May 31,2009: Day 30

George had the earliest start (on the bike by 6:15) for his ride today. He wanted to take advantage of the Easterly (tail) winds (for the first time in Kansas). The forecast was for the winds to shift to mainly southerly (across winds) around 10 am. Not to mention today the temps were going to be in the 90's. He was planning for a shorter ride of about 50 miles but He decided take advantage and ride the wind, however by 1200 it turned to a 25 mph across wind. It was blowing him over, thus he stopped at 1245. He did do the most mileage per given time today for the entire trip. Man, wouldn't it be nice to have the tail winds all the time, we would be done in no time. I did not get to try out my aero bars. The plan was for us to try out the bike in the late evening when the wind usually dies down but not here in Kansas (atleast not today). We did some site seeing, Fort Larned and the old fashioned blacksmith made us a iron hook as a souvenir. We have just the place for it, in our new mud room (at home). Kansas surprisingly has more road/recreational bikers than any of the other states we have visited so far. But for some reason, its very hard to find bananas here (and MO) at the local gas stations, unlike in KY and VA.

We went from near Buhler, KS to Larned KS
Total Miles: 83

May 30th, 2009: Day 29

Successful day with Aero bars, George's hand is feeling much better. He obviously has to learn how to ride on these bars, as he was all over the road when first trying them out and had several close calls of wipe outs. Good thing that there is little traffic on these roads. He is still facing mostly head winds. Turns out that the Aero bars really help (go faster with less effort) when riding during windy conditions. So, not a bad timing to get the carpel tunnel symptoms, while we are in the windiest state. I did some speed works during my short run today (I terribly missed my running partner). George came up with the idea of trying out Aero bars on my bike, as it may take some pressure off the tailbone. Since the weight is much more forward when using the aero bars. I am so desperate to get on the bike that I will try pretty much anything at this time. So, after the ride, off to another bike store we went (in Hutchinson). We had a great lunch at the local Mexican restaurant (suggested by the nice bike store guy), while he worked on the bike. I am looking forward to trying out the bike with these aero bars tomorrow and see if I can go further with less pain. However, I am somehat nervous about it for other reasons, such as falls. I am pretty clumsy to start out with and it seems to be much harder to control the bike when riding on the aero bars. So, we'll see....

We went from near Ebling, KS to Buhler, KS
Total Miles: 51

May 29th, 2009: day 28

George is enjoying riding in Kansas. The cattle seems to run with him, away from him and occasionally towards him (there were three cows on the road today on his route). George even likes the oil pumps that are all over the place in the farms here (I am beginning to wonder about this guy). He is experiencing the first physical ailments that may slow him down. Numbness and decreased strength, to the point of not been able to shift gears, with his left hand. We went to the nearest bike store (in Wichita), they thought that he had classic signs of carpal tunnel from biking too much. He now has Aero bars on his bike to take some pressure off the wrists. They suggested that he take a few days off but of course George is not up for that, he was ready to bike with one hand, if he had to. He will just cut the miles down for a couple of days. We had Greek Food at the mall, which was pretty darn good for mall food. I did nothing much today, I had to be SAG support during the ride as there were no places to replenish the fluids. I did relax at the cabin before meeting up with George. There were some hiking trails at the park, but they are all under water due to recent floods in the area. Seems like that all the states we have been to so far have had some kind of weather disaster. Anyone who does not believe in Global Warming, needs to get out and travel more. I am planning to take a few days off from biking as my two attempts at riding have not been very successful.

We went from Toronto, KS to near Ebling, KS
Miles: 74

May 28, 2009: Day 27

George is really liking Kansas so far. The roads are nice and wide, people are really friendly, and its flat (but windy, so far its always been a head wind) and green with lots of cattle. We spent the night in a cabin at Cross Timbers state park. The cabin was right on the water, with great views. It gets the best place we stayed during our bike tour award (its not over yet, may be another place will beats it). The kicker, however, was that they do not provide pillows, sheets or towels. So, we used the silk saks to sleep in (for the first time) and made do for the rest of the stuff. Surprisingly, great food and ambiance at the only restaurant in the town, Courtney's Devine Pizza and Pasta. I got on my bike once for a short ride only, not going too far too fast with that.

