Halloween! Haunted House random joining

Hey Hey!

So this Halloween turned out to  be a lot more fun than I was anticipating.  I always loved this holiday growing up so a few weeks ago when I found a cape and a mask for a dollar each I jumped at the buy.  Today those purchases were put to good use.  I have a lot of dialog with God while I'm on my bike....well, I don't really hear him back, but I talk and I was hoping that I would find some place to have some halloween fun and when I arived in my town I stopped at a store.  I almost went by it but I figured I could use a drink.  So I just stopped at this general store and it turned out they were having a haunted house, so I figured I might come back later.  Then they said I could stay in the building after the haunted house, so that was cool so I hung around, took a nap, but then got back into my skeletor looking costume and participated with the staff in scaring people in the house.  I had some good ones too.  This is a pretty good haunted house, I mean it is really decked out.

Cycling today was fun.  I did a good portion of the ride in my sceletor digs.  my cape was just flapping in the wind, I was decked out in my black riding stuff and my mask and hood fit under my helmet.  I was dressed like a skeleton riding on hwy 666 to christiansburg on halloween; I thought that was kind funny.  It was supposed to rain today but it didn't really.  Just a few sprinkles fell.  

The crew that I ended up scaring people with were pretty cool.  We'd freek people out as they came past and then we'd just chat for 10 minutes or so till we heard the next group coming through.  I teamed up with Freddy Krugger.  No one ever saw us coming until we were jumping out.  It was a pretty sweet day and just another adventure that I had that wasn't planned on.  I was a little bummed that I didn't have any friends to do anything with when I was thinking earlier today, but I made some in this little town.  afterwards we shut it all down and sat around for a beer and then went home.  So Halloween this year ended up being a very memorable one.  The different people would come up to me and ask me how i was associated with the store and before long I had just gained the name, the biker guy by all the folks.  one lady looked at my shoes and said nice shoes (before she knew I was the cyclist) which I thought was pretty good that she recognized them as cycling shoes.  Anyway.  Good day.  Good weather.  Happy Halloween!  Wha ha ha ha.

10/28 Road to Damascus/Appalachian trail

Damascus Virginia that is.

10/28/09

I got going in the morning from Mt. Carmel church.  I had expected to run into pastor Jim in the morning but he must have taken the day off or been busy with something else so I never got to meet him.  Today was the road to Damascus. As you will be able to note from one of the photos.  The road to Damascus was a nice road, most of it, and had very few cars beaming by me.  I had a nice few of the mountain range and once I got into Damascus it was a little harder than I thought it would be to find the actual bike shop.  There are rental bike shops in town since the creeper trail is so popular.  I wonder why they named it that?  If I wanted people to come checkout miy beautiful trail the last thing I would name it would be the creeper trail, but that’s what they called it.  I found the shop as it was decked out with all kinds of phsycadelic colors. And I was able to take care of almost everything I needed to.  I got a new computer being as the rain fried my last one.  They had a handle bar bag with a clear map holder on top.  I’d been looking for one of those for hundreds of miles, but just didn’t want it bad enough to order it.  I got an additional bag that sat on my back rack. And most importantly, BIKE OIL.  My chain has been squeaking for 350 miles and few of these towns have shops in them.   Actually, most importantly I got my breaks taken care of.  These mountains are hard on them and especially in the rain I miss the first bike that I had before ‘Make Shift’.  Those disc brakes would have some in handy.

Before a left town I had a big bowl of taco salad and a blueberry shake which was stellar good.

I got going on the creeper trail which is kind of like the Sparta Elroy trail except a little rougher.  Which slowed me down a few mph.  It crossed the river many times and also crossed the Appalachian trail which was really cool because I have never seen the trail but I’ve heard a lot about it and will probably hike it someday. 

So out on the Creeper trail I cam across a perfect camping spot.  I was going to go about 6 more miles, but it was quiet here right on the bike trail with a rushing river next to it, so I couldn’t pass it up.  It even had a fire pit.  Now I probably should have sat down and wrote journals or did something productive but the eagle scout in me saw a fire ring.  It had rained pretty hard 2 nights ago and rained a bit the prievious night so it was going to be a challenge.  And I’m not quite sure if I’ve ever worked so hard to make a little fire but with a lot of effort, pine needles and trying really hard to find anything remotely dry I eventually got a nice little fire going which was nice to sit next to as my brain unwound from the day.  

