Trip quote so far

"35 cent for a fudge round!!! you can't beat that BROTHER"
"BORED?! your moms bored. I'd be bored if i were in Target!"
"Yo your just a dirty fat boy!"

Monday, May 12, 2008

Catch Up Time

So quick explaination for the recent lag... thursday get to library that randomly closes at 1pm on thursdays. go figure. Friday finally get to Hindman but its an hour after the Lib closes. Not a problem well just get it in the morn. Well saturday wake up and the library doesnt open on the weekend. i guess no learning can take place on the weekends duh. then saturday we dont pass a library and sunday is mothers day! but now ill start the catching up...

so first off our cities we've stayed in that some are wanting to know.
Day 1- harrisonburg --> Stuarts Draft (i know wrong turn in there)
Day 2- stuarts draft --> Troutville
Day 3- troutville --> some place in the country
Day 4- some place in the country --> Damscus
Day 5- Damscus -->Haysi
Day6- Haysi --> Hindman
Day 7- Hindman -->Boonville
Day 8 Boonville--> Berea
Day9 Berea--> someplace far far away (aka not there yet)

aight well Thursday was by far our BEST day!! first there was an old preacher like man at he top of a hill that offered us some drinks that we more than willingly took. he talked real old man stylish and gave us life lessons; priceless. then we hit Jefferson National Forest. awesome. we climbed up mount rogers which was our "favorite" climb if there could be such a thing. had an EPIC waterfall romp/ bathe and clean our clothes session. see pic. then after the climb was like a 30 min downhill to Damascus. very awesome. we hit 43 mph and with a trailer behind almost had an accident. at the crest of the mountain we came across A) the Appalachian trail. and B) a couple on a tandem going across country with a recently retired mom driving an RV. what an idea!! on top of our awesome day, when we reached Damascus there was a Hostile. our first hostile stay and to say the least, the people at a hostile are anything but hostile. Hostile rough def-free place to stay usually provided by a church along a highly traveled path.

When we woke in the hostile we packed up and hit up some dairy King for breakfast. the two oldest ladies we have ever scene were eating there as well so you know it had to be good. the trek there for those ladies most have been as hard as our full day of riding. out of Damascus we had a climb, only to be continued by more the whole day. we had 3 mountain climbs in which the 3rd around 5 or 6 in the afternoon was straight up!!! not what you like to see after climbing all day. but our thunder thighs made it just fine. one of the mountains was called Big A mountain. it was actually the easiest of the day but still a funny name. towards the end of the day we were really tired and it had started raining. this was our first rain session but it was warm so it want that bad. but we hit the town of Haysi and all we wanted to do was find a place to set up camp. after asking some ladies in the local grocery store, the pointed us to a shelter in the heart of this tiny downtown area. when we got there it was perfect. a gazebo with about a 10 foot radius. we pulled all our stuff in and got some dry clothes on. we then made Bologna sandwiches until dark and crawled into our sleeping bags, praying to to be disturbed by the local PO. when we woke we just made breakfast out of our sleeping bags nice and dry and then headed out shortly after.

Day 5 was enough climbing so we thought for sure we were going to have an easier day. well truth be told it was more of those darn mountains called the Appalachian. we just gritted our teeth and started singing. you'd be surprised on the songs that just pop in your head that need to be proclaimed to the world. I'm pretty sure this is the day we hit Kentucky!!!! it was really weird leaving Virginia. in the town of lookout we ran across these two guys from the Netherlands. very cool people. Tjan and Minnow. there on recumbents and you can see them in the pic. were actually playing a little leap frog with them still. we crush them climbing but the downhills and windy days they catch up. there nice guys though. T received his first flat of the trip climbing up an awful highway but we took care of it and life went on. darn staple!! the both of us had our first little mental "ugh" in the morning but keeping our glasses half full, we quickly pulled ourselves out of it. we think it was the whole being out of Virginia thing and the mix of some not so friendly people something or another. we don't really know. the day passes and we reach the town of hindman. we try to sneak to this baptist church way on top of a hill but come to find out, the pastor lived below the church and was vacuuming until 9pm or so. so we got the hint and went and camped out behind the library, with all intentions of catching you guys up. but as mentioned before, we got owned.