We went from Girard, KS to Toronto, KS
Total (George) Miles: 80
Kitty's miles: 6

May 27, 2009: Day 26

Windiest day today (way worse than yesterday) and on top of that it rained (and poured) on George. Winds were up to 30 mph, westerly winds (Head winds) and the temps dropped as the day went on. He was pretty sick of fighting the wind and getting wet and made it a shorter ride day. He did make it across the state line though. We met another TranAmer (and he was American), who is east bounder (he started from the west coast and going to east coast). He and George had lunch together and exchanged stories with each other. I had my own little adventure today. I went for a hike at really cool "Prairie State Park, MO", they have wild Bison and Elks. I had a pretty close encounter (well thats a bit exaggerated) with a huge Bison. My internet research says that if the Bison reacts to your presence, it means that you are too close. Well, this one definitely reacted to my presence but thankfully by running away from me. I knew that I have gained some weight but did not realize that it was that much that even a buffalo thought that I was such a big cow. All kidding aside, I don't believe that any human can really be intimidating in size to the bison as they can weigh up to 2500 lbs. I did not get on the bike today as my tailbone was a little soar from yesterday's ride.
Our little over view opinion about MO: Great views (including the wine area), good roads, and friendly people. Less hiking and many more ATV trails here.

We went from Golden City, MO to Girard, KS
Total Miles: 48
Kitty's Miles: 0

May 26, 2009: Day 25

Kitty on her bike.....
There were two detours due to road construction that George was able to ride through. Its interesting that for cars, both the detours said road closed but provided no other road signs for the detour. I guess only locals, who know these roads well, are suppose to be traveling on these roads. We now have met about four different Trans Am'ers, all but one has been American. Where are the Americans? Do they not want to see this beautiful country via cycling? We stayed the night in Kansas. After the ride, we needed to go to the bike store for little bike maintain for George's bike. Well... now on to last, but not least, thing for the day. I got on my bike for a ride... yeah... I would have thought. But it was pretty disappointing that I only made 2 miles and my butt was hurting. This was in the morning. I got off the bike and rested and then tried again in the afternoon. I did 5 miles then, but not without pain... oh well.... I guess I was hoping that I would have been healed better than I am at this point. I do need to remember that its still pretty cool to be able to take the time off and travel across America, even if its on my bike.

We went from Marshfield, MO to Golden City, MO
Total (George's) Miles: 81
Kitty's Miles: 7

May 25, 2009: Day 24

We started the day with light rain and George's luck about staying pretty much dry finally ran out today and it poured and poured and kept on pouring for almost all of his ride today. And I SAG'ed and sagged the whole way. Its much tougher to ride in the rain when the roads are curvey and hilly, not to mention the visibility (of cars seeing you on the road) is very low as well. He was able to ride over 30 miles, so at least he didn't get dressed up for nothing. I guess the weather people were finally right about the weather today. We are hoping for better weather tomorrow. Oh, we stayed the night in a wacky town, name of the town was Houston (and its in Texas county... humm...) Scenary in MO continues to be very pretty. People are also very nice. I was pulled over to the side of the road (while SAG'ing) and someone asked to see if I was ok (good samaritan). Also, got some free snacks at a gas station at the end of the ride, since the owner was Indian (need to mention that he was a Punjabi.... go Punjabi....).

We went from Houston, MO to Marshfield, MO
Total Miles: 38 wet miles

May 24, 2009: Day 23

Alley Springs.... the water there is pretty blue, but not as blue as the Blue Spring.

Another beautiful scenery and riding day but not necessarily the best weather day. Forecast was for rain all day with afternoon thunderstorm... Again. It rained little on and off during the riding time but George made it to his destination without getting too wet. I checked out the "Alley Spring", which was beautiful, in the morning and then did the SAG thing rest of the day. Another hilly route, top speed of 42 mph today.

We traveled from Eminence, MO to Ben Davis, MO
Total Miles: 70

May 23, 2009: Day 22

Picture of little Leiah and Chewy calfs....