9/27/09 Full day in VA-Miserable rainy/ Mt. Descent crash/pleasant end

9/27/09 Full day in VA-Miserable MT Descent/wipeout/pleasant end

I set off this morning after talking to Ike, the guy who let me stay under the shelter.  He was talken to me. “yeh, I wouldn’t camp out hea wit out no gun.  If a bear stuck his head in my tent, he’d see my 45 and he’d be leaving.”  It’s ok that Ike and I have different perspectives on camping, he was a good guy.  The rain started coming down even though I got out early, but it was just light. And I was still in pleasant spirits as there was a lot of climbing and the rain kept me cool.  I thought about gearing up but I didn’t want to get hot so today I just opted to get wet.  But then it picked up and once I got to a summit I knew I’d freeze on the way down so I put my gortex coat on over the other one.  I was good for a while but then the rain broke my defenses on my feet.  I hate soaking wet feet!  I got on a mountain that I must have climbed for 3 or4 miles and the rain had picked up and the spirits were not doing so well anymore.  I had had it with being soaking wet so  I did something at the top that I had yet to have done, and that was change outfits.  I had a dry rain coat, the gortex one.  I had dry base lair shirts and a long sleeve so I made up my mind to change as quick as I could.  So while stopping and taking my gear off, people keep on stopping as they drive by and wanting to talk about where I’m from and where I’m going….and I’m like,  HELLO, I’m freezing my ass off and am trying to get changed! But I didn’t say that, cause they were just caring, not to intuitive, people inquiring.  Some drove by and just looked and I wondered what they were thinking.  I left my tights on cause I just wanted to get my core dry.  So I did it as quick as I could.  One guy thought there was something wrong and stopped to ask and I said no, just fine (in a rush as I try to make my change trying to keep what is dry, dry.  Are you sure nothings wrong.  And mind you now, my mood is not good.  The first thing that popped into my head was “Nothings wrong besides no one leaving me alone so I can do this!”  I was in a real hurry to try to get to my intended town (which didn’t happen)  But anyway, I got changed with two new undershirts then my new jersey and put my gortex on and it felt so good to be dry and warm.  I loaded up and headed down a rainy, misty mountain.  I soon realize that my breaks have decided that they are no longer going to function very well.  I was on them as hard as my hands could squeeze and that was just enough to keep me at a moderately slow pace.  I didn’t want to let go for very long because if I got my speed up and then  squeezed, it wouldn’t slow very fast at all.  My hand muscles were getting so sore from squeezing I just wished the down hill would end, but it was several miles long (something that is usually good)  at one of the switchbacks the road got real steep for a little bit, too much for my breaks to slow me and I got going to fast to make the corner.  It wasn’t a sharp drop off like some, so I had room to crash the bike off the road and that’s what I did.  The car right behind asks if I’m alright and I was and I said that he could go on.  Now I really wasn’t too happy but I was glad that I didn’t hurt myself or the bike after giving it a little look over.  I continue down the steep rainy mountain on the breaks 100 percent as hard as I could squeeze them and when my hands hurt too much I just stopped to give them a break vs. letting go for a second and picking up speed.  Some of those ledges, if I let the  bike go, I’d be shopping for a new bike, not to mention everything else.  I also noticed that my odometer was finally shot.  It has a little rubber missing and I’m assuming it got too wet.  I make it down the mountain and soon realize that I’m not going to make it to Demascus where I know there is a nice dry motel waiting for me.  So much of my gear is soaked.  I prayed that I’d just find something or someone like a couple nights ago.  It was getting dark and I see a hey shelter but keep going, keeping that in the back of my mind.  Then I saw a church with a shelter.  YES!  That will work.  I pull in and there were cars in the lot.  So I figure I’d just go in and ask.  Churches on this route see us all the time and are used to cyclists staying in shelters.  They said I could stay there.  They were just about ready to start Bible study.  So I said, Oh, I’ll join you.   I think they were surprised to have a 20 something guy want to join them.  Then they actually let me stay in the church, which was sweet because right now all my wet gear is drying over the heat vent on an elaborate close line I constructed with coat hangers and parachute chord.

