Ride Day 26: Troutville, VA to Lynchburg, VA

Yesterday's ride was the best yet in the State of Virginia. The route not only had a nice shoulder for the duration but I had good weather and some beautiful scenery around the southern tip of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I also met some really nice folks along the way and I wish them the best. Thank you for your support.

Given that I had only 5 more days to reach my ultimate goal of Ground Zero by 9-11, I began to feel a bit anxious. I kept a steady pace and bearing knowing that one way or another the mission would be completed successfully. One thing that began to weigh heavy on my mind was the condition of my legs. While I enjoyed my day of rest and felt much better getting underway on Friday, my legs were still not completely recuperated. As I began climbing again around the Blue Ridge my legs simply did not want to cooperate. I could turn the pedals over but not with any amount of strength. I found myself being very thankful for the 10" gearing on the TerraTrike. While my morale was extremely high, I could not do anything about the condition of my legs.

My very good friend, Scott Gainer, lives and works in Dahlgren, VA just south of DC. Scott was in League City to see me off on 12 August while on vacation. First thing in the morning I called Scott and left a message that I was nearing his part of the Country and could use a little help catching up to my ride schedule. To my surprise and great relief, Scott had been following my progress on the blog and had already departed Dahlgren in an effort to intercept me and check on my progress. When we finally made contact, Scott was already in Charlottesville, VA only a few miles down the road... by Texas standards.

I had stopped in Bedford to have lunch around 1400hrs and while there made contact with Scott. We decided that since I was at a good rest stop and he just down the road that I would stay put and await his arrival. Scott arrived within an hour and we dropped the top on his jeep, strapped the TerraTrike to the sport bar and headed down the road to Dahlgren. En route Scott told me that he had been a bit worried about me traveling along Virginia roadways by bicycle, well, tricycle. He explained what I had already experienced in that Virginia does not build roads with cyclists in mind, nor do they build roads with any consistency to when they construct shoulders; shoulders come and go with no rhyme or reason appearing and disappearing along the same roadway. Additionally, the closer I got to the East Coast the traffic flow increased exponentially.

As we drove along the route that I had chosen to ride I immediately thought, "wow, if I were in any other situation I would never choose to ride along these thoroughfares." I also thought, "it's dangerous in a vehicle let alone on a recumbent bicycle." Just outside of Fredericksburg we were taken aback as we passed a happened-within-minutes-ago motorcycle accident where the bike, or pieces of the bike were plastered up against a guardrail and some motorists were beginning to clamber down the embankment to the river in an apparent attempt to reach the rider. We made it safely to Scott's residence after stopping at Tim's for some steamed oysters and fish tacos and I had no problem drifting off to sleep on the couch.

This morning we are double checking the route maps and settling on a place where Scott can drop me off so that I can avoid DC and Baltimore holiday traffic and be able to make NYC on time. I feel much better about being able to successfully complete this mission. Thank you all for your support. Thank you, Scotty, for looking out for me and helping me make the end goal.

Enjoy the Ride!