real virginia!

group pic at state line. this is at the end of a steep climb - 9-12% i think. rest of the day was easy from this point.

team bibs only. kel in the back didn't have bibs on so he just went shirtless eventually. seth, nate, me, joe with kelton in back. we are trying to look tough. don't think it is working.

hiking team number 2 at the top of seneca rocks in menongahela state park (hindi translation "i shook naked"). me, nate, jen, seth. old lady on trail said to me "oh look at your arms, you are like vanilla and chocolate"


did you miss me? i missed you. sorry about the non-blogging, wv is not the best place to get internet. currently in front royal, virginia, essentially done with the ride except for the ceremonial atlantic ocean dip and a support day tomorrow.





last few days have been amazing. on thursday, we had a long 103 mile day from wherever i blogged last into elkins. it was really one of the more tough days because of a lot of climbing early, an early event in smithville and less than ideal road conditions (including people being run off the road by wv drivers - state is absolutely beautiful minus many of the people and cruel drivers).





next day was a short 60 something mile day from elkins into petersburg with an stop in seneca rocks where we took a nice hike up to the top. again, was a lot of climbing but the short mileage made it much more manageable. have to explain one of the pictures here. we have been joking about riding "bibs only" for some time meaning no jersey, simply wearing the shorts that have straps that go over your shoulders (similar to a wrestling singlet). the sun was shining, we only had 22 miles left in the day so a group of us decided to do it and wow did we get some odd looks. was fun though, evening events included pizza hut pitchers and pizza and bowling. finished the day at this fairgrounds where they were nice enough to place us where they auction off the animals and, get this, there was a circus setting up right next to us. i have to admit i was a little freaked out with the place we were staying and also because of the circus-folk. i slept in the van that night.





today was another beautiful one. we left petersburg and hit a couple nice big climbs to start the day and conclude our mountain adventures. i should have been exhausted today considering it was supposed to be my support day (switched with joe so he can ride tomorrow) and i skipped my last support day to ride into columbus. anyway, i was riding on pure emotion today and tore up the hills despite my body asking me to stop. hit virginia, our 11th state around the 50 mile mark and finished around 75. tomorrow we arrive in washington, d.c.





internet connection is weak, i will try to post more pictures in the days to come. you will notice my tan lines are getting pretty bad. please don't call me a freak.

oh yeah, and that cup from the last blog said "coke". i swore it said "cola" and was actually impressed that the waitress wrote coke on one and cola on another to not confuse them when they got refills - i was impressed for no reason because it was supposed to say coke on both.