Monday, June 16, 2008

Poultry Days

So Jess drops off us the next day to catch our ride, and we make him pretty late for work in the process (sorry again!). The Asheville players who came down were really cool to pack us in pretty tight for the ride up to Versailles. They also convinced that I want to do a lot of hanging out in Asheville. It sounds like a Fayetteville-like area in North Carolina, except the mountains are bigger. So we arrive in Versailles at my first Poultry Days, which I had no clue was also a town festival with carnival rides and food and delicious chicken dinners on Saturday night after games. Bowers and I rode some rides that almost got the better of our stomachs, but we managed to not ralph on each other... yet... The camping was pretty good, too. It only rained the first night, and for some reason I was in Scott Brown's tent which we fucked up right before going to bed and so got a little wet. The second night I made it to my tent, and it didn't even rain that night, but I still woke up wet and in a puddle... that's so strange...

I got to play with UPS, I think for the first time ever, which was very cool. I already miss playing with every person on that team... except for Scott Brown. Ha, yust yoking, but he is a broken like he's on the mark lookin ass!!! That kiddie pool fucked that kid up! I'll see you in Tulsa though, I just bet... Thank you, Jon, for picking me up. I got that $30 for you somewhere, I think it fell out of my pocket on the ride or something...

So the tourney came to an end and we snagged a ride back to Highland Heights from a scrumptralescent (and I only use that name for very few folks) dude named Kevin, who happened to grow up about 5 minutes from my aunt's house. He has been away for a while in the service, but lives right above San Diego now and came back to visit his family and go to Poultry Days. It turns out he actually went to grade school with another cousin of mine (once or twiced removed) who I haven't had the chance to meet yet. Thanks for not only the ride, but for the shoes, too. They are perfect retro, purple and blue, Oasis tennis shoes. I swear I had a smaller version when I was a kid. Until now I've only had the bike cleats, which are getting pretty roughed up, so the shoes really saved my ass!

We made it back to my aunt's house and had a great taco night and promptly passed out only to wake up too late to get where were gonna go today. So, were gonna chill one more night before taking off to the bourbon trail tomorrow. I at least had time to catch up on my blog today, which has been a long time coming. I need to get a lot of pictures on this thing so I gotta quit writing, but keep checking and hopefully I wont wait a week before posting. Peace!

Kentucky!!!!!

Finally, out of Virginia and the tallest part of the Appalachians. Our first day in Kentucky was beautiful, and because we were off the map again, going towards Poultry Days, there were no outrageous hills to deal with. In fact, we went downhill most of the day, coming off of the bigger mountains. Virginia, bad. Kentucky, good. There were a lot scenic overlooks at the beginning of the day and rolling hills and fields the rest of it. We followed a river for most of the ride, which was also pretty relaxing.

We made it about 65 miles down the road to Prestonburg. Not too much going on there really. We stopped by the Dairy Cheer and had a burger because the sign said Smashburger which sounded too good turn down, and I had to take a picture for Jacob. I didn't even know he had his own burger... We stayed in a hotel again that night because Iris had a lot more work to do; she stayed up most of the night to do it which made it a tough ride the next day.

So we left the next morning for Morehead, which sounded like an awesome place to me. Turns out it was. Morehead College is there and it has a really beautiful, and surprisingly large, campus. We heard about a sweet bar there called the Road Runner from a lot of different folks so went to check it out. We were even more excited to learn that they had endless cups of beer for $8. That's why we were really depressed to find out that they closed over the summer because all of the students are out of town and the town pretty much dies.

Regardless, we met a guy on the street named Nate who was also on a bike so seemed like a good fella to talk to. Turns out he was. He offered to let us come up to his apartment and shower off and everything. Good work Iris!!! And thanks a ton Nasty Nate. We also met a couple of girls who lived across the hallway, Amy and Jane, who were really cool and let me cook dinner and breakfast and opened up their apartment to us. They had a test the next day, but still took us out and picked us up in between study sessions. They were amazing to hang out with. Thanks for everything girls, I hope you rocked that anatomy test!!!

