Wednesday, August 9, 2000

Today we rode our bicycle from Glade Spring, VA to Wytheville, VA, a distance of 44 miles. The road was fairly level (level is a relative term, we climbed 1,540 feet in that 44 miles) and we had a tail wind but my legs complained about being tired from the very first revolution of the bicycle pedals. Last night Mary Kay thought that if we got to Wytheville before 1:00 PM we should travel another 20 miles before finding a place to stay for the night. We got to Wytheville at noon and I suggested that we just find a motel and give our legs some extra rest. All of the steep, continuous hills that we came over for the last 3 or 4 days have taken their toll on our bodies. She agreed.

We ate lunch in downtown Wytheville and then rode the bicycle to the intersection of interstate highways 81 and 77. We rented a motel room, gathered our laundry together to do in the motels guest laundry and put the bicycle in the sun to try to get it dry after yesterdays rain. It is a funny feeling to sit down on a seat that looks dry only to get soaked to the skin because all the foam rubber in the seat is full of rainwater. The bike bag on the back of my seat was wet because we had to open it during the rainstorm to get out raincoats and put in the camera and cellular phone. The pack on the Blackburn rack is not water resistant and it was very wet inside. Hopefully, the sun will dry up all of the moisture.

When we started riding the bicycle this morning the temperature was 64 degrees and the relative humidity was 94%.