THANKS

So in total I road 3773 miles of the country in about 55 days! Not too shabby, but I'm glad to be back in New Hampshire right now. It's wonderful to sleep in my own bed and after being away for so long, I truly appreciate what I have here. I want to thank everyone for all their support throughout my adventure. I'm not sure I'll have many more adventures like this for a little bit but you NEVER know!

Day 58, Elko, VA to Yorktown, VA, 68 miles....FINISHED

LAST DAY-I FINISHED!!!! I'm so excited to be done. I'm glad I did it, don't get me wrong, but there is nothing as satisfying as finishing something this long and hard, except maybe seeing your mother at the end!!! My mom flew to Norfolk, VA and took a shuttle up to Yorktown and met me at the end! It's so nice to see some of MY family and having someone to share the conclusion of my trip with! The ride in was very flat. We road on the Colonial Parkway from Jamestown, through Williamsburg-which had horrible directions and we got caught up in the town there for a bit.

Day 57, 7/25/07, Mineral, VA to Elko, VA, 73.9 miles

Started out raining this morning but the sun came out around 1pm although it stayed very humid. No big climbs or anything too exciting to report. It felt like mileage, just to get one day closer to Yorktown and finishing. I'm physically exhausted and ready to be done. I'm very excited to see my family and friends back home and especially my mother who is meeting me tomorrow at the end!! Last night and tonight more of Cydna's family came to the campgrounds we're staying at.

Day 56, 7/24/07, Greenwood, VA to Mineral, VA, 77.6 miles

LESS CLIMBING-YAY! There were still some rollers, but much less climbing than the past week. The views right out of Greenwood were really pretty with some vineyards and orchards set against the Blue Ridge, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. We went through Charlottesville today and UVA. We road by Monticello and Ashland Heights. We came through Gouchland County in the afternoon and saw a small, scraggly looking baby fox sleeping in the road (it actually looked like road kill) get up and watch us go by. We made it to Mineral, VA and as we pulled into town, it started raining. We have been VERY lucky with weather on this trip!

Day 55, 7/23/07, Natural Bridge, VA to Greenwood, VA, 76.3 miles

Over 5740 feet of climbing, we climbed up about 4 miles of one of the steepest stretches so far to top the Blue Ridge parkway. The climb started in Vesuvius, VA and ended on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were on the parkway for the northern 27 miles, when it turned to skyline drive is where we changed course. Skip's friend George road with us and navigated us through Lexington, VA and he started back once atop the Blue Ridge. The day was nice and we had some nice views form the parkway. Luckily, it as Monday and there wasn't too much traffic, mostly RV and motorcycles and some cars here and there. This seemed to be the last real day of climbing on the trip, hopefully it'll be relatively flat and low rolling hills until the coast. We went about 8 miles farther than we had planned, but the plan is to now shorten the last day so that the last day will be less than 80 miles. The famous "Cookie Lady" was not home, she is now in a wheel chair and cannot move around much, hopefully she will recover soon!

Day 54, 7/22/07, Christiansburg, VA to Natural Bridge, VA, 73.7 miles

Once again, a tough day. I'm very tired and the riding was very hilly, with the rolling hills feeling more like vertical up and down. It's a beautiful area and that helped at least distract me from how tired I am. We didn't make it all the way to Natural Bridge and we never got to see it, because we stopped to visit Cydna's second cousins and then Skip's mother and sister met us at our campsite, which was nice, but made me miss my family and friends even more! I'm ready for this trip to be over, I want to finish, but I'm ready to come home and relax a little bit and sleep in my own bed and see all my family and friends!

Day 53, 7/21/07, Rural Retreat, VA to Christiansburg, VA, 66.8 miles

Today was a little easier than the past two days, the rolling hills were constant though. I was pretty sore and stiff from my little accident yesterday. I was a bit nervous on the bike as well, because I was afraid I would collide with Skip or just fall of my bike, but the longer I rode the more my confidence increased. As we road over the New River into Radford, VA we saw some people "floating" it or as we'd say in New England, tubing. You may be able to make out the little dots in the picture.
As we approached Christiansburg we were definitely in the VA Tech area, with hokie flags and lots of the ribbons everywhere. It is still sad to think that such a tragedy even occurred.