So we left (begrudgingly) from Morehead the next day on the route to Cynthiana, a town about an hour south of my aunt's house in Highland Heights, which is right below Cincinnati. That ride was about 75 miles, so we were pretty happy about to get there and drink some huge beers at a Mexican restaurant for cheap. That's where my aunt came and picked us and the bikes up to go chill in Highland heights for the night. Thanks for all your help Ainee!!! We then called around to get a ride to Poultry Days from Cincinatti and Heather new some folks from Asheville, North Carolina, who were coming through the next day for the tourney. So our night was set, and after a great rendition of Piano Man by the whole team, happy to finally be traveling while not pedaling, we got some sleep and prepared for the tournament.

But not before playing some old school Bubble Bobble with my cousin Jess, something I haven't done in an least 10 years. Fucking Awesome. And thanks for the ride, too, sorry to make you late for work cousin!

Kentucky bound.

So we leave Abingdon for the pass, called The Butt, and the roads are pretty normal except for right before the mountain there is a huge 6-7 mile downhill that we coasted to the bottom of. We actually stopped and had to make sure we were going the right way because we were told it was going to get pretty rough before the actual pass. It actually wasn't bad at all. It might have been the mountain we had already done, or just a couple more days of conditioning, but we were over the pass before we knew it. The direction change cost us about 10-15 miles, but shaved off about 1500 feet and a 3.5 mile 8-9 grade hill. That's pretty much as steep as you get.


We were finally on the other side of the mountains, so we thought. There were actually a few great downhills on the way to Elkhorn City, our first city on the map in Kentucky, but they were paired with some steep ass uphills as well. They weren't as long as earlier, but short and steep can be worse, especially when your going slow at the end of the day. As we get closer to the state line, the hill keeps going up and up and we are dog tired. We finally make it to the top where there is a campground at the state line called Breaks Interstate Park. What a beautiful place, even despite the fact we had to go uphill for about another mile after getting to the park itself. We met some other folks doing the same trail at the entrance to the campgrounds and they had a SAG wagon, which is when one of the bikers drives all the equipment and stuff from stop to stop. That would be nice, no gear on the bike and a ride to whatever you want... but it still seemed like cheating.

This last day in Virginia had to be one of my favorite rides. The locusts out here are in full throttle, and going into some of the valleys the noise they were making was deafening. They are pretty hard to avoid hitting on downhills, too, when your going 30 mph or so. And they hurt, really bad. I caught a small bug in the eye earlier and thankfully bought a pair of sunglasses for this stretch. I would hit 2 or 3 at a time sometimes. I caught one dead on ole righty and actually had to stop to recover... Shoulda worn a cup.

Holy Frijoles!!!

We left the hotel with a route change that ended up cutting out a bunch of unnecessary miles and unnecessary mountains on our way to Poultry Days. I really wanted to make that tournament because I'd never been before and I heard so much about it. It was a 60 mile day and we decided to go get some Mexican food that night. The night before, at the hotel, there was a Mexican place but it closed down too early for us to go, but we still had Marg's on the mind all day long.

We finally show up to Abingdon and find the Mexican place, which was closed on Sundays... So we found another one (Marg's on the mind) about three miles away. The margaritas were great after dinner and drinking biking was the last thing we wanted to do. By this time it was getting dark and the pass over the next set of mountains was really close to town and the campground was still 10 miles down the road toward the pass. I wouldn't have minded going to the campground in hindsight, it was almost a straight drop downhill the whole way, but we didn't know that at the time and heard that it might be a rough ride to the campground. So Iris begins asking around for a yard or some other nearby place to camp and all of the people lived even farther than the campground so that was out. She eventually asks the Mexicans and they let us camp in the back of the restaurant, where there is a little field by the parking lot.

The cops that came by that night to check us out were really cool, and actually weren't trying to mess with us at all. They were looking for three men who were supposedly in the area, and Iris and Heather really didn't fit that description. They did tell us, however, that this was the first time they'd ever seen someone in a tent in the middle of town and that they would keep an eye us later, which put my mind at ease after discovering there three suspects running around
Abingdon.

Almost to Kentucky!!!!

A Night with the Mayor

Leaving from the caverns towards Christiansburg was awful. It was steeper than the entire mountain range we crossed, but only for a mile or two. I would say it was an 8 grade, which, for those who don't know, is steep as shit. But it was early enough for us to make it up and still make a 70 mile day out of it. We had originally planned on camping again, there was a KOA right outside of Wytheville, but we shot straight past it and down a hill for about 2 miles before realizing that we that we did pass it. We were tired, but we opted to go another 10 miles into town rather than go back uphill. It ended up working out.