Great riding day..... George hit a new downhill speed record today. Yesterday when he went downhill at the speed of 41 mph, he thought that one could not be beat but today one of the hills, he hit 46 mph... wow... the car speed limit in that area was 35 mph. The weather forecast was for thunderstorm starting at noon, so we did not have much expectations for riding after that time and I did more SAG than normal (meaning that I pretty much followed George around, starting at noon). I was able to go for a nice run in the morning though. Beautiful scenery today but no detours to the wineries, I guess we are not in the wine zone anymore. George had another high mileage day, looks like that he does that on majorly hilly days, no wonder his trail name is mountain goat. We are staying the night at a pretty cool place.... Eminence Resort.

We went from Farmington, MO to Eminence, MO
Total Miles: 84

May 22, 2009: Day 21

Inside Crown Ridge Winery...

George was able to fix his bike enough to keep going (while 5 of his gears were not working) but he was concerned since this was the closest we would be to a bike store (an hour away by car in St. Louis) , the next one was 350 miles away and nothing would be open Sunday or Monday. thus we took a trip to St. Louis. We figured this area was really worth spending an extra day....seeing St. Louis and more wineries also checking out this cool town of Farmington. While the bike was being fixed we went to the Gateway Arch Park etc. The bike store had the bike in perfect shape in about an hour and a half. We drove back to wear George left off in Farmington and enjoyed the local attractions. I did have to cancel my Tiger Santuary tour in order to go to St. Louis for bike fixing and site seeing. But we had a real fun day....

Coffman, MO to Farmington, MO

Miles: 14

May 21, 2009: Day 20

George wanted the Brewery, while Kitty wanted to do the winery......We did both What a beautiful day to ride in Missouri....
We entered Missouri and it was completely flat as soon as we went over the bridge from Illinois. But it was very short lived, George was back on the windy roads with lots and lots of hills to climb, in no time. He really enjoyed this ride as roads are little wider, but more than that the views were gorgeous and lots of cows, he could moo with. I discovered that we are in the wine country. There are some really beautiful wineries here. I have not sampled any wine yet (not that I would really know a good wine from a bad one) but hope to try some tomorrow. I also found out about a tiger sanctuary (one of the vineyards have some rescued tigers) and am going to do a tour there tomorrow. I found all these things just driving on the bike route and did some detours. Love these kind a detours, too bad that not all the detours end up this nice. So, we both loved our first day in Missouri. The only bad thing that's happening is that George's bike is acting funny (I think its something to do with the derailleur, the gears are not shifting properly). Ironically, he had no issues with the bike thus far on this tour and the very first ride after the bike maintenance day, his bike has issues.... nuff said...

We went from Muphysboro, IL to Coffman, MO
Total Miles: 64

May 20, 2009 Day 19

Today was bike maintaince day.......

We stopped in Carbondale IL. Its a well known town for TransAmerican riders, sort of the Damascaus of the AT. There are 3 bike shops on the same street, directly on the route. They were extremely friendly and really did gear their shops for transamericans. We got much needed supplies that we have not been able to find 'till now: reflective triangles, mirror ( a special kind for George's bike), and route map holder. The bike has performed great up to this point, everything functioning great (with the exception of the mirror but hopefully new mirror will change that). We went to the "bike surgeon". They spent about 2 hours on the bike, cleaning the drive train, lubricating the cables, rotation the tires and replacing and putting on a new chain. The cost $45. George had similar maintenance before leaving for the trip and our Local bike store charged us close to $200 and they didn't clean the drive train or rotate the tires. Pretty cool, ain't? (George helped me writing these lines... obviously...). George did have a hard time getting to his destination today, mainly because of some major damage done by an internal hurricane (winds of up to 106 mph) that hit this area about a 1.5 weeks ago. This caused some missing road signs and construction that was not shown on his bike map. My leisurely (slow) run turned into a fast Tempo run as I had forgotten to take the GPS with me on my run (of course, today was the day for that) and had to run back fast to the car to help George with directions. The good thing is that George is not the only one with soar legs today, for a change I feel my legs too... yeah.. Oh not to mention (my favorite part) we had really good Thai food for lunch while bike was being worked on. We have not had any ethnic food since the bike tour started.

