honest people that don't steel, I believe the latter (I hope I don't get proved wrong). Best for last: something really wonderful happened a few days ago. Many of you reading who know me well know that I've got some issues with my feet. Particularly claw like nails and a few mangled toes. Not quite sure why but guessing as result of the pressure from my cycling shoes over so many days one of my two "claws" loosened and with a few minutes work tinkering with the pliers on my leatherman I was able to pop it off underneath was/is a wonderful see through nail not yellow crumbling or a 1/4 inch thick. I have high hopes that the other claw will pop off too. In closing I am very happy to see that I've at least one road kill fan. I've instituted a new game, "name that critter". Perhaps in the future all this collaboration on this interweb thing will allow one to post smells too...that would really make "name that critter" a world class game.

The Road Curved Today

Mini Oil Derrick, Grain Elevator, Unlucky Snake (bonus points if someone looks up what type of snake this is and if it's dangerous....cotton mouth???)

First time in several days. The roads in Kansas are laid out in a grid pattern I keep making lefts and rights as I'm sort of going diagonally southeast across. I'm pretty certain that I'd be in a Missouri by now if they only had a diagonal road. Anyway earlier today the road actually curved I was a bit concerned that my handle bars were stuck in the "straight" position but all worked out just fine. It's getting hotter, more humid, and much greener. Roughly around Great Bend, KS (where the AR-Kansas river makes a left hand turn) the yearly rain average triples and crops shift from sunflowers and wheat to corn and cows. By the time I leave KS I'm certain I will have eaten an entire cow....there's nothing else except for the pies which come in all fruit varieties I've been sampling several a day. I passed through the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge this morning, aka...great big mosquito breeding ground. All the various bug noises and such were pleasant that's about it. The new scary thing are snakes in the road. Mostly lurking on the shoulder half in the grass and half in the road. I guess in the morning a warm road is like a sauna to a snake. I accidentally ran one over this morning. In just about every field in Kansas there is a mini oil derrick. For the last 75 years or so oil companies have renewed mineral right leases but not actively drilled since the operations are fairly small until a year or so ago not profitable. Today everything is being drilled every other truck on the road is transporting oil. The other half of the trucks are moving grain...Kansas really does feed the world. Every little town has a grain elevator along the train tracks (sometimes that's the town) and that operation never stops at least not in the several days that I've been riding through. The people in Kansas continue to be the highlight of the state pretty much the nicest folks I've met and equipped with great pie making skills. I should make it into Missouri sometime Friday afternoon.

Should Have Carried A Spare Tire

Bad weather around Pueblo CO, Latest roadkill favorite (very white teeth), many sunflower farms in western KS, Clarence

Despite Steve's best wishes I made it out of the Rockies in one piece. Friday morning was about as perfect as it gets; wind was coming from behind, road was bran new with an excellent shoulder, temperature right around 70'F, and great scenery. I admit the forecast and surrounding low black clouds were ominous and I knew I'd run into the storm at some point but that didn't happen till the afternoon. I crossed the Continental Divide for the 10th and final time at Current Creek at around 9500ft. By 2PM I had descended about 5000'ft Canyon City is where all hell broke loose. Pretty much per the weather forecast Steve posted. I made it to Pueblo that evening and got a hotel room. Saturday was rain off and on made it Eads, CO. Sunday was scattered rain again I made it to Scott City, KS and changed the clock to Central Time Zone. I'm still amazed at the level you witness the terrain and such change when traveling by bicycle. Eastern CO is pretty boring in every aspect, very dry and dusty. I'd been noticing over the last few days that my rear tire was shredding in a few places as result of the horrendous roads in eastern CO. Yesterday afternoon I began getting flat after flat but as I wasn't carrying a spare and no where to buy a new one I had to hope for the best. This morning 20 miles into the day my rear tire blew up. I was on a small rural road but within 10 minutes three different trucks stopped all with ideas on what to do. Very long story short I ended up spending the day with Clarence Bryant (what are the chances of that) a retired wheat farmer. At this point I'm only about 40 miles east of where I started the day but I've got two brand new tires and feel very good about the world after a day with Clarence. I'm loosely following the Trans America Bicycle Trail inaugurated in 1976 when several thousand bike enthusiast / flower power types set out from Astoria OR to Yorktown Virginia. Kansans very much remember that trip and to this day go out of their way to do anything in their power to help or make passing cyclists feel at home offering all types off assistance and encouragement. They are really great! I guess lesson for today should be carry a spare but if I had I wouldn't of got to spend the day with Clarence (I"m not carrying a spare).