Date: 2007-04-08
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Miles today: 0.0

4-8-07Today was another cold and very windy day. It was about 25 degrees when we left Daleville, Va and the wind was blowing 20mph directly at us all day.We headed out Catawba Rd and Hokey Pokey came driving by after about 45 minutes. He headed up the road a ways and waited on us with a couple warm cappacino's. We sat in his car to drink them because it was so cold outside.He headed over to his mother's home for a turkey dinner and we headed back into the wind. :-(( We were only able to go about 6mph all morning.It was 11:30am when we rode in front of The Homeplace. I'm glad we ate there last night because they already had people waiting to get in.We headed down Rt 685 and crossed the AT. That valley was beautiful all the way. We were still making slow time, but about half way down that road, we got to a high point and started heading downhill for about 10 miles.I made a mis-shift and Mrs Gorp wanted me to make sure I write that she put my chain back on. She also wants me to write about me taking a wrong turn and she was waiting for me when I backtracked. There, I've pointed out my ONLY flaws. Ha!! ;-))We got into Christiansburg and was met with some steep climbs coming in.We had rode 48 miles into that wind and was ready to stop for the day. We found a cheap Budget Inn and had pizza from the place next door.It was another great day, but I'm tired tonight.4-9-07I didn't wake up until about 7am and the motel didn't have a continental breakfast, so we decided to ride into Radford and find something to eat. Mrs Gorp said it was 6 miles, so I figured I'd be eating soon enough. It ended up being 13.5 miles before we settled on a McDonalds. That wasn't too bad because their coffee really is pretty good.It was another morning with the temps in the lower 20's and my fingers were getting numb by the time we got to the McDonald's.We rode through a small place called Draper and there were more beautiful farms and valleys in that area.We stopped one more time in Ft Chiswell for a snack. We were originally going to stay near there, but decided to go on to Wytheville to make tomorrow's longest day yet a little shorter.Today was the longest we actually spent in the saddle at 6 hours and 15 minutes of moving on the bikes. The great thing about that is that we are both feeling pretty good. If that had been our first day, we wouldn't have been able to move. :-))It's always a good day that ends with a fried chicken dinner like today did.4-10-07Another cold start to the ride today at 23 degrees when we left Wytheville.Today had me a little worried about making 60 miles through the mountains near Mt Rogers.We started riding at 8am and didn't stop for a break until about 20 miles later. It was very hilly with beautiful countryside farms and fields.We did a big climb out of Sugar Grove and I kept thinking it was going to be a long day. Neither Mrs Gorp or me has ever rode a bike for 60 miles before and we were doing it in the mountains.We finally got to the top of the long climb, then had a fast downhill into Troutdale. We stopped at a small store and ate lunch. A lady said the road was mostly flat after we started riding again, but it wasn't. It might be flat if you are in a car, but it was another climb on the bikes.We got out another 5 miles or so and then it got easy. The last 18 miles were mostly downhill into Damascus. It was narrow winding roads, but it was fun flying through the miles without much work.We pulled into Damascus and got our room we had reserved, then went over to the outfitter and talked to Jeff for a while.Tomorrow is going to be our first zero day and I'm looking forward to laying around and eating all day. :-))It finally warmed up into the upper 50's and that really felt great. There was still lots of snow and ice in the higher elevations.The rest of the week;We had our zero day in Damascus...a small town we know well because the Appalachian Trail passes through it.Kay had breakfast ready for us when we woke up. There were two others staying at the same place, so we had company for breakfast.Mrs Gorp had made arrangements yesterday to have her bike tuned up, so she rode that over to the shop. The guy gave us pointers for adjusting derailleurs on the ride, then I left and Mrs Gorp stayed to learn more. I figured that only one of us needs to know how to fix a bike. :-))Mrs Gorp came back and told me that the guy even cleaned and greased her chain...and did it all for $10.00, so I decided to take my bike over and have it tuned.We ran into Paladin who is Butch Cassidy this year. We also ran into his son, The Sundance Kid, then Limestone came walking up along with Grey Wolf and Back Yard Boogie. We met Twofer and his wife who was visiting him.We rode up to SunDog Outfitters in hopes of finding Mrs Gorp a mirror for her bike like I have, but they didn't have any. We saw a coffee shop next door and walked in. They weren't open yet. They were waiting on the health inspector so they could have their grand opening, but the guy let us be his first customers and gave us free coffee...good, free coffee!! :-))We sat there and enjoyed that and Twofer and his wife walked in to be the second customers to get free coffee, so we all sat on the nice leather couches and talked for a while.We stopped by Lone Wolf's home and he said there were a few hikers getting together for dinner at Baja Cafe later that night, so we ended up going there later on. Lone Wolf, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Pinky and The Brain, Twofer and his wife and Backyard Boogie were all there. It was fun getting to be with thru hikers.I think there may eventually be more cross country bike riders because they heard we were eating restaurant food everyday and sleeping in motels each night. :-))The next morning, we had breakfast with Grey Wolf and his wife before we headed out into another windy day for riding. It had rained a lot yesterday on our zero, but had cleared up for today.We left Damascus and rode north on Rt 91 for about 5 miles before turning onto more back roads. I love the back roads this Trans Am Trail takes us on. They are areas of the United States we would never see otherwise and they are more beautiful than anything along the main roads of America.I was riding along