An interesting day. Rode through Buchanan (pronounced "Buckanan" to Buena Vista (pronounced "Byuna Vista") where I camped for the first time. In Buchanan, Hal Severn happened to see me from the passenger seat of his motor home. He called to me and we talked while he gassed up his rig, which took a really long time. First camp-out.

[5/21 Update] A perfect day for riding. Not too hot. Not too cold. Beautiful scenery, no traffic. What more could you ask for? Buchannan is a pretty little place with a drug store/soda fountain hardware store, coffee shop Cafe clothing store, two banks and a grocery store. I called Elaine on my cell phone while sitting on the steps of a restaurant that was closed. Church let out at noon and all these well dressed adults walked by me smiling in what seemed condescending bewilderment. Who is this guy wearing tight stretchy pants with an outrageous jersey?

As I walked down to the gas station to get a V8 juice a voice said "Aren't you from San Luis Obispo?" It was Hal Severn on a Motorhome Caravan Trip. We talked while he was filling up his tank so we had 15 min or so to talk. He said he should be back in SLO the first week in July.

Today was the first day on the whole trip that I saw
a bumper sticker opposing our actions in Iraq. Typical of the bumper stickers and yard signs that I have seen so far are "I trust and pray for George W Bush"; "Gun Control means using both hands"

I camped that night at a church campground. No sooner had I got my tent up than the wind started to blow.

Hard windy ride to Christiansburg, a total of 67.7 miles at 8.9 miles an hour. A rough day. Ate my first pancakes at roadside café full of "good old boys."

[5/21 Update] It was another beautiful day but it was so windy that the beauty was lost on me. The wind made a swishing sound in my ears. I couldn't hear the birds. it was hard to hear the cars coming up behind me. Also it was very hilly and the wind made climing the hills all the harder. I don't like to sound like a whiner but when you can't even go fast downhill, there is a problem. I love pancakes but this morning was the first day of the trip where I had some (and they weren't very good). I stumbled onto a shrine to Dale Earnheart posing as a restaurant. The eggs were good even if the pancakes were not. The good old boys kept coming in and getting coffee and talking. They asked me how I liked the wind (did I detect a sadistic tone in their questions?) The subject was a deer that was hit by a car and was lying dead in someones front yard. The sheriff would not haul it away and the st highway department would only have a backhoe bury the deer right where it lay in this yard. Someone said "that house must be eaten pretty good to just let that deer lie there".

The road to Catawba was hard. Wind, trucks, hills. After about 12 miles I passed a cement plant. Turns out that's where all the trucks were going. The traffic was better after that. Catawba is close to the Applachain Trail and the store where I had potato chips and V8 juice sold T-shirts for hikers saying "this body did the trail"

At this point it was about 2:30 and my verage speed was 8.4 mph. Not impressive. But the ultimate humiliation was when I finally got to Christiansburg in the city limits there was a street so steep and straight that I had to get off and walk.

Another really hard day to Max Meadows. Rode 48 miles at 9.1 miles an hour. Headwinds all the way.

[5/21 Update] I got a late start today because I was so tired from yesterday and because I dreaded getting back out into the wind. And sure enough it was more of the same. Except that the hills were not quite so bad and I was able to average 9.1 mph. I was trying to get to Wytheville VA but it was another 20 miles and I was tired. Also at one point during the day I took a wrong turn and that cost me about 30 min and made me feel tired and whipped.

My progress was so slow that I stopped to calculate the size of my lowest gear (30"). I was thinking that maybe my gears were too big and that's why was having so much trouble with the hills, but I guess it is just the wind. The next day I met a guy in Meadowview who told me that the wind blew his mustang off the road as he was returning from his daughter's graduation. That made me feel better in that it validated my feelings about the wind.

A cold rainy day with lots of climbing. Had my first flat tire on a steep descent. It was raining hard and very cold so I looked for shelter. Went into a barn that was posted "No Trespassing." It took about 40 minutes to make the repairs as I was so cold and wet. Both tire and tub blew out. Lucky I had a spare tire. Rode a few more miles to a weird motel in Rosedale. Looks as if it's been closed for some time. I knocked on the office door anyway and it was answered by an old man who said "How are you?" I answered "Cold, hungry, wet, and tired. Do you have a room?" Dinner was pizza from the gas station across the street.

[5/21 Update] This could have been a good day. the wind was way down. I ripped off 23 miles good and early in the morning. Met an interesting guy, Hal, in Meadowview and we talked about politics, bluegrass music, and the old days. It looked like it was going to rain but I couldn't breakaway from this guy becasue he was so much fun to talk to. I had a big mountain coming up and I wanted to be over it before the rain began.
I finally said goodbye to Hal around 11:30 and rode through Meadowview. A few miles later I crossed the Clinch River (Ralph STanley fans take note) and was in the Clinch Mountains. The climb was steep and I was in my lowest gear grinding out the yardage. I stood up every now and then just to keep the speed up. About A mile from the top the rain came. My panniers were all proteted and my raincoat was ready. I was in control but had to keep climbing. At the top it got windy and there was thunder and lightning. I tried to get down off the top asap and kept my brakes on the whole trip down. it was raining so much I figured that my rims would not overheat and then suddenly there was a pop and my rear tire went flat. This was the worst time to get a flat: rain, no shelter, bags hanging all over my bike. But I finaly found an old barn that had not been occupied for some time - the entrance was blocked by a thhiick patch of weeds. I ignored the "no tresspassing" and "posted" signs and went inside. My tires suddenly picked up about a 1/2 inch of powder/dirt from the floor of the barn. So after taking off my bags and turning over the bike, I had to use my water to wash off the tires and even this simple chore seemed to take forever. Getting the rear tire ready to go again took me an hour and a half (TONY LEAP WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU WOULD HAVE COME IN SO HANDY). Working in the barn was not exactly laboratory conditions. I had to be careful where I set stuff down lest it get dirty or muddy. It was dark and it was tedious. I changed the tube only to learn that the tire had a hole in its side. I repeated the whole process again and used my spare tire. Finally I was ready to go but my shoes were covered with dirt and mud and I couldn't get into my pedals. I found a puddle by the road next to a bridge and tried to wash my shoes off - I had to wash the peadles too. I filled up a water bottle with puddle water and washed off the peadles. I set the water bottle down on the side railing of the bridge and eventually rode off leaving the bottle there. Oh well I still had two more bottles.

I limped into Rosedale and found the one motel in town. The office was closed but an old man came out of a room and "checked" me in. The check in process took about 30 min because he couldn't find the forms and then he didn't know what room to put me in. In the morning I noticed that some of the rooms in the motel had been rented out to small businesses (my room was next to the appalachain driving school) and that the old guy wasn't really running the place as a motel anymore. He must have taken pity on me because I'm sure I looked like a drowned rat. I slept from 5:30 to 9:00. Went outside looked at the lunar eclipse, called elaine, and then slept from midnight until 6:00 am. Lots of sleep for a 6 hour/night man.