Changing Gears: Rey's Ride Across America

July 22nd — Rosedale, VA to Hillsville, VA — 122 miles When Joan and I talked about the route today, we knew that we had a lot of climbing ahead of us for the first 50 miles to finish getting over the Appalachian Mountains. What we didn't realize was how narrow the roads would be, and since Joan had to drive a 30-ft. RV it was really interesting as the morning progressed.

As I was making the first ascent over the mountains, I realized that the road was getting very narrow and eventually deteriorated to one lane. The route was paved but with no guard rails and a drop-off of a few hundred feet to the right. I was worrying a bit about Joan and the RV ahead of me. It turns out that at one point Joan had to make a tricky move to let opposing traffic get up the mountain as she was descending the other side. The grades were very steep (around 10%), and we didn't end our climb until we logged 55 miles and were finally over the range.

The second half of the day was rolling hills that became more level as we increased the distance from the mountains. We eventually arrived at Hillsville around 4:45 p.m. with one long day but feeling good about the fact we are 3 days away from the coast. 9 hours on the bike today.