Day 52, 7/20/07, Rosedale, VA to Rural Retreat, VA, 81.3 miles

Today's ride was very very tough, it was possibly the hardest ride so far for me. We had over 5280 feet of climbing. It started out overcast and misty and then started raining. We had had very good weather so far, so I'm not really complaining about that, but it seems when we have rainy weather it's always on 80+ miles days. We had several steep climbs and on the first we passed by fields of cows, which is normal, but as we rode by one particular cow gave a sound like a cough or even a crow. It was by far the weirdest sound I'd ever heard out of a cow before! We stopped for lunch after 48 miles and I was cold, so I changed into warmer and more waterproof clothing, and wouldn't you know it after 5 miles the sun came out and I was sweating like crazy and starting to overheat. As we neared our destination we approached a crazy intersection, Skip saw a car coming and braked really fast and I didn't have time to react, so I hit my breaks but ended up hitting his rear tire. I crashed, he had apparently stopped so luckily I didn't knock him over. It was my first crash of the trip and really on a bike since i was like 12. It hurt, but it really wasn't that bad, I was more startled than anything. I had my share of bruises and stiffness, but not too many scrapes and my bike survived pretty well. There were some really nice people who saw and came to see if I was "okay". We had to ride 6 more miles to Rural Retreat, and I thought my arm was going to fall off it hurt bad to put weight on it, but we made it after what seemed like the slowest 6 miles ever. To make myself feel better I bought a bunch of little debbie snacks and candy, they wanted me to buy ice, but I decided gaining 5 pounds would make me feel better than ice.

Day 51, 7/19/07, Elkhorn City, KY to Rosedale, VA, 48 miles

Had about 5 miles from Elkhorn City to the KY/VA state line...

We made it to Virginia, the final state! We did lots of climbing today now that we're reached the "older" Appalachains, a conservative estimate is ~4580 feet, it makes today the day with the most feet per mile of the entire trip (about 95 ft climbed/mile). It was a tough day, and at the end we face a nice headwind and plenty of traffic outside of Rosedale. We climbed over a mountain named "Big A", which I thought was quite funny, we appropriately added some more letters as we were climbing up. We didn't have a place to stay here either and found another Methodist church, a very small but pretty church. A thunderstorm rolled in that evening and I'm glad I was finished riding and had a waterproof place to sleep.

Day 50, 7/18/07, Pippa Passes, KY to Elkhorn City, KY, 54.8 miles

Once again, some Appalachian climbs, four larger (2-4 mile) climbs and very very steep! It wasn't too horrible. We had a couple scary run-in with dogs, at least two ran beside me and I was sure they were going to bite my foot or wheel. All the other seemed to just bark and run but seemed to be chasers and not biters. The weather has been nice, humid and warm, but no rain as of yet. The roads have been very curvy and when the sight says, "broken road ahead" it generally means that the shoulder either fell off the cliff or into a river/stream! We SAGed into Breaks interstate park (owned by both VA and KY) and the mountains appear to be taller as we move east.

Day 49, 7/17/07, Booneville, KY to Pippa Passes, KY, 63.3 miles

MEAN DOGS! That's the first thing that I can say about this ride. I thought for sure I'd be torn into kibbles and bits by the end of the day! There were a couple of steep climbs between Booneville and Buckhorn and one group of mean dogs that even attacked the RV. People seem to have dogs in this area as protection. Buckhorn, KY to Chavies was three long and steep climbs. After Chavies the traffic was HORRIBLE, imagine riding on a shoulder that was either non-existent or had lots of gravel and rumble strips in it with coal trucks and cars whipping by at 60 mph! That was right outside Hazard, KY which may be where the Dukes of Hazard are from-any history majors out there?? I almost crashed because my wheel got stuck in between two pieces of concrete while I was leaning, but luckily I unclipped at the last second. We didn't have a campground for this night, but we found a Methodist church that allowed us to park in their parking lot. In addition, they let us take showers and fed us dinner! They were really friendly and nice.

Day 48, 7-16-07, Berea, KY to Booneville, KY, 58.2 miles

Berea is at the top of a hill, so we didn't have a tough ride for the first part of the day. We skirted between hills, but there were plenty of scary dogs that gave us chase. There were a couple steep climbs, but luckily they weren't more than 3 miles each. We're definitely in the hills of Appalachia though, and things are less gradual than out west.