So we get to the edge of town where there are a bunch of hotels and stuff and Iris and Heather planned on checking all of them out to see if we could a discounted rate and I decided to go into town and see if there was anything going on. It was Friday night and the town was sizable so I had my hopes up. I asked around and got directions to the only bar in town, the Turn One Bar, on the other side of town, and wanted to go check it out. On my way to the bar, I passed an outdoor concert in the middle of town. I rode up to two 16 (18) year old girls taking money at the entrance to check it out. They said it was a beach band from Myrtle and that they had $1 beers inside, which pretty much sold me. So I went on in and beers ended up being $3, but after around the 80 miles that I put in, i didn't mind too much.

So, I was standing in the beer line when an older guy in a great looking American flag shirt came up and asked where I was from and what the final destination was and all that and we talked a while about our plans in town and everything. This guy was really nice and told us to talk to the beer servers, most of whom worked for the recreation center in town, and they could tell us where to get free showers and a place to camp for free as well. So I got my beer and chatted with this really cute hippie girl for a while and got directions to the showers and campgrounds. The guy in the shirt came back up and made sure we knew where everything was and at the end of our conversation said, "Well I happen to be the mayor of this town, welcome to Wytheville!" I was kind of taken aback, but let him know that he was the best mayor I'd ever met and thanks for everything he did.

So Iris and Heather end up making it to the concert a little later and I introduce them to mayor and before I know it Trent (that's his name), being impressed with Iris' charity venture, invites us to stay over at his house that night and even says he'll give us a sober ride later that night! Not being able to turn that down, we get directions from him and make plans to go to the only bar in town that night. We end up hitching a ride there from the Budweiser guy who was serving beers at the venue, and he says he can fit the bikes and beer in the back of the beer truck. Our night is set with one sweet ride in the back of a beer truck to Turn One.

So we get to the bar and Bud guy buys us all Jager shots, maybe one too many, and there is a great punk band playing when we walk in. They covered some good songs and I was definitely headbanging for a good part of the night. So we make it to last call and call Trent to come get us and the bikes, which is good because I tried to get on the bike and ride and failed miserably. I probably wouldn't have made it out of the parking lot much less into town. On the way back to his place we get pulled over by a local cop, who thought that he might have stolen our bikes that night. He told her, "I sure did, along with bikers that came on them!" Being the mayor, nothing came of it, and we arrived safely at his house just in time for the girls to take showers and me to safely pass out on the couch after a short stint on the bathroom floor... thanks for putting on my pants girls!!!

So Trent gives us a ride in town the next day to the library so the girls can do some more work. At this point, both Iris and Heather have a bunch of computer shit due, and haven't had a lot of time to work on it yet. So we decide to get a hotel in town with wireless so they can work and I can chill in a hot tub and a pool. Add to that Waffle House right across the street. Awesome.

The Mounatin, The Frat House, Dixie Caverns

What can I say??? This day was absolutely gorgeous. The uphill sucked but there was so much to look at it really didn't matter much. I just chugged a lot of hammer gel fuel and burned to the top. The best was the downhill at the end, where we dropped almost 2000 feet in a mile or two. I had to break to keep it at 30-35mph, 5-10 mph over the speed limit, and almost went off road more than once. Awesome.

All said and done we still made a 50 mile day, which pretty good when a lot of it was uphill. We decided after the mountain to keep riding on to Lexington, home of Washington and Lee University. It's a small campus but fun, and graduation was the following day so the town pretty busy. We ended up staying with Chris, a member of the Chi Psi fraternity.

And the frat house was awesome. They had a full game room with arcade style games and a huge screen TV, free sodas and powerade in the kitchen, and topped it off with a stripper pole in the basement. Awesome. They also happened to have a Razorback hat in the computer den that somebody found in a dumpster and decided to save. I think we were meant to be there... This conviction was strengthened even more by the fact that I found a strip steak in the fridge of the guy's room we stayed in. He had moved out the week before and the steak was set to expire the next day. It was fate. I hauled that steak 70 miles the next day, keeping it on ice in my handlebar bag until the next evening.