from hindman we headed towards Booneville. this included some awful roads again. in the beginning, Kentucky was way in the negatives for good points. sad note, we were cresting a mountain and we thought we saw some road kill, but it came to be a dog that had recently been hit. the saddest thing we have ever scene. so we rode past thinking we couldn't do anything and low and behold, there was a animal shelter sign not even 200 feet past the dog. so we both agreed we had to at least tell them and a guy went up and picked up the dog and rushed it back. so in the back of our minds the dog could still be alive!!! this was probably the climax of our crappy Kentucky. from then on the roads turned into minimal traffic, sweet windy rolling hills, and the weather was perfect. on top of this we hit our first 500 miles!!! we got to Booneville around 5 30 ish and we decided we were going to treat ourselves right. so we found an awesome church that had set up a sweet facility with a shower and camping area that worked out very nicely and we were going out for dinner and a possible brew dog! well all showered up and hungry we went into a diner restaurant thing, and found out IT WAS A DRY COUNTY!!!!!! i thought those only existed in old country music songs. So we got some noodles and headed back and made a big fat meal. Tjan and Minnow ended up there that night as well so we hung out and chatted it up talking how awful American bread is. they were literally discussed beyond belief at our bread, as T and I ate like a whole loaf with our dinner :) opps.

well that brings us to day 8. the WORST DAY EVER. completely miserable. we woke up and it had rained throughout the night but thankfully, wasn't when we woke. we packed up and headed into town for a bite to eat. while eating, the sky turned BLACK and the heavens fell. rain and wind like you wouldn't believe. it ended up being a tornado warning for surrounding counties so we buckled down for an hour or so and let it pass. it cleared and bit and we decided to hit the road. we had about an hour of just wind probably around 40 mph gust that would just stop you in your tracks. but we kept truckin. then the rain started. wasn't that bad. about an hour into it, it really came so T and I found Tjan hunkered down in a little pull off road with pretty ample protection. us three waited that out and then decided we weren't getting any warmer sitting so we hit the road. being this was around lunch time, we were going to just find a place to eat and hang out until the rain passed. well from Booneville allllllllllll the way to Berea not a single gas station, county store or anything. we had some skittles, and apple we spilt, little debbies and some crackers for lunch. talk about a well rounded meal. we were completely out of food. the rain kept up along with the winds. FINALLY in the town of big hill there was a store and Tjan and Minnow fed us some left over pizza and cheese sticks. we then made it to berea another 7 miles down the road after we got feeling back in our feet and hands. then huddled under an overhang of a really nice hotel, Jon a random chill hippie guy started talking to us. long story short he opened up his house to us and we got to sleep in a sick house with a HOT shower. and we got to throw all our wet clothes in the dryer! very crucial. after a awful day, the nice gesture of Jon in berea wiped all our worries away!! a huge thanks to Jon!!! he even left us oatmeal for the morning!

okay wayyyyyyyy too much writing has taken place and we need to hit the road if we are ever going to make it to our next destination. hope this caught you up.

Timon and Pumba

8 comments:

Annie said...

best parts of this:
1. life lessons from an old guy
2. finding out its a dry county. priceless!
3. chill hippie guy jon
i can just picture your reactions to all of those situations. that is too great. great photos too. t, i'm glad you're making use of that rain suit.

and with all the rain, it'll make you appreciate the great weather even more. keep on keepin on. -annie

Annie said...

and the dog story was touching. good job

Unknown said...

Ok I am going to need to request that those pictures be bigger next time....i want to see your face! I miss it!

Unknown said...

O but thanks for posting the cities!

Anonymous said...

Sweet!!! love ya,
your sis

Michael Dubovsky said...

dudes....i totally recall that stretch between booneville and berea....though minus the shit weather...that shelter in booneville was def one sweeeeet spot...glad hear things going well and keep takin things one day at a time....with each passin day ya'll are reeling in the west....keep on rockin

dubo

Unknown said...

"reelin in the west," i like that. thank God for Jon and all the people you will meet like that!! And the sweet dutch guys you keep meeting up with, thats so cool to have people around like that, to get left over pizza from! well i hope to get to talk to you on the phone soon, ill call u with my new govt phone # ;) see you in OR!!

Dan said...

yeah the library hours are just hilarious across the country...its always closed when you get there. Hope ya'll are having a good time all and all.