We went from Tunnel Hill, IL to Murphysboro, IL

Total miles: 50

May 19, 2009: Day 18

George is hanging out on the Ferry and very excited to be crossing over another state line!!!!

We crossed over to Illinois via a ferry that took about 10 min to cross the Ohio river. Kentucky is behind us now. We had one of the best breakfasts before leaving KY, since the start of our bike tour. We spent the night at Myers B&B, in Marion, which was a great place to stay. The room was a smaller version for our home (with a loft in the room) and strangely enough the sheets for the bed were the exact match of our sheets. The gentleman (lets call him Mr. Myers) made us breakfast of sausages, bacon, hash browns, and asked us if we wanted some eggs too, which we didn't with all the other food there. We enjoyed talking with him, he had lots of great stories to share. Oh, we got a discount on the room too. They give bikers a discount.. yeah... go Myers. George enjoyed riding on wider roads in IL and drivers were nice enough to give him plenty of space today, at one point a local driving in a pickup drove along side of him asking questions about where he is going and where did he come from. Surprisingly hilly course, again as we hit the Ozarks (a smaller mountain chain that runs West to East). New firsts today.... George, the mountain goat, had to walk two of the very very steep hills (no switch backs here) but he also hit 40 mph going downhill (George did not think that this bike could hit that speed, previously he hit 38 mph three times going down the Alps). I had a repeat of yesterday.... hope that changes soon. My tailbone was doing well last two days but seem to have a set back today. I just gotta keep hanging in there.

We went from Marion, KY to Simpson, IL.
Total Miles: 60

May 18, 2009: Day 17

George had to find at least one dog that he could play with before leaving Kentucky!

Prettier ride with no dog attacks... Western Kentucky is a better place to ride. Still quite hilly, where are the flat parts.... may be in Illinois, since that is where we are headed tomorrow. I pretty much wasted a lot of my time driving around to check out a couple of state parks that were suppose to have hiking. Either they had no real hiking to speak of or the trails were closed due to the Ice storm.... yes, an ice storm that happened in Jan. (that's what happens when the state parks have no funds). We met some nice and friendly people in Kentucky including Simon, the Amish man, who we may be getting our future furniture from. Tricky part is that he does not have a phone, we'll have to write in order to correspond with him (and I don't mean via email). All his furniture is hand made without using any electric equipment.

We traveled from Utica, KY to Marion, KY
Total Miles: 76

May 17, 2009: Day 16

This is one vehicle that George doesn't mind sharing the road with.

A 90 mile day with no dog attacks.... is called a great day of biking in Kentucky.... This was the coldest and the windiest day, esp. at the start of the day (Temps. in the low 40's but with the wind chill, it felt way colder than that). George kept going though. I had a great day touring the Mammoth caves too, even though I miscalculated the time change and got to the caves two hours before I was suppose to. But never a bad time to go for a little run, good thing that I always have all my stuff in the car with me. We have now corssed over to the Central time zone. Another thing we have noticed with George (totally not related to anything I was writing about) at mealtimes is that I am always done eating before him (which was never the case before this bike tour). Also, he never has any left over food in his plate.....never. May be the portion sizes are not really too big in America, its just that people are not exercising enough to be able to eat all the food.

We went from Sanora, KY to Glenville, KY

Total miles: 90

May 16, 2009: Day 15

In the picture... Kitty at the Mammoth Caves

Today was pretty much a bust for biking but fun day in the caves. The weather forecast was for rain, thunder storms and high winds in the morning and then clear for the rest of the day. We delayed the biking 'till late morning. But as soon as George started, it started pouring with really high winds which developed into a lighting storm. So, that was end of riding for today... these weather people are not reliable, no matter where you are. We spent the day at the Mammoth Caves (these are the largest caves in the world). I was planning on going there to check it out without George, he had decided to skip in order get some more mileage done, to get out of KY (due to the poor shape of roads and the aggressive dogs) as soon as possible. The caves were pretty cool and George was glad that he got to go. I will be going for another visit tomorrow to see more (I was all psyched about trying this very challenging tour of the caves but it was sold out, so I settled for a lesser challenging one).