We ended up right outside of Christiansburg, the last location on our first map, at a camping spot called Dixie Caverns. We talked to the people and they ended up letting us stay for free because we were biking for Iris' charity, so that was phenomenal. I cooked the shit out of the steak that night, despite the fact that it was already turning.. Luckily, I had picked up some spices the day earlier so I just smothered the teak in garlic seasoning and cardamom. Awesome.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

June Curry - The Cookie Lady

Afton is only 20 miles or so from Charlottesville so we had a pretty easy trip to the cookie lady's place. We left pretty late and caught an afternoon thundershower during rush hour traffic, so it was pretty good we picked up the rear flashing lights (lights lights...). We crawled up a pretty long hill to get there, a lot of which I had to walk because I'm a punk. We had the mountains the next day to look forward to so I figured I'd save my legs as much as I could.

We pull up to June's two houses at the top of that hill, the first being the "bike house," where all the bikers stay, and the second being her house. Keep in mind, this is the last stop before the first big mountain trek of the trip, so people need to get rid of as much weight as possible. We stop at the first house to drop off gear and all, and are all blown away by the sheer amount of shit everywhere! Bike gear on the ceiling, walls, floor, photographs an postcards from literally all over the world lining every bit of previously open space. It was awesome, and truly a historic place for any traveling biker. We also saw "that guy," that we met the shop the previous day, whose name is Daniel and he's from Costa Rica. He was staying at the house as well, and is planning on traveling through the South to Arizona... mid summer... good luck buddy.

Next we go up to the other house to say hello to June, one of the sweetest women I've ever met in my life. She used to bake cookies for all the bikers coming through, but she is pretty up in years now and can't get around as much as she'd like to. She was born in the bike house and has lived there all her life, which is a pretty impressive one. I won't go into too much detail after that or else my post would be way too long, but I will hopefully be able to upload a video of her and the bike house.

Finally, a college town with a bar.

We left the gas station relatively early for Charlottesville to try and make up some time. It was around 55 miles away and ended up being a pretty easy ride. We seem to be getting shape a lot quicker than we thought. So when we hit town we go to the bike shop there to check it out and it was probably the worst shop I've ever been to. They didn't really offer to help us when we came in and charged Iris $10 to tighten one screw... The name of the place is Blue Wheel Bicycles and don't go unless you have to. Unfortunately, we did have to get some rear lights because of the fog in the mountains so had to do business with them after much chagrin. While we were at the shop, however, we did meet a guy outside who happened to be doing the same route as us but lost his map sometime earlier. We let the guy copy ours at a place next door, the National Institute of Social Norms, which if anyone knows what is please let me know... More on that guy later...

So, we leave, and Iris happens to know a guy she met in D.C. who currently rents an apartment in Charlottesville. He was out of town but we stayed with his roommate, Blake, who was a real cool guy. We cooked dinner for him and got him a sixer for putting us up. We also met his friend Matt who was a bike tourer as well and had done a 20 day ride from Canada to Alaska. He told us a story about a 12 hour, 3300 foot elevation day they had to do because a guy's bike got lost for a day on the plane ride. It made our upcoming mountain ride seem a little easier...

So Blake took us out that night to a bar called Coupe Deville that had $2 pitchers on Tuesday nights, which would have been sweet but we were there on Monday and they were $8... Should've camped longer... I just wanted to go out and find a place to stay but all the girls were getting hit on by a multitude of popped collars which made things difficult... We ended up going to another bar called Three and closing it down after some car bombs. Everyone took a taxi back but I was kinda feeling good and wanted to wander around... Ended up in a magnolia tree a couple of blocks away from the house and spotting a McDonald's before getting back to the house. Thank god for chicken sandwiches at 3 in the morning...

The next day we chilled around the house for a while so we (the girls) could get some internet stuff done and Iris needed to mail some weight back home; the mountains were getting closer and we all had a bunch of unnecessary shit. We tossed the disc a little and left for Afton, a foothills town only 20 miles down the road. We didn't leave til 5 because of all the shit we had to do but still had time to make it. That was the day we learned that it rains in the evenings around here and we probably should've left earlier... We get on the road and no more than 15 minutes later it starts coming down heavy. It was during rush hour, too, which made things interesting. We finally made it to Afton, after getting buzzed by a few cars and honked at and flipped off more than once, to the most amazing spot I've ever seen in my life.

