Today was day number three of real high mileage so we could hit our checkpoints and finish our trip on time. We woke up in the morning after a night with Scooba and it was pouring. We were trying to get an early start and bang out some mileage early in the day.
Flight from Beijing to New York. Bike from New York to Los Angeles. Limited English proficiency. Talk about guts. Nothing but respect.
Starting at Breaks it was absolutely pouring.
Lesson #86: Mother Nature is going to control things. Learn to work with her
We waited out the storm so we wouldn't be soaked all day. We had a beautiful ride today through Southwest VA going up and down the Appalachians. Beautiful sprawling farms.
Since we were going off route, we called cities in northern NC that we may be hitting, asking churches if we could throw our sleeping bags inside their church.
At lunch, we got a call back from Bruce, a Presbyterian pastor in Sparta, NC where we were trying to spend the following evening. After talking about our trip, the pastor offered to put us up in a hotel and give us a free dinner!
Lesson #87: You can always ask for requests, the worse someone could say is no.
Pastor Bruce wasn't even going to be in town. He simply said, "My only request is that you remember the hospitality of Sparta."
We knew we had to work hard to get to Sparta the next day.
After almost 90 miles, we rolled into Damascus, Va right on the Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina borders. I was really excited for this town as it's somewhat of a hub for outdoor enthusiasts in the Southeast.
The Appalachian Trail, the Creeper Trail--one of the most popular mountain bike trails in the nation-- and the TransAmerica trail all went through this little town.
It was really cool to see how this little town centered around outdoor pursuits so much. It had a great feel.
We stayed at a place called "The Place" which is a hostel run by the Methodist church in Damascus. As Damascus is one of the only towns the AT runs through. this was a super popular hostel and it was fun staying there and hearing the stories about some of the thru-hikers who had gone through earlier that year.
No comments:
Post a Comment