and enjoying the scenery when a small white truck passed by. Shortly after he passed, I saw something streak across the road in front of me. Before I knew it, I had run over a fox squirrel. There was no way to avoid it because it happened so fast. Mrs Gorp called it a suicidal squirrel. She was riding behind me and said she saw the whole thing happen. She said it looked like the squirrel wanted to be run over because it headed straight for my wheel. She also said he was carrying a nut in his mouth which he left on the road as it ran away after my front wheel went over him. Poor little feller. :-((I didn't like that at all, but there was nothing I could do. My bike was OK, but it really felt like a big bump when I ran over the little bugger.We got to Hayters Gap and Mrs Gorp saw a public library, so we checked our email there. The thing I'm liking most about this ride are the friendly people we are running into. The lady at the library was very nice, but when we asked about the road ahead, she got and evil look on her face as she explained the climb over Clinch Mountain. I always thought of Clinch Mountain Range as being in Tennessee, but it comes up to Virginia too. The farms around this area still have their pastures, but thay are loaded with rough rocks sticking out of the ground.We climbed and climbed. The sign said 3 miles of the twisty, winding roads, so I thought that we would be to the top in three miles. I saw Mrs Gorp about half way up and saw she was working hard, peddaling her bike. I looked at my odometer and saw that we weren't quite a mile and a half yet, so I didn't say anything. I didn't want her to think she was only half way up. :-))I got to three miles up the mountain and when I got around another bend, I expected to see the top of the mountain. Instead, I saw more hill. It was almost 3 3/4 miles before we hit the summit.I put a jacket back on and headed off for the "free" miles going down the hill. I love the fast downhills, but they only seem to last for about 5 minutes because I hit 30 to 40 mph.We got to Rosedale, Va and checked into the motel there. You don't get to choose how far you want to ride...the motels choose for you and they are anywhere from about 35 to 70 miles apart.We do plan on camping lots more when we get into the mid-west and west, but this is mostly private land and not a lot of options for camping...besides, it's been cold and I have a choice of a cold, wet night in the tent or a warm room and my own bed. :-))It was very windy and cold by the time we got to town, so we were happy for the refuge of the warm room.4-13-07We got an early start today. There were only two gas stations for food close to where we were, so we decided to ride into Honaker, Va and have breakfast and coffee. That was about 6 miles.The wind had died down which was nice. We had a small climb for about a mile, then a very fast downhill ride for a couple miles. There might not have been any wind, but my hands were numb again from the cold by the time I got to the bottom of the hill. It was another cold start, but promised to warm up to about 60 degrees later in the day.We found a small restaurant and went inside and had a sit-down breakfast with lots of coffee.There was a guy in there that we started talking to and when he found out what we were doing, he got the same sadistical look on his face that that librarian did the other day. He said there were three "good" climbs between here and the Kentucky border. We thanked him for the "good" news. :-))Once again I have to mention how beautiful these back roads are. We rode through Council, Davenport, Bee, Birchleaf and then stopped in Haysi for lunch.It was another 8 miles to Breaks, Va. Everyone we've talked to about where we were headed kept telling us how beautiful The Breaks were...well, they were right!! We kept stopping to take pictures of the ravines and the river that was about 1,000 feet below us. I even walked over to the edge and was able to look straight down to the river. I'm not much for heights, so I held the camera out as far as I could and took a few pictures. I kept thinking about what my camera would look like if I dropped it, so I held on tight. :-))We headed on down the hill and I got over 40mph again. I really love going that fast on my bike. I had to put my brakes on hard when I saw the Kentucky State Line because I wanted to get a few pictures there.We headed on down to Elkhorn City, Ky and I found the motel we had called yesterday to make sure it was still open.We dropped our panniers and went for a bike ride around town to see what was there. We did find a library and went in and checked email, but there wasn't much more than a restaurant and a Dollar Store that we could find.4-14-07It's raining again. :-((The Weather Channel says that we have some nasty weather coming in for the next few days. We are taking an unwanted zero today.We are in the famous coal country of eastern Kentucky. I saw one guy in a truck yesterday and half his face look like it was black from coal dust. I'm not sure that's what it was...I sure hope it wasn't.There are lots of coal trucks that passed us yesterday, but they weren't running today (Saturday).I spent some time in the restaurant next door. It's a poor looking place, but the food is excellent...and the coffee is better than normal.I enjoyed listening to what some of the locals were talking about. Very into unions. There was one guy talking about how he read the whole bible. It's a very religious area...something I'm not used to seeing too much of anymore. One guy said that the way you figure out the chance of rain for the day is to pull the change out of your pocket...if you have 30 cents in your pocket, then there's a 30 percent chance of rain. He said it works better than the weatherman can predict for these mountains. :-))Mrs Gorp is picking up an accent and she is sounding more and more like myol' buddy Chief everyday. Kayant wayate teel theyah gayet tagayather agayan. :-)) Actually, Mrs Gorp likes me to talk more because I have more of a southern accent than she does.The people seem to just look at you until you start a conversation, then they like to talk and are very friendly.Rain, cold rain, go away...I want to ride!!32,594 feet of elevation gain so far(that's how much climbing we've done on our bikes!!).576.5 miles so far.