Day 75
August 15, 2005
Well, hopefully you got a little taste of how it felt to cross into VA yesterday. My sister said the entry was pretty cheesy, but in a good way of course – of course... I knew it was a rather excited account of the event, but I went ahead and posted it anyway – trying to keep you right here beside me…
As hard as it was, I did finally fall asleep after a long time of thinking about everything. Putting on that song and “re-living” the ride of the afternoon was like pounding a 2-liter of Mt Dew, I was wired; I was up for at least another hour. But it was good. It’s so funny to take a look at your current situation and trace back all circumstances that lead to you ending up right there.
Last night I camped out behind an Exxon gas station. I played around with a few other lodging options but ultimately found myself riding around Grundy in the dark with no viable plan. I headed down to a little town a mile out of Grundy called Vansant and stopped in the gas station to see if they had any ideas. I hung out with the lady and kicked around ideas. She finally called someone who suggested I just crash out back. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that,” she said, “Yeah, Arnold may come through, but he’s harmless, you’ll be fine.” Arnold is an older gentleman who rides his bike to and from the bar down the road; it just so happens the gas station is halfway on his route to his house. She told me it wasn’t uncommon for him to stop there on the way home and sleep out back as well.
So, as I closed my laptop in this slightly overgrown grassy alley, with two commercial air conditioners trying their best to lull me to sleep under the blue hue of the fluorescent lights above, once again I began to think of the craziness of the situation and how unbelievable it was. That led to me thinking of how incredible the whole trip itself has been, which led to specifics within the trip, which led to how the trip was conceived, which led back to Stephen, which led to – you get the picture…
I never got to meet Arnold; it’s probably a good thing. I’m sure he would have scared me half to death, rolling up while I’m camped out in his favorite spot, on my laptop computer no less…
This morning I woke up, packed up, and got on the road. There was a thick fog lying in the hills this morning, it was pretty nice. It made for some great views as the sun, still golden, broke through the fog and lit up the hills in the distance. It was another nice morning ride. I ended up cutting the day a little shorter than I had planned. Instead of a longer day today and tomorrow to get to Blacksburg tomorrow, I decided to break it down into thirds. Now I’ll be able to get to Blacksburg at a nice hour on Wednesday to hang out and enjoy the town a little more.
I ended up in Tazewell, VA. It seems to be a nice little town. Tomorrow I’ll head toward Blacksburg and see how far I get.
Today: 48.55 Total: 3,518.15
Well, hopefully you got a little taste of how it felt to cross into VA yesterday. My sister said the entry was pretty cheesy, but in a good way of course – of course... I knew it was a rather excited account of the event, but I went ahead and posted it anyway – trying to keep you right here beside me…
As hard as it was, I did finally fall asleep after a long time of thinking about everything. Putting on that song and “re-living” the ride of the afternoon was like pounding a 2-liter of Mt Dew, I was wired; I was up for at least another hour. But it was good. It’s so funny to take a look at your current situation and trace back all circumstances that lead to you ending up right there.
Last night I camped out behind an Exxon gas station. I played around with a few other lodging options but ultimately found myself riding around Grundy in the dark with no viable plan. I headed down to a little town a mile out of Grundy called Vansant and stopped in the gas station to see if they had any ideas. I hung out with the lady and kicked around ideas. She finally called someone who suggested I just crash out back. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that,” she said, “Yeah, Arnold may come through, but he’s harmless, you’ll be fine.” Arnold is an older gentleman who rides his bike to and from the bar down the road; it just so happens the gas station is halfway on his route to his house. She told me it wasn’t uncommon for him to stop there on the way home and sleep out back as well.
So, as I closed my laptop in this slightly overgrown grassy alley, with two commercial air conditioners trying their best to lull me to sleep under the blue hue of the fluorescent lights above, once again I began to think of the craziness of the situation and how unbelievable it was. That led to me thinking of how incredible the whole trip itself has been, which led to specifics within the trip, which led to how the trip was conceived, which led back to Stephen, which led to – you get the picture…
I never got to meet Arnold; it’s probably a good thing. I’m sure he would have scared me half to death, rolling up while I’m camped out in his favorite spot, on my laptop computer no less…
This morning I woke up, packed up, and got on the road. There was a thick fog lying in the hills this morning, it was pretty nice. It made for some great views as the sun, still golden, broke through the fog and lit up the hills in the distance. It was another nice morning ride. I ended up cutting the day a little shorter than I had planned. Instead of a longer day today and tomorrow to get to Blacksburg tomorrow, I decided to break it down into thirds. Now I’ll be able to get to Blacksburg at a nice hour on Wednesday to hang out and enjoy the town a little more.
I ended up in Tazewell, VA. It seems to be a nice little town. Tomorrow I’ll head toward Blacksburg and see how far I get.
Today: 48.55 Total: 3,518.15
posted by SuperByron3000 at 8/15/2005
1 Comments:
congrats on making it to VA!!! Woohoo!!! :)
Natalie K
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