Next post... The Cookie Lady.

The cop was nice, at least...

So we left from Mechanicsville after a hearty breakfast from the Throckmorton's (Travis' family) and headed for Bumpass, some little Podunk town with a campsite. Donna gave us some bananas and granola for the road and we told her to try and convince Trav to get in the car, so to speak. Travis showed us the way out of town and we said our goodbyes and all that stuff, and told him to come with us one more time... Still waiting for that phone call...

Anyway we rode about 30 or so miles, about 4 miles out of Bumpass, when the weather turned for the worse and we stop to look for the exact location of the campsite when a guy pulls up in a beamer with a little phone headset thing and says if we want, we can camp in his carport he has built right next to the gas station he owns, which was right around the corner. Mike was his name, and we all said thanks and rode up to the carport right as the rain started coming down. The name of the gas station was Route 76 Market and this carport place was especially for bikers on the route, free of charge.

So we set up shop and cook a ton of ramens and have our first get drunk in the tent night. We bought a pack cards the night before and tried to play five card draw at first, betting shots, of course. My hand was sweet, two aces, two 10's, and a jack. Bets go around and everyone seemed pretty confident, but I traded the jack for another ace and raised the shot count a little more. I ended up winning and the girls had good hands, too, Iris with two kings and two 10's and Heather with three kings. That's when we realized we bought a pinochle deck and all drank anyway. After that we tried to play down the river, Memphrica Micah's game, but I couldn't remember all the rules, so we all drank anyway. It was pass out time after that.

The next thing we all hear is "Sheriffs office!" and headlights were coming through the rain flap. The cop apparently didn't know about the whole carport deal and so we all gave him our IDs and told him about Mark and told him to go look at the sign at the front of the door that says "Bikers welcome to camp under the carport." It took about 30 minutes total because apparently the Arkansas system was down so he couldn't look up Iris' or my records, but eventually left and told us to try and get some sleep... ASS... So we did get some sleep and headed out for Charlottesville in the morning.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

So, I'm just getting jused to the blog thing, I'll try to keep pics relevant with the posts next time...

Monday, June 2, 2008

June 2, 2008

First of all there is a lot I left out in my first post... we were pretty short on time. Most importantly, I need to say thanks to James Cheek, who let borrow te bike I'm using for this little shindig. You rock buddy! Next thanks to my sponsor, Phat Tire Bike Shop on the Bentonville square and Brish Brosh and not Stoner Matt. They hooked up all my gear at a great price and got me ready to travel, and Stoner Matt did not, ass. Anyway I really appreciate the help and I will see you guys soon. Saucy, play frisbee so we can kick it in Colorado and Ohio this summer!

So, After leaving Williamsburg we went into Jamestown, which is nothing but a tourist attraction these days. We thought it was a town with camping and food such, but that's false as hell. The camping site closed down and so we were basically stuck at sundown with about another 10 miles to go to civilization. We figured we could ask around and find a yard to throw a tent up in or somthing but the closest houses were pretty suburban and the people weren't to helpful, but did point us to a 4-H down the road. We rolled over there and talked to the camp counselors for a second, to no avail, when a car pulled up and a guy and his wife asked us if we needed a place to crash for the night. He happened to see us bike past him earlier when he and his wife were walking on the trail. I remembered waving to him a little earlier. We all figured a guy with his wife and dog couldn't be too shady and so we went back to their place for the night.

And what a sweet little spot... The guy, Marco, and his wife, Jessica, were big Christians and they had an apartment around the back of their house they used for hosting missionaries and bible groups and whatnot. Marco is actually a pastor at Living Proof Baptist Church in Williamsburg that he founded a couple of years back. Anyway, the apartment was fully equipped with a shower and beds and pretty much everything we needed. He even brewed us some coffee in the morning, which is becoming quite a regular pattern. The next morning before he sent us off he gave us the watchmaker speech, which any good pastor would do, so we didn't mind, and we set off for Mechanicsville.

