Sunday, August 06, 2000

Today we entered Virginia, the last state that we will be riding our bicycle through. We rode our bicycle from Hindman, KY to Breaks Interstate Park in VA. The ride was very difficult. It went up three climbs that were so steep it was difficult to walk up the hill while pushing the bicycle. To make matters worse, my legs were tired before the day started. My legs had not recovered from the effort required to move the bicycle through the state of Kentucky. As Mary Kay said earlier, there is not one mile of flat road in the state of Kentucky. Today we rode 68 miles.

The weather was hot and muggy. There was little breeze and when we were walking the bicycle up the steep hills we were mobbed by little tiny insects. Because it was hot and muggy, we were both sweating very much. These tiny insects would swarm around our heads, -- a big nuisance. It sprinkled on us several time but we did not really get rained upon. However, as we finished one of those very hard climbs and started down the other side, the road was wet and we had to avoid several puddles. It has rained fairly hard just before we reached the top of the hill.

As we were coming down the first steep hill, the rear disk break began to make a lot of noise and near the bottom of the hill; it did not work very well. We came to a junkyard and stopped. We leaned the bicycle against one of the junked automobiles and I removed the disk break. I took out the calipers and one was pretty well worn out. I replaced it with another caliper that I was carrying, reinstalled and adjusted the disk break and off we went. We did not have any additional problems with the rear disk break. However, while I was working on the disk break, I noticed that one rear wheel spoke was very loose. I tightened it back up before we started up.

We arrived at Elkhorn City, KY and asked where the motel was. We were told that the best motel in the area was the “Gateway Motel”. It was just across the state line in Virginia, about 5 miles away. However, the only restaurant was a hamburger restaurant. The actual name of the motel was Gateway to the Breaks Motel. We called and got a room and then ate our supper in Elkhorn City before riding to the motel. Just before we ate, I went out to the bicycle to get the bicycle maps. A number of people were looking at the bicycle and I was answering their questions when I looked up and saw Paul, the gentleman from England. I shouted and he stopped. I explained about the motel and he came in and ate his supper with us. After we got to the motel we washed clothes and then walked across the street and had dessert with Paul.