It sure is nice to be inside, warm and dry.  Prayer answered.  I was miserable for the last hour and a half and this is much better than I even expected.  I would have settled for the shelter outside and thought that was great just to have a roof over my head.  Every night the last five nights, something nice has come along just when I needed it.  Well it’s time for bed now, nice, dry and warm.

Mon 10/26 The heart of Appalachia and Crossing into Virginia.

Monday 10/26  The heart of Appalachia  and Crossing into Virginia.

Well now I’m in the heart of the Appalachian mountains and today was the hardest day I’ve had on the tour thus far.  I climbed mountains for hours today at grades that make the bluff climbs look like sissy workouts.  Some of these passes I would go not 5 miles an hour up but 2 to 3 mph.  I love burning down the backside of the mountain, but you know that takes all of about 2 minutes and then I’m climbing again for the next 45.  Surprisingly I’m not that sore.  We’ll see if I can repeat that statement tomorrow.  I think the fall colors have reached their peak.  I catch all the beauty as I paper boy it up these climbs. Traffic is very low so sometimes I cross back and forth through the whole road when the grade gets to steep.  I took a pic of one of those signs at the top of the hill where they show a truck going  down a steep grade.  Out west, they tell you what the grade is.  Here there is no % mark.  I guess you just assume it’s going to be insanely steep.  At one point today I caught the cars on the descent and they were making me hit my breaks more than I wanted to.  On the way down I’m very focused because hitting just a little rock on a corner at 30mph could be very detrimental.  I swerved around on big whole in the road which would have trashed my bike had I been looking at the trees around me, but like I said, I’m pretty focused on the way down.

Breaks Interstate Park on the border of KY and VA was stellar sweet.  The Colorful trees just going forever.  The pictures don’t do it justice as they never do.  At this point when you are on top of the world, you completely forget the entire last 40 minutes of climbing at a gruelingly slow pace and you just stand in awe of such a creation.  I had 5 or 6 big climbs today and the last 8 miles were flat and small climbs which was a good end to the day. 

At the end of the day I was in a subway and overheard a couple talking about someone with stitches in their head and how they had a tumor removed.  The lady saw me paying close attention to their conversation and so I chimed in that I was just interested because I was a recent brain cancer survivor.  The individual had been without a tumor for 10 years and I couldn’t help but just think how much that sucks that  even though I survived the battle, the War might still not be over.  I left the subway and this just motivated me.  I set a pace much faster than I usually do, at it was the end of a 65 mile day.  I was just thinking about how people train for events.  I will continue to train and stay in top shape and stay healthy and strong, just incase it ever comes back and rears it’s ugly face in my life again, so I can beat it again.. 

I was cycling and my breakneck pace and it was starting to get darker out so I was looking for a place to camp and I passed a big grassy field with a shelter.  And it had spots that looked like greens.  I saw people playing golf and they waved.  So I pulled in and talked with them.  It was a father out playing with his son who is apparently a pretty good golfer.  I told him about how Andy and I were golfers in highschool.  The guys name was Ike and he said sure I could sleep under the shelter, but I’ll have to watch out for the bears.  There are black bears in the area, but black bears are seldomly looking for trouble.  There was a fridge that I tucked all my food into and I’ll be fine sleeping outside….and if I’m not, well you’ll hear about in in tomorrows entry : ).

Sunday 10/25 Appalachia- Lucky day and stay with Susan & Donnie

Sunday 10/25  Appalachia- Lucky day and stay with  Susan & Donnie

so my lucky day started this morning when I went to the college cafeteria and they were closed,  but the guy comes to the door and he lets me in to get a bowl of cerial and juice.  Walking around the cafeteria reminded me of my college years.  The campus was a really cool campus which is apparently a “working campus” meaning all the students work 10 hrs/week and graduate with very little debt or debt free.   I set out on the road around 11am when I saw the windows on the cars in the lot were becoming a little defrosted as it was a chilly night.  I knew that I was going to have a few mountains to get over today, so that would keep me warm.

The colors were sweet as always here in the mountains.  The climbs were challenging but I’ve heard so much talk about the steepness of these mountains for the last umpthousand miles that I’ve worked them up in my head steeper than they could possibly be.  I just stick the bike in the granny gear and make my way up the mountain for 40 min at 3.5 miles per hour.  Today I had my new compass mounted to my bike…and by mounted I mean strapped on with electrical tape.

