From Breaks Interstate Park, VA to Dema, KY - ~52 miles
Story [in words]:
we slept in until about 7 am this morning, and we rolled out of our tent all ready to eat our massive cinnamon roll, only to discover that the raccoons had unzipped cailyn's backpack and taken the cinnamon roll out and not a crumb left. cailyn was not too happy to say the least! (we later noticed that there was a huge nail sticking in a tree on our campsite where we could have hung it from)
cailyn began packing up camp, while i rode up to the lodge to get some quarters so that we could do our laundry. we got the laundry started while we finished packing up our gear. then we rolled down to the laundry area to wait for our laundry to finish. while we waited, we tried to catch up on a little blogging and journaling. when our laundry finished, we quickly put on some clean riding clothes and packed the rest of our clothes in the trailer bag and headed back towards the lodge to grab some breakfast.
we sat down next to the same beautiful view (actually the same table) and had a great breakfast. while we ate, we looked at our maps to make a plan for the day that was ahead. we quickly discovered that there was no camping and no hostels listed on our maps in the area we would be able to ride to with our late start. so for the first time on our trip, we got on the bikes not knowing where we were going to stay at the end of the day. we figured it was about time to start asking around and see if we could just find a place to put up a tent.
after we finished breakfast, we were planning on sitting in the lodge for a while to get the rest of the way caught up on the blog, but for some reason the internet was not working and so we were not able to blog (which is much of the reason there have not been any posts in a few days). so, we got sunscreened up, and headed back onto the route at about 11:30 am.
not too far out of the park, we ran into the road line painting crew (i think that is the technical term) coming towards us. one of the trucks pulled over to us and told us that we would need to get off the road for a little while because the paint truck would be turning around and following behind us in a few minutes. we weren't exactly sure what that meant, but we figured we would just keep riding and see what happened. but sure enough, in another 5 or 10 minutes, the truck did come behind us and we needed to get out of the way in a hurry. conveniently though, at the place where we had to get out of his way, we found the couple from colorado that we had met the day before also waiting for the paint truck to pass. so we were able to talk with them a little more and get to know them better.
after the paint was dry, they came by and told us we were free to cycle on. so we said goodbye to our colorado friends and hopped back on the bikes to try to cover some miles. we continued riding and continued climbing just about as much as we did yesterday.
they say that the appalachian mountains are the toughest of the mountains on this route. and there is no doubt in my mind that i agree. at least that better be the case, or we will never make it through colorado. the climbing is demoralizing...for both of us. thankfully, it seems that most of the time, when one of us is down, emotionally, the other is up...and vice versa. i don't know where we would be without each other, that is for sure.
despite all the climbing, and the late start, we were covering a decent number of miles...but then at a little after 7 pm, we found ourselves in a town with a name that we didn't recognize. we pulled into a gas station and got our map out, to discover that we had missed a turn some 3 miles back. so, fairly frustratedly, we turned around and cycled back our 3 miles that we had gone in the wrong direction.
as an interesting side note, through most of virginia, the turns are marked with route 76 bike signs. however, as soon as you cross the state line, those all go away, and it is all up to us to navigate.
we got back on the right route, and felt like it was time to figure out where we were going to put up our tent for the night. there were a couple of towns on the route, but they were small and so there weren't really public parks or churches or fire houses to stop and ask about camping. and it quickly became apparent that we were going to have to find someone who would allow us to camp on their property.
we came around a bend, and sitting back off the road a little ways was a nice looking house, with another big beautiful garden (apparently they know how to garden in east kentucky as well), and a sign that read, "potatoes for sale". as we came to the driveway, we noticed that there was a guy walking around out in the garden area. we decided this was the one to go talk to (we both had been praying for quite a while that God would show us the right people to talk to)...so we parked out bikes in front of the house and walked back towards the garden and asked if they would mind if we put up a tent in their front yard. they were sweet as can be and said that would be just fine.
so we wheeled our bikes into the front yard and got our tent set up. as we were getting some food out for dinner, the guy walked out and asked if we had enough food. we said that we were good. then he asked us about water...he said they had some bottled water he would be glad to bring out. and we said that we would take a couple of bottles of water. he brought us out some water and we stood and talked for quite some time. and before long, his son, who lives up the road but keeps chickens on their property had come out to talk as well. and before much longer, the wife was out there as well.
we stood and talked for a good long while. they told us all kinds of interesting things about the area, most notably, that there are elk in this area. we were both quite surprised to find that out.
the son had collect a dozen fresh eggs from his chickens and at one point he asked us if we ate eggs. and we said, "only if they are hard boiled". (we don't have any means to cook them in our gear) and the next thing we know, he turns to his mom and says, "well momma, why don't you go and boil 'em some eggs". and before the night was over, we had a dozen hard boiled eggs for breakfast and to take on the road with us.
it really was an amazing place to camp. aside from not having a shower, there is not much else we could have asked for. pervis had told me a couple of days ago that we needed to just ask people and they would be glad to help us out, and that certainly seems to be true.
[as a side note about kentucky: it is crazy, but as soon as you cross the state line, quite literally, you immediately see mobile homes, four wheelers, and dogs on the loose...everywhere...kinda crazy.]
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