It was a pretty ride, and a lot of this ride was trail so we didn't have to worry about traffic. We made it about 33 miles or so and stopped to snack at a gas station that was still about 35 miles out of mechanicsville. There was a lady at the gas station we talked to for a while who recently found out she had cancer and how it changed her to a more natural way of life. We talked about a bunch of natural soaps they made locally and sold at the gas station and I bought a really good bar called Dragon's Blood that smells like Patchoulli and other natural herbs and stuff. Am I a hippie??? So she leaves and we are all rested up and ready to go.

So we left the gas station and about a mile down the road my chain gets stuck in the gears and like an ass I try to force it out break my only chain. Mechanicsville had the closest bike shop that was worth a damn so I planned on getting my spare stuff there, but I probably should have planned that a little better... Anyway I was stuck and the girls kept going because there was a storm coming and we were in BFE with no place to stay. So I walked the bike back to shop and sat on a rock and tried to hitch a ride. The woman happened to have returned a little earlier and comes up to me on the rock and asks what happened so I tell her the story and that I'm trying to hitch a ride to anywhere down the road with a bike shop. She tells me that's too dangerous and that she can get me to Mechanicsville, which is a suprisngly short ride in a car, so we take off. That was the best bar of soap I've ever bought.

The lady, Dee, was really sweet and we talk about her owning a cable company in the past with a bunch of Jamacains under her (figuratively) but she was in a car accident that put her down for a while so she had to give up that job. She had been drafting for the city for a while but then got laid off because of the economy, and was currently unemployed and does a ton of kayaking, which is what brought her along our path that day. So we get to Mechanicsville and there is an awesome little bike shop called Pedal Power (www.pedalpowerbicycles.com) where Dee drops me off after I buy her a tank of gas. The mechanic there, Travis, is a really cool guy and shows me how to fix everything up and replaces a cable and bunch of other stuff that he doesn't charge me for because again, he's a really cool guy. We end up talking about the music scene around Richmond and Fayetteville and both are really in to Yonder and other jammy type bands from the Northeast who stop in both places. I ended up kicking it at the bike shop for a couple of hours waiting on Iris and Heather to show up and it was my job to find us a place to stay in Mechanicsville. I had asked Travis earlier if there was a campground around town or some other reasonable place to stay and the closest one was about 20 miles away, so we were pretty screwed. The next logical question, then, was where the closest bar was to meet some friendlies. Apparently all the bars in Mechanicsville suck and are full of rednecks who we probably didn't want to stay with... screwed again.

So while I was outside putting my bags back on my bike, ole Trav comes out and tells me that he called his parents and they have a pace for us stay in a little room behind his garage. Fuck yeah, and this is right before the girls get in town. It's only the second day of riding and they pulled out 67 miles so were tired as hell. So Trav gets off work and we go find the girls and ride to his house and chill out for a little bit. We meet the fam, Bob, Donna, and Barkley, the dog, and Bob gives us some good beer and we all get to shower again which is pretty lucky considering that accomodation comes few and far between, and we got it the first two nights in a row. His dad was rebuilding a Landrover from I think the 70's and we helped him put on the windshield and the hood and bullshitted with him for a little longer and proceeded to chill out in the garage.

It turns out that Travis is a huge Grateful Dead fan, moreso than myself. Am I hippie??? It was funny because we were talking about the Dead and I mentioned how much more I liked to hear different live shows, for various reasons, and as I'm saying that he pulls out a cd case choc full of live Dead shows from over the years so I get to rip a ton of them onto the laptops we have. Very sweet find in Mechanicsville. So we all go out with Travis that night to a place in Richmond that has about twice the amount of beer as Brewski's and play some pool and drink some beers but eventually call it an early night. It was a hard ride for two of us... The whole night we are trying to convince Travis to hop on a bike and come with us to Oregon, or at least for a week or two. He's only 21 and doesn't have shit to do but be a mechanic at a shop and mentioned he was looking for a change, so we figured this was the perfect oppurtunity. His parents were even down like a clown! His dad left for the store and said, "When I get back I want Barkley to be here and Travis to be gone." I think he actually thought about it for a while, but ended up not coming with us that night. We did exchange info, though, so his parents might drop him off with us in a couple of days; we're just waiting for the word.

Next post, Mechanicsville to camping in a carport at a gas station in the middle of nowhere and getting harrassed by the cops!!! Stay tuned!