So I was going to try to find the Viking game somewhere today but there are no bars in these small towns.  I ask people where there might be a sports bar and they look at me like ‘what’s a sports bar?”.   In Wisconsin you’d be hard pressed to find a town without a bar or grill to catch the game at.  I didn’t catch it and that’s ok cause they lost.  I knew the odds of Favre running the table was small, but how cool would that have been.

When the sun went down and I was trying to figure out where I should lay my head down tonight I wasn’t having a lot of luck finding churches.  I like camping behind them because you are not bothered, usually the church doesn’t mind.  I got off the main road I was on thinking about how I lucked out last night and got to be inside.  I said to God, “hey how about someplace to stay up here pretty soon” and about a half mile later I saw a church.  I got closer and realized it was a barn that looked like a church that had a steeple.  Disappointed I passed waving to the guy coming out of it.  Then I thought, I should turn around and ask him if I could stay in his yard.  Nah, I don’t want to bother him, but then I did turn around.  And he wasn’t outside and I wasn’t going to bother him in his barn.  So I turn around again and there he is standing there behind his trailer much closer than before.  I asked him if there was anywhere up ahead I could camp.  “not for 9 miles and over the big hill “ I told him I probably wouldn’t go that far as it was getting dark.  “Well, you can set up anywhere around here if you want”  So I was in luck.  The he asked if I had dinner and invited me in.  His wife fixed me a wonderful plate of potatoes, beans and meat loaf and buns.  We got to talking.  Susan, his wife, is addicted to Facebook which I thought was funny since she is my moms age and my mom can barely do email on the computer.  After dinner we played with their 1 year old dog, Dixie who loves her red ball and will run all over the house after it.  I laughed a lot.  We continued to play with Dixie as we were watching Sunday night football and it was just a lot of fun that wasn’t expected tonight.  Susan showed me her pictures of her and the Osmonds which she loves to death which was also humorous, especially since she married her husband who’s name is Donnie.  They were both very nice and now tonight I have another place indoors to stay.  I love the unexpected friends that I make on the road that were not planned, by me anyway.

sat10/24-Random Church basement stay/beautiful Appalachia

room from night before

10/24/09  Hazard to Pippa Passes 40mi day

Today just felt like a lazy day.  Pastor from Hazard put me up in a nice hotel last night which I thought was very nice of him considering that I didn’t make it to his church to do the gig, but he was very nonchalant about it which was nice.  He was very understanding about the delays from the bridge detour, which I was probably more upset about than anyone, but I don’t want to think about that right now or I’ll get upset again.  Since I was in a plush place this morning I just took it easy.  I had breakfast and then I posted some stuff, then I had second breakfast and that’s another thing; I was hungry all day.  It didn’t really matter how much I ate.  I got out of Hazard at 11 but found a wal-mart and knew that they would have the compass that I’ve been wanting on the road for the last 400 miles that I just keep forgetting to get.  I walked back out to my bike and there was Wesley, the pastor’s son from Hazard.  He was like “ I saw the Orange bike and told my uncle Joes here!”  Yeah, the orange reflector material is unique and a pretty dead giveaway that I’m somewhere in the vicinity.  It’s funny, I’m still paranoid that someone’s going to steel my bike even though it’s not worth anything, just cause I’d me so up the creek if anyone did take it and I doubt I’d find another bike shop to just give me another one.

So setting off it was drizzling and I figured that it was going to be a rainy day.  I didn’t even wait for the hard stuff to gear my feet up.  I hate having soggy feet more than anything and my second pair of booties are not working out that  great either, but what does work is when I take the first pair that didn’t work and layer them with plastic shopping bags over my shoes.  Spend all kinds of money on gear and the best thing are bags you get for free, even if you don’t want them.  I once bought a bag and they put it in a bag…
I wanted to call the day after 20 miles, I was just tired or more mentally lazy today,  but once I hit 30 at Hindman and found exactly what I was hoping to find, grilled roast beef cheese sandwich and soup, I was a happy camper.  I called ahead to a hostel but she said she doesn’t do that anymore but there was a church that is not being used that the ladies across the street have keys to, so that sounded good to me.  I love how I stay at all kind of cycling places that I don’t even find out about through adventure cycling or any organization, it just comes to you down the grapevine when you are on the road.

