Day 5 : Starting to Get Into a Groove...and an Epic Ride...

From Lexington, VA to Christiansburg, VA - 101 miles

Story [in numbers]:

Time on bike: 9:35:32
Average speed: 10.5 mph
Max Speed: 37.9 mph

Story [in words]:

we got up at 5 this morning at our super 8 motel, and we headed across the parking lot to the waffle house for a big breakfast. then we headed to the next parking lot to walmart to pick up a couple of things that we were needing.

so, with breakfast and walmart before getting on the bikes...it was about 7 am before we got riding. we headed through lexington and then out into the countryside. roller hills mostly. we rode alongside a stream and railroad tracks for quite some time. it was quaint and beautiful.

at about 1 pm we arrived into troutsville. and i have to stop and give props to my friend pervis (the guy who kind of inspired this trip). when he did this trip 2 years ago, he rode the whole of the ride that we did yesterday AND all of the distance to troutsville as well (where we were today at 1 pm). all i have to say is, pervis, you are absolutely insane!!

speaking of pervis, i got a phone call from pervis today, and he said that he is planning on coming up on sunday to meet us and take us out for lunch...and then he is going to drive ahead 20 or 30 miles ahead of us and see us one more time. it will be really nice to see a familiar face...and i can't wait to share stories with him, since he has been through it all before.


i wrote up until this point while we were stopped at a gas station waiting out some rain at around 4 pm. we really wanted to log another 28 miles to get into christiansburg, but the rain rolled in and we weren't sure if we were going to be able to make it or not. we waited till about 5:15 pm and made the decision that we were going to give it a whirl. so at about 5:30 we got on and started riding.

it was mostly down hill for the next 20 plus miles or so (at times in some pretty serious rain), and then we had to do a pretty serious climb into christiansburg. it was intense to say the least, but we made it. we then made a wrong turn trying to get to our camp ground for the night. and so when all was said and done, we ended up riding just over 100 miles on the day. we finally found the campground, but came to find out that it was going to cost $20/tent. (we are still riding with kirk. keith had a friend in roanoke and he rode in to visit with his friend.) so it was going to cost us $40 total to camp, and so we ended up going to the motel 8 right across the street for a total of $58, we are staying in luxury one more night. we can't keep living like this, but on a night where we were riding past 9 pm, it was nice to not have to get the camp stuff out. but we will be back to the camping tomorrow for sure.

it is amazing how good my legs feel after being on the bike for 9+ hours today and logging 100 miles. it will be interesting to see how things feel in the morning.

one note from yesterday that i forgot to mention, was that the transamerica trail intersect the appalachian trail in a number of spots. and so, yesterday, as we were riding on the blue ridge parkway, all of a sudden there was a guy that just walked out of the woods. and come to find out he was a through-hiker on the AT. we had some great conversation with him and also gave him some of our food, which he was very appreciative of. we also ran into another through-hiker a little while later, as well as one today who was hanging out at the gas station that we were at as we waited out the storm this afternoon.

it is kind of cool to have time to chat and interact with some other people that are doing things that people would call "crazy".

cailyn and i were talking today about how many things and how much variety you get to see in doing this trip. we have seen a number of old historic towns, gone by at least 5 universities, seen some amazing valleys and beautiful mountains, and even taken in a couple of decent size towns. and all in 5 days. it is pretty crazy to think back on it all.

oh and...i almost forgot...probably the most exciting part of today is that today was a major milestone. by reaching christiansburg tonight, we finished the first of our 12 sets of maps. so, 1 down...11 to go. tomorrow we will set in on map #2.