Yesterday turned out to be a great day/evening. We arrived in Booneville early enough to catch the second half of the USA vs. England World Cup game - unfortunately the game ended in a 1-1 tie and both goals were scored in the first half. Today we also arrived in Berea early enough to catch the entire Germany vs. Australia soccer game.
Last night I was able to coordinate camping with some friends (Dan and Ben) from VT who are traveling cross country via motorcycle. They are heading towards CO and then north through all of the beautiful national parks. Their trip ends as they plan to swing through Canada and come back down past Niagara Falls.
The accomodations last night were pretty good as they included a shower and sheltered area. Our route leader for today, Matt Brinckman, started his quest towards becoming everyone's favorite route leader by waking up to cook us some bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits. Not too shabby!
Matt 1, Joe 0, and Bret 0.
On the same note - Mason 1 (for bringing us candy by bike in the Blue Ridge Mountains).
Our ride today was short compared to previous days, but we were still climbing a bunch of Appalachian hills/mountains. We actually officially have exited the Appalachian Mountains today with a wicked cool descent - I tried to video tape it with my camera but only got about 30 seconds out of a 3-4 minutes descent because I accidentally switched the camera from video mode to still picture mode while trying to maneuver it around my handlebars. Our traveling buddy Pepper, who manages the outdoor store in Damascus, VA, has been video taping a lot of the descents and I hope to steal some video from him eventually and post them somewhere.
(Leigh Graziano bombing down the hill!)A few things have become routine in the past week. First, chocolate milk is now the equivalent of cocaine for addictive drugs on the trip. Almost everyone drinks it as often as possible due to the fact that bottles contain between 2-4 servings and almost 800 calories along with calcium, protein, and delicious chocolate flavor.
Second, as facial hair becomes prevalent and shaving goes by the wayside, interesting mustaches and beard are starting to pop up. I will not unleash my secret facial hair concoction for a few days as I build up my base hair length. Others have taken the dive straight into local hillbilly fashion:
(sunglasses courtesy of Caleb King)I neglected to mention that a few days ago when we entered Damscus, VA we picked up a new cross country rider who is tagging along with us. We are still riding with Pepper and the flight attendant Rich from Ohio, but a young man fresh out of high school named RJ is tagging along with BUS4MS. He is raising awareness for autism with his ride and is having a lot of fun along the way. He has a helmet mounted camera and is capturing some sweet video during the rides. A few of his highlights include capturing great descent videos and also taping a few dogs harassing him while slowly grinding uphill in KY. I will also try to get a copy of those videos someday!
I hope everyone enjoyed the first special edition publication of the trip via some other bloggers. I will try to add a few of those here and there to highlight different parts of the trip you may have questions about. If you can think of any questions pertaining to the trip or how things operate feel free to comment on the blog and make some suggestions.
Peace out for today!
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