DAY 26

PATIENCE IS BLISS

First of all, thank you for your patience as it has been over a month since my last post. You can thank the cold rainy day today for forcing my ass down to write. I had a very busy month of May with a 4 day bike trip up to NY city, The Kennett Run which I am The Race director, a trip to visit my mom in LA, built some big things out of wood and I bought a sail boat that needs a coat of paint and so on and so on. Please forgive me and I hope I haven't lost all you loyal followers. Having the TABR 2018 TrackLeader on every one of my screens has moved me to get my trip blog completed before the first rider gets to Yorktown. The race is on...

HILLS WILL END SOON

The last day of hills is upon us and Mark and I are tasting that finish line beer with every crank over a mountain pass. The hospitality of Haysi provided us a boost as we headed out of that small town early in the morning before the first sun rays reach the valley.

A familiar site of watching Mark power up the hills. We would ride together many times that day. But, as I have mentioned many times, you need to ride at your pace. The roads on route 76 in Virginia were mostly peaceful and offered pretty countryside to watch. No mean dogs or a plethora of dead animals made for a more relaxing and sweeter smelling ride. The lack of shoulder did create several long trucks to slide very close to your ear in the hill turns. Other than that, Day 26 ride was smooth and pleasant.

There were two bike shops coming up that morning and I was looking forward to getting some fresh cleats, but first some breakfast in some small town gas station/everything else. These old boys seemed ready for us. They had plenty of snappy one-liners and laughter at our expense. We didn't mind at all and it was hard to peel out of there and leave these country boys behind.

And the hat shopping wasn't bad either.

NO DARN CELATS

Rode into Meadowview all optimistic about the bike shop located there, but they didn't have any LOOK cleats. Got a hearty lunch at an air-conditioned establishment and made my way to bike shop two in Damascus. Over the phone they sounded promising to having the cleats in question. Damascus is a big bike trail destination and there were at least three bike outfitters. But there also the cleat search was a fail. That was it, I will have to be carefully riding these hills with failing cleats and probably all the way to Yorktown.

I could see on Trackleader that I was about six miles and one mountain behind Mark. Enough shopping for cleats, I need to get moving steadily in the right direction up one more steep mountain I go. These hills were adding up in sapping my energy level.

So I reverted to my new favourite snack, pie.

Found a cool restaurant that had great pie near the spot where I would reconnect with Mark. We had both ridden most of the afternoon apart. These road pies would be both energy and a psychological reward.

Mark and I waited several minutes for this very long train to go by. We both caught up in map checking. Me on my paper maps and Mark on his GPS. It was about 1800 hrs so the next 4-5 hours were being stratagized by both us. I was still unsure of my arrival date to Yorktown. Mark seemed more certain of his next few days. I didn't want to promise myself anything that I couldn't keep -- too many variable out of my control

The night got very dark and by 2200 hrs I was ready to point my bike towards a motel. There were plenty up ahead at Newbern. Mark and I could see each others riding lights and I could see the debate in Marks head as I announced my will to stop. It was only 9 miles to the next town and I probably should have pushed on.

Mark couldn't resist the opportunity to share a fourth shelter with me. It must be my Canadian charm or how I always give him the best bed, but off to Hampton Inn we go. Actually the Hampton was the only hotel in the Route 81 exit that still had a room. I even got a military rebate for the both of us. Soggy pizza and warm beer later we were dreaming of Yorktown festivities

The distance covered that day, despite the hills, was longer than my daily average. I guess the pull to Yorktown was getting stronger and we had covered just over 160 miles. There was still a little more than 400 miles to go. Did I have it in me to do 200 a day? We shall have to see.