So I got to the church and then called the lady who used to have the hostel to ask where the two ladies live that have the keys.  And as I’m talking to her on the phone a lady walks out on the balcony and waves and I figured I had found her.  So they both came down and unlocked the church and got me all set up.  I was just fine camping out tonight, but it looked as if it could rain so I’m glad to be indoors. 

And Just now as I was journaling there was a knock at the door.  I tried a few different doors before I got the right one and it was a lady I had talked to earlier here when I was trying to find the church.  She works at the college, as I cycled through a college campus which looks like a really neat little private college.  It’s all set up and looks like  village with old buildings of brick and…well anyways, she just walked over because she had put together a little bage of goodies for me which was very sweet.  It came at a good time because I was kinda hungery but I’m in now and don’t want to venture out.  She said you are brave, I’m afraid of the spiders down there, then recalling I did smush one spider, but I didn’t know that there were like spiders plural down here.  I don’t have arachnophobia or anything but I don’t like them cralling on me in my sleep and biting me.  I had that enough in my home growing up.  I thought, maybe I’ll find a room in the basement and close the doors and kill all of the spiders in the room….then looking around I found that would never work, but then I’m like duh, I have a mesh tent.  So I set my tent up, happily now that I have snacks and a solution to a problem that I worried about since she brought it up.  Ok.  Time for bed.

10/23 Rain, big hills and amazing country

Me....upsidedown.  Nice colors eh?

10/23 morn

My muscles are quite sore from the climbs and the speed at which I was attacking them, until I realized I wasn’t going to make the gig.  When you get that realization it just breaks your spirit to climb these hills, so then you just stick it in granny gear and go 3.5 mph up some of these hills

I set out from Booneville and I made it to a country store where some guys asked me if I stayed behind a church last night at the  cyclist shelter.  I said yes, I did.  And it turns out he’s the Presbyterian pastor of that church.  He asked if there were anymore coming.  I didn’t know, so I just shrugged and said, probably not as it’s getting late in the season.  People were thinking I was going to be so cold out here nearing the end of October but this is perfect.  I can’t imagine climbing these hills in the summer heat.  I burn up even in the cooler weather and it’s been reasonably warm.    I started out today in the rain, which, and I must be sick, but actually enjoy, at least for a while.  The effect of this is cool and I get to get all ‘raingeared up’  wears off after about an hour.  But the fall colors were so pretty I completely forget that I’m getting wet and am climbing monstrous hills.  I enjoy looking at all the different farms.  They all do some decoration on their barn.  Many of them have some quilt like design adorning the front which I enjoy stoping to take pictures, sometimes so much that I never get anywhere.  This is why my old fellow backpack guides at Rainbow trail called me the Japanese tourist….yeah, I admit it.  There is this one plant I’ve seen that grows like a vine all over trees with it’s green leaves that looks really cool.  

So my worst hill of the day was after Buckhorn.  I mean, this was like climbing a mountain.  I climbed for a few miles and then went down a bit only to shortly begin climbing some more.  Hazard was only 45 or 50 miles away.  But I’m a slow touring cyclist.  I like to take it all in and I’m fascinated  by all the colorful hills that just pop up all over the place, even moreso if I can bike around them v.s. over them.  The pastor didn’t think I could keep my 10.5 mph pace through these hills, but when you get to descend at 37 mph, it makes up for the 4mph that you spent climbing for 45 min.   I love just sailing down these rolling hills.  Especially after Buckhorn which I thought that climb was never going to end.

I got to Hazard and met the pastor and his family.  We ran around town to find a place to eat that wasn’t booked solid  (It’s a homecoming and a Friday night)  We found a nice buffet place and now I’m stuffed.  Catfish and shrimp and mashed potatoes and gravy.  I definetly made up for calories burned today.   The church put me up in this nice hotel and with a discount upgraded me to a sweet, so it’s pretty plush.  And here I am burning all my time catching up blogs and emails : P

The next gig isn’t booked for 10 days, so it will be nice to just put down some miles and not feel rushed to be anywhere by a certain time.  I love it, but now it will be a little like last year for a bit, where I’ll make it as far as I make it.  All I need are 50 mile days and I’ll be in Lexington Virginia on Nov. 2