Short day from Hodgenville, KY to Sanora, KY
Total miles: 9

May 15, 2009: Day 14

In the picture: Kitty and George at Lincoln's Birthplace.

We are in Kentucky and George is peddling away... want to get out of Kentucky as quickly as he can and also to peddle fast to out run these vicious dogs. Yes, he has had many encounters with aggressive dogs in Kentucky (everyday so far)... he had to use his pepper spray (that we thought he was carrying just for show). Today he was attacked by a pack of 4 dogs at the same time. 3 of them were large bread including a pit bull. It took 5 shots to stop them. (George Nailed one right off the bat but missed 3x before he hit the pit bull, once he hit the pit bull the rest stopped). George is learning about dog attacks (we have never experienced a dog attack in all the times of our road biking until Kentucky).... you can't out pedal dogs, whistles don't work, Yelling "NO" works the majority of time, other dogs seem to stop as soon as they see spray in his hands, while others have to be sprayed (unfortunately). But the good thing is that the spray works but only with a direct hit. Today was George's longest millage day thus far. He finished his ride, right before a big thunderstorm. I did some site seeing (with and without George), mainly visiting President Lincoln related stuff, since he was born in Kentucky and lived here 'till he was 8 years old.

We went from to Harrodsburg, KY to Lincoln's Birthplace, Hodgenville, KY.
Total miles: 83.

May 14, 2009: day 13

This area has been hit by a tornado recently, many houses were destroyed, Here is just one.



Well... we drove out of Eastern Kentucky and thought that we were not going to get any biking in... but surprisingly we were wrong. We got to Berea, (a town where we had heard from search of internet last night) that the roads are a bit more safer. They still seem to be pretty narrow to me. I had some close encounters with other vehicles, when coming to meet George. I am not sure if these roads are safe to drive on, let alone bike on. but they do seem to have much less traffic will very few trucks than yesterday, they are less curvy with less hidden areas. 3 dog attacks today but no pepper spray was used. George ended up doing a pretty good ride, as soon as it stopped raining. I got to do a pretty nice run on the hills. We are enjoying the hills while we have them as the course is suppose to get a bit flatter as we are headed west ('till get close to Calorado, of course).

We drove from Hazard, KY to Berea, Ky. Biked from Berea to Harrodsburg.
Total Miles: 48

May 13, 2009: Day 12

This is the vehicle, that you need to get through Eastern Kentucky, We found this in a shopping center there.

May 13, 2009: Day 12

A Bitter Sweet Day....
(George is writing this entry)

Today, We made it through to Kentucky (It feels great to get through the first state). Virginia is the longest state along the Transamerica trial as it is for the AT.

We had heard a lot of negative things about Eastern Kentucky, crazy dogs that chase down bikers and try to take a chunk out of them, horrible road surfaces, narrow and curvy roads with no shoulders, Giant Coal trucks.

......Well all of it is True.

Within the first ten miles I had my first dog attack, I did have pepper spray for such an emergency but really didn't want to use it. The first incident involved two viscous dogs, they were out for blood. I tried screaming at them and out pedaling them but it was on an uphill. One snapped at my leg but missed, the other one went around my front wheel (not a good thing for a biker). They got together and were about to make another attack at me when I had to blast them with pepper spray, they were only about 2-3 feet from me, thus it was a direct hit. It stopped them dead cold in their path. This happened several other times, but I was able to avoid using the pepper spray. One dog that looked like Chewy followed me for a while but I could tell it was a friendly dog, thus I pulled over and he stopped following me, I guess he just wanted to say hello. I can't understand why people train their dogs to be so aggressive and none of them had tags.