Day 47, 7/15/07, drove from Indiana to Berea, KY

Just a driving day. We drove to Berea, KY. We stopped at a Crafts fair in Berea. I got the largest bag of kettle corn I've ever seen in my life. It was awesome! There was a severe weather warning for Berea, but we didn't see much more than some strong wind-luckily!

Day 46, 7/14/07, Ozora, MO to Murphysboro, IL, 53 miles

Started riding a little bit outside Ozora, MO and made it to Murphysboro, Illinois, this was a test ride to see if Skip's back would allow him to ride. He seemed to do well. There were only a few hills, short little grunts, but nothing like the Ozarks! We crossed the Mississippi into Chester, Illinois, which claims to be the birthplace of Popeye! The creator of Popeye apparently hailed from Chester at some point, possibly his birthplace. Illinois was great, we road on mostly little used back roads through farmland, but unlike the KS agribusiness farms, these were smaller farms with scenic houses and barns. Murphysboro itself was a bit anti-climactic, but it marked a turning point in the trip, because we were about to SAG over a section from Murphysboro, IL to Berea, KY that Skip had ridden previously. We started the journey that afternoon and 6 miles into Indiana, the RV blew a flat. We waited for several hours on the interstate for the RV equivalent of AAA to come help. Skip decided to find help himself and picked up a couple of locals to help us. They put air back in the tires and got us on the road again, they were really sweet to help us on a Saturday, when even the "professionals" wouldn't!

I caught a nice sunset that night at a state park in Indiana.

DONE!

Just a quick hello, but I finished my trip on Thursday July 26th in Yorktown, VA. My mom met me at the end! IT was awesome! We traveled back to TN to get my car on Friday and we're headed on a roadtrip home. I will update this on Monday or whenever I get home with picturse of the last two weeks. I'm so happy I finished and happy I'm done! Thanks for all the positive messages! And check again in a couple days!

Day 45, 7/13/07, Lesterville, MO to a bit past Graniteville, MO, 26.4 miles

Skip's back hurt him so much yesterday he told me he wouldn't be riding today. I'm decided to do a short ride by myself, just so I can ride at least a little and then we'll SAG the rest. This is the most we'll end up skipping on the trip (except for the 400 miles of Kentucky that Skip has already ridden), just to stay on schedule. I only road 26 miles, i was going to do 40, but there were several dogs and a bridge was out and I couldn't figure a quick way around it and I figured I might as well take more of a rest day.

I hope his back heals, otherwise, you'll all be seeing more sooner than planned...

Day 44, 7-12-07, Summersville to Centerville, MO, 61.8 miles

This is the steepest hardest part of the Ozarks yet! Now I know why people say Missouri loves company! We passed a family from Australia who are cycling from LA to NY. They had two boys about 9 and 12. I was glad that I'm "cheating" and not carrying my stuff. It was pretty, but I'm glad it's done. We found a nice place to eat food in Centerville after the ride. They're cheeseburgers were amazing and they had sassy sayings all over the wall.

Day 43, 7-11-07, Marshfield, MO to Summersville, MO, 89.4 miles

4040 feet of climbing, which is a conservative number. The weather was nice, it wasn't too muggy and stayed in the 80s for the first time in a while. The trees are nice to have for shade. More steep hills, we SAGed to Alley Spring which is in the Ozark National Park Scenic Riverways (or whatever the Ozarks are technically called). It was beautiful.

Day 42, 7/10/07, Pennsboro, MO to Marshfield, MO, 61.3 miles

Up and Down! I guess we're entering the Ozark region. Every cyclist heading west we've spoken to has described the Ozarks as very hard and hilly, with the hills too steep, too long and too spaced out to use the downs to help you up the next hill. It was the toughest riding we've faced in over three weeks. Several dogs ran out at us, and scared the bejesus out of me, they run right at you and all I can think to do is sprint away.

Day 41, 7/9/07, Fort Scott, KS to Pennsboro, Missouri, 90.4 miles

WE're not in Kansas anymore! We got back on route right outside Pittsburg, KS and stayed on the route to Pennsboro, Missouri. The farther east into Missouri we got the steeper the "rolling" hills became. It is definitely changing from Western Kansas. The day was hot and muggy, but it's nice to enter a new state, slowly but surely, we're moving east!