Well...guess what? I am finally here! Its Saturday night and we are in Warrenton, Virginia..a little bit of fenagling with the route..having to drive across some roads, we ended up just south of Charlottesville Va last night...Friday was a blast...it was the day I got my confidence back riding..I was still hurting from my neck all the way down to my hips..but I rode through pain. I knew I had a 120 mile run to do, so we set out early on a beautiful day.We were headed through the Blue Ridge mountains of Blacksburg through Roanoke and on to Lynchburg..that was our plan....then from Lynchburg we would cut across from route 11 to route 29 by car to get on Lee highway for our last two days back to DC...
The Blacksburg area was everything I feared it too be, tough, uphill, and hot..the mountains around the area were gorgeous to look at, but hellish hard to cycle through..the pain in my hips subsided with a good dosing of Advil so I rode freely through the morning.
There was no slacking off, I had my father in law in the RV watching very stride I was taking! The route from Pulaski to Shawille through the Blue Ridge mountains, was exceptioanlly hard to climb, yet what was amazing was that the downhill runs were like a straight drop..fast, fun and furious...
At one point closing in on Shawville, I clocked my fastest time ever on a bike, 48.5 miles per hour...it was thrilling and scary all together, as I rose over the crest of the hill, and saw the sheer drop off on the other sid, I literally gulped and said..here we gooooooooooo...and there it was, as fast as I have ever been.
I actually had to slow down because I caught a pic of stone in my front spokes that kept on jumping around the front wheel, the spokes were going so fast that the stone could not exit, and I was worried it might shoot out like a bullet and hit me..!
The day was much like that long uphill trudges and quick descends through one of the finest panoramic views you could witness, if hills were going to be like this, this is what you wanted them to look like..
Lynchburg was there for us at the end of the day, we had ridden a massive 120 miles that day, taken a short skip through the city center of Roanoke, and ended up just about where we needed to be for the night...
Friday was over, Saturday was the penultimate day..we set out early, knowing that basically I was making a run towards the last day..we had actually crossed the whole country by now, West to east had been done..I was now showboating and getting any required miles to get close to my target distance...we had figured out some time ago, that it was not 3000 miles coast to coast, but 2880 miles, so we were trying to add miles by cycling to towns and places off the beaten track..this was achieved in previous days, but in the last few days it became increasingly difficult to do, as we were hitting more populated areas.. and hilly terrain..we just had to get done what we could.
We drove from Lynchburg to Charlottesville to get us onto the right road, and then we were off again. We had a media event set up for the day in Culpepper VA..which was important to meet as the exposure of the cause is more important than the ride itself...we had planned that the day would still provide us with a mileage in excess of 100..and this was a day I was going to enjoy..I was coming home..this was a road I had ridden on many times in training and it had been the road that kicked my butt into gear...
You know what..it was not that bad, riding out of Charlottesville through the infamous Madison moguls, that I had feared in training, was simple...I could not believe how easy this leg was..I averaged a speed 4 mph faster than I had done in training and the ride over these hills that had previously been so daunting I took in stride without hardly breaking out of my middle gears...Good Lord, I had a measuring stick finally, I was way ahead of the game...
The 50 miles to Culpepper, was one of the easiest hill rides I had had to date..I could not believe I had been so daunted once upon a time. We gave a great interview to the press in Culpepper, I know it's only a small local paper, but they wanted to cover me, and the more exposure the better...now it was on to Warrenton where Laurie and all the support team were putting on a small welcoming home dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.
At Culpepper, Bruce Deming , one of my cycle coaches joined me, it was great to have another rider with me, I had missed Larry's company...( hey good luck larry on your serious event this weekend...I ate your dinner for you at the Outback) Bruce and I cycled the rest of the miles taking a hilly detour over the Skyline drive area before we turned around to head to Warrenton...
I was greeted by my wife and children, it was so awesome to have my family around, my daughter is now walking...she is actually walking she started just today...my son, well he was so happy to see me again, he just did not want to let me go....
I walked into the Outback Steakhouse in Warrenton, and to my surprise, really...the whole restaurant, workers, managers and patrons all stood up to give me a rapturous round of warm applause for my endevour..it was thrilling to be greeted in such a fashion....
Thank you guys at the Outback for such a warm reception..it was tearful and warm to my heart.....
In ending my log..which will be one of the last logs on the journey... in the last two days we have covered 220 miles..120 miles yesterday and 100 miles today..it gives us a total of 2752 in 30 days....tomorrow we have our last leg..100 miles to go....!
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