The roads are the worst I have ever seen, they are extremely narrow with potholes and debris everywhere and they were filled with hidden curves, a lot of them didn't even have guard rails and were along a cliff. Some roads were partially washed out with no protection around them. These are the roads I had to share with Coal trucks, these trucks are so wide, they barely fit on the road. It was just a riders nightmare, these trucks had a difficult time passing me as the roads were so narrow and twisty, I tried to pull off when I heard them but some time there was no place to pull off to other than going over a cliff. Several times they had to just follow me until I could find a place to pull over, actually I caused a traffic jam several times. But the worse of it was when I heard pickups and other smaller trucks coming fast behind me and hearing their breaks squeal just before they get to me. It was just horrible, it was plain suicide. Also, there were no other bikers out their. The School buses were the worst. They gave no room and seem to not even see me. This was the only day that I wished I wasn't out there. We drove a little further on the trail (when I was done riding) and found it to be the same kind a roads, rest of the way. For safety reasons, we decided to look for another route, but after much research, we could not find one. What we did find was the Kentucky has the highest accident rate more than double of any other state along the route and that most of those occur in Eastern Kentucky, we have heard of bikers renting vans and bypassing Eastern Kentucky. To this point, we have not skipped or taken any short cuts but for safety reason, we also have decided to bypass this section of Kentucky and pick it up in Berea Kentucky, 138 miles further. We heard it gets safer at that point. We figure to make up part of the difference we will go to Mammoth cave national park (its supposed to be really cool) and only 87 miles added to the route.

On the bright side, Kitty got to do an awesome hike at the Breaks Interstate Park.

We went from Haysi, VA to ? KY

Todays stats: 59 miles: start time 8:00, end time 2:30

May 12, 2009: Day 11

Another successful day of riding for George. Today were the two steepest climbs of the route and mountain goal made it up without having to get off the bike to walk. It was a pretty route with house pastures. He started the ride a little later due to being very cold in the morning. I hiked the AT and got to talk to some nice AT'ers. We had the longest drive to find a hotel (about 45 min.) today. Another important thing is that we are now only about 13 miles away from Kentucky and looking forward to crossing the state lines. Overall, VA gets the thumbs up for beauty but thumbs down for people (not friendly and overall rude drivers).

We went from Damascus, VA to Haysi, VA.
Stats for today: total miles 69, start time 9:00 and end time 4:15

May 11, 2009: Day 10

Hey does this look familiar? It's CTA's old logo in Western Virginia.

Today was our first zero mile day, after nine days of riding needed to take a rest. It was a very good day not to ride, it has been raining all day and the temperature has not been above the lower 50's. In the morning it may drop in to the 30's, thus will start later in the morning. Went to see Star Trek! but won't tell you about it, as you may want to see it.

May 10, 2009: Day 9

Mt. Rogers Day today.... need I say more, may be I do. George climbed and climbed and climbed, since we are in the area of Rogers National Forest (Mt. Rogers is the highest peak in VA). On the upside of things, there were a lot of great downhills. Since roads were dry (Yes, first full day of no rain today), he was speeding through these downhills, at about 32 miles an hour. He did not really have to worry too much about cars as the speed limit is 25 mile/hr. There was one downhill that George did not have to paddle for 4 miles (I guess that really tells you how much he must have climbed to get that kind of downhill). Tomorrow's suppose to be a rest day.... first one. We are staying in Damascus, which is the only city that AT Hikers (which goes North/South and is about 2700 miles) and Trans AM bikers (they go East/West) meet. We met a few AT hikers here. I went for a 3 hour hike at the AT, at Rogers National Park. Beautiful, sunny, and fun day for both of us today.

We went from Wytheville, VA to Damascus, VA.
Stats for today: 59 mile, start time 7:00 am to 1:15.

May 09, 2009: Day 8

Windiest day so far today. We woke up with a major thunderstorm. The weather forecast was for all day of thunderstorms, strong winds and rain. When it stopped storming and was raining just a little bit, we decided that George can get on the bike and his SAG vehicle will follow him, 'till thunderstorms hit again, thus George could take shelter. It turned out that it was very windy (mostly head winds) while still lots of hills but did not rain again, 'till he was done. He is now starting to feel some tiredness in his legs (well, its about time...) but did well on the hills. No walking the hills yet, but he did take one break in the middle of one of the hills (not bad I say).... the mountain goat carries on. Looks like tomorrow is even more steeper and longer climbs for the route. We met another Trans AM' er today from Amsterdam. He was not too happy with the weather, maps, and lots of other things as well. My day was pretty much a bomb today.... all I did was drive around for about 6 hours (tells you how I feel about the SAG job, any takers out there for my job? I would give it up in a heartbeat). And my one and only little fun activity of going for a 20 min. walk (on a rails to trail) ended with a parking ticket when I got back.

