Day 7: Our First Rest Day, And A Plan Devised

Blacksburg, VA

Stats! (from yesterday)
Miles biked: 20.0
Total miles biked: 254.3
Max speed: 25 mph
# of meltdowns: 3 or 4 (all Meredith)

So, yesterday was tough. I mean it was TOUGH. We'd gone through our difficult day 4, decided to soldier on, had a great day 5 on gentle terrain, and thought all was well.

Then we hit the day 6 terrain. We are still in the mountains. The hills are what they call roller-coaster hills, which means that as you ascend, you can kind of tell that you're up high, and that the bottom is surely down there somewhere, but until you summit, you can't see the actual road, because it's too steep. The climbs that we could do were debilitatingly exhausting, but there were a lot that we had to walk. It was broiling hot, passing cars were jerks, I still had heat rash on my leg and saddle sores on my butt, and five miles into our ride, I blew out my left quad. I guess I pulled it? Not sure, but it was in serious pain.

One of the easy hills

It was a grueling, miserable day. I broke down and told Dean that I couldn't do one more day. I could not possibly do another day of these terrible hills. And after the Appalachian mountains come the more treacherous Alleghenys, and then the Ozarks. Three consecutive mountain ranges, covering hundreds of miles with no end in sight.

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. I don't want to be miserable on our honeymoon. I thought we'd just gear down for the mountains and cover them slowly, but with 40 lbs of gear on a steep mountain, no gear is low enough. It kills your muscles, it sucks all your breath until you're wheezing, and you're still only a quarter of the way up.

Dean and I talked about our options. I told him I could not do Kentucky. It is notoriously the worst part of the trail (as far as countless consecutive steep ascents and descents go), and I was miserable already. We talked about trading in our bikes for a motorcycle, we talked about taking the money and doing something completely different, we talked about biking the east coast only, and lots of other things.

Ultimately we decided to once again take my parents' offer of a rescue mission. They are coming tomorrow to take us to Carbondale, Illinois. I told Dean that I couldn't do Kentucky, but that I could do the Ozarks. As long as we never do more than a 25 mile day in the treacherous parts, and we can take as many rest days as we need. He said okay.

We checked the maps, and it looks like we'll have about 8 days of tough biking through the Ozarks, going at the pace I'm willing to go. Some days will be 10 mile days, even. With the tough terrain, it will still be really hard, but once we hit Iowa, it will be smooth, flat biking all the way to the Rockies.

We decided to figure out what to do about the Rockies when we get there.

Today has been a nice rest day. We walked around Blacksburg and around the Virginia Tech campus. I showed Dean all my old haunts. It's odd to go somewhere you lived a long time ago. It's all very familiar and jarringly different at the same time. I was really excited that we got to go up Slusher Tower and see my Freshman dorm room (all the dorm rooms were open, for cleaning maybe?).

For the VT alums, Our Daily Bread and Backstreets are still here (hi, Etienne), we're going to the Cellar tonight for dinner and we went to China Inn last night. Slusher is now co-ed, which is weird, but my room looked just the same. Ton 80's going strong, as is Gillie's. Sharkey's is now next door to where it used to be (Arnold's), and there's a theater on College Ave now (not the Lyric, but some modern student arty theater). The Lyric is alive and well. It's all very familiar. I think this would be a great place to live and raise a family, but there's nothing really for Dean to do here, so I guess Rockville it is. :)

Despite our difficult day and our differing expectations, I think we're both happy with the decision. We love each other and we're determined to make this a good honeymoon for both of us. The next week or two will be hard (depending on how many rest days we need), but I think we'll be glad we decided to keep going when we hit the flatlands.

Since we're driving quite a long way tomorrow, I may not post. More once we're in Illinois.