We traveled from Blacksburg, VA to Wytheville, VA
Stats for today: 52 windy miles, start time 8:10 and stop time 2:15.

May 08, 2009: Day 7

George after 70 miles

Another beautiful day of riding and climbing. Probably the hardest day as far as climbing but George is keeping it up and proving to be a real Mountain goat. He is not feeling any soreness or tiredness when biking but is sore with walking when not on the bike.... go figure. Great route as far as the ravines, cow pastures, gorgeous views of the the mountains and the valleys. Some rain today.... but also some more sun today. I got to do some hiking on the AT.

We went from Lexington, VA to little pass Catawba, VA
Stats for today: 70 miles, start time 7:05 to 2:15

May 07, 2009: Day 6

Kitty and George at VMI (Virginia Military Institute), Lexington,VA.

We had a great day today.... lots of firsts.... such as: George got to change the lenses from clear to darker for his sunglasses; he got rained, actually poured, on; I got to get out for a short hike; we enjoyed getting out in the evening for site seeing as it was not raining in the afternoon today. It was a very tough climbing day, including the Blue Ridge Parkway..... but George loved it. He has found his inner athlete and loves climbing (he is starting to look like a crazy guy on the bike). So, we have a trail name (normally, its a tradition for AT but we can have our own tradition) for him... Mountain Goat. So far he has a new record of not needing to stop for a break or walk any of the uphills but needed to take two breaks on one of the downhills, as his hands were hurting from pressing the breaks too hard. Not to mention, he has bruises from the rain pelting on his face. I guess that means, he was going (at least downhill) very fast.

We went from Afton, VA to Lexington, VA

Stats for today.... 62 miles, start time 7:00 and ending time 2:00.

bike speed ranged from 5.5 mph to 37.5 mph on the parkway.

May 06, 2009 Day 5

Picture of me at in the cookie ladies bike house.Today was a short day, actually it was supposed to be a rest day. We hit the Blue Ridge Mountains in the morning. George miscalcualted (I am sure not the first or last time) the climbing. We knew there was going to be some big hills but it turned out that it was most climbing over the milleage (3,500 feet over 27 miles) in the whole trip but George thought that it wasn't too bad...... go George.... Driving around, I thought there were some hills my car was struggling to make it up, but then again I think that my car may actually be older than George.....

On the top of one of the climbs we stopped at the "Cookie Lady" house. She had been helping out transamerica bikers since 1974. She was featured with on the road with Charles Kuralt in 1993. She got her name by baking fresh cookies for bikers everyday during season, she also has a little house for bikers, it's filled with bike stuff from transamerican riders over the years. She will also put you up, if you need a place to sleep. We didn't stay because it has no heat and it was cold and musty smelling, not good for allergies. Her name is June, she seemed to talking to us (may be to everyone), it seemed like she told us her whole medical history. She is 93 now, thus it took her a long, long, long time.

We went from Charlottesville, VA to Afton, VA

Todays stats......27 miles, 7:15-10:45 a.m (counting cookie lady time)

Kitty Day 1-4

Kitty is spending most of her time driving and supporting the ride. She does spend some time researching her injury to discover some method (this could be a remedy from an alien) to speed her recovery as she is going crazy not riding. I don't think she would want to start in the mountains though. Once she is ready, she will do a couple of little rides first, just to make sure all is working. I'm guessing she will never go down an Indian slide again.

May 05, 2009, Day 4

Better riding day today, no getting lost at all but still a gloomy day, but George managed to stay dry.... yeah.... More climbing with very pretty views most of the day, 'till close to the city. George is finally feeling his quads a little but looking forward to riding tomorrow. Its suppose to be more hilly but shorter ride. The main thing George is hoping for is to be able to change the lenses from clear to colored on his so called Sunglasses and not to have to wear winter gear. It was a much colder ride of temps in the low 50's the entire time. We did make a run to the LBS (local bike store) here to get George an Odometer, taking advantage of the fact that we still have a car.

Traveled from Mineral, VA to Charlottesville, VA

Miles for today: 57

May 04, 2009: Day 3

Rough, rough day today.... for a few reasons. Getting lost, dangerous traffic patterns, very unfriendly people, and the gloomy weather, now for three days in a row. Seems like that since we are not riding together is really catching up to us as George is left out with half of the navigation stuff. I was suppose to have the GPS and am the only one with a bike with an odometer. Since I am driving around, I am keeping the GPS, so George is left with just maps and trying to read signs on the roads (which are not always the best), thus he is having a hard time with navigating. We are hoping that we learned a few things today to avoid this as it can be very frustrating to be lost on a bike, especially when in a very trafficy road. On top of that, I guess the trail magic was lost today, as no one was willing to help him with direction, and he was even wearing matching clothing. Out in the country, George was at a stop sign with his map and bike and he approached a woman, who clearly, had to stop at a Stop sign but one look at him, she hit the accelerator and was gone... is just one of a few examples of the kind of folks he was dealing with today. SAG vehicle came in handy as I came and helped with my GPS to find the correct way. After the second time, I pretty much stayed with him, following him around in my car. He must have felt like a celebrity or a world class athlete. As far as the route, some Hills started today. George did well climbing them and the views were beautiful of the horse farms and meadows with rolling hills (reminded us of our beautiful state of NC). It has been clowdy and has been threatening to rain on him all three days of riding, but so far George has managed to stay dry. Today, was not only very gloomy but cold too. We are hoping for some sunshine soon as this weather is getting a bit depressing.

Rode from Mechanicsville, VA to Mineral (via Ashland), VA.

Total Miles: 58

May 03, 2009: Day 2

Day 2 started with early breakfast of Banana, muffin, and cereal etc while George got ready for the ride with better matching clothes today. I dropped him off at the ending point of yesterday's ride. His goal was to get out as early as possible due to the forecast for today (and several days ahead) of thunderstorms and rain. We figure that it will rain more in the afternoon. Another beautiful (relatively flat) ride but curvy narrow roads to be shared with two way traffic. George reports that most of the cars were very nice about giving him room (better than in our neighborhood in NC). Only one car passed him very closely, which is not bad for a 53 mile ride. He also had some trail magic as the park ranger at Richmond Battlefield let George go through a closed road to save him some time. He just had to walk across a bridge which was closed due to being in danger of collapsing. But the park ranger was very nice about getting another officer to meet George on the other side of the closed road to make sure that he was alright. George enjoyed the battlefield and took his time reading all the history. Bike riding and civil war battlefield, a guy (well, at least George) can't ask for more. His ride ended while he was still pretty much dry, it started pouring about a minute before he was done.... yeah....

Traveled from Charles City, VA to Mechanicsville, VA

Total Miles: 53

May 02, 2009: Day 1

George hit the road today..... alone. He started a day earlier. The plan was to start Sunday morning but since we had the time, he decided to start with a short ride of 28 miles. Starting point of the Bike Tour is at Victory Memorial in Yorktown, VA. As soon as we arrived at Victory Memorial (actually, as soon as we left the house to drive to VA, George was really hyped up. He almost forgot to wear a shirt when leaving the house), after about 3.5 hour drive, he changed into his very mismatched biking clothes and was ready to go. He did stop to pose for a shot or two and then off he went. Day one... and he is already breaking some rules. He had to go through a tunnel (as part of his route), where it clearly (more than one large sign) stated NO Bikes or Pedestrians allowed in the tunnel. It was a beautiful ride through Colonial Parkway from Yorktown to Williamsburg and towards Charles City. Funny that the Bike tour ride one started with a drop of rain on us and then it stopped. No more rain for the rest of the ride.... is this a sign for things to come? I came and picked him and we stayed in Williamsburg, about 15 miles away from where he ended the ride. Nice advantage to have, when there is a SAG car.
Rode from Yorktown, VA to Williamsburg (close to Charles City), VA.
Total Miles: 28