5/4/01
Out on the road again, I quickly remembered how freaking hard it is to pedal a 120-pound bicycle up a hill. Actually, I remembered how difficult it is to pedal a 120-pound bicycle up 497 hills in a row in sweltering 90-degree heat. The climbing was pretty impressively awful as I struggled up the side of a huge mountain, trying to reach the Blue Ridge Parkway. At times I wondered how riding the bike could be so hard. Then I remembered the 20-pound laptop I am carrying so that I can update your lazy butts while you sit back there on a sofa, eating bonbons and watching Everybody Loves Raymond.
Sorry, I'm not really this bitter. Oh wait, yes I am. Here's a picture:
Okay, that was fun. Back to climbing up the mountain. I am now certain that I should have asked for lower gearing on my bike. I limped along until I reached the home of June Curry, the Cookie Lady. The Cookie Lady has been offering cyclists water, cookies and a place to stay for over 25 years, and I was hoping that the cookies could revive me. When I knocked on her door, she showed me to her biker house, which was literally covered with postcards and memorabilia from around the world. All of the postcards came from cyclists that she had helped over the years, and they were divided into sections by country and year. She even had a section of wedding announcements from cyclists that had met and fallen in love while crossing the country by bicycle. All together now: Awwwwww.
The house was great and had so much to look at, with newspaper clippings and magazine articles about various TransAm cyclists and the Cookie Lady. The Cookie Lady then sat me down and told me in no uncertain terms that it was too late (and too hot) for me to attempt the Blue Ridge that day. She strongly suggested that I stay the night in her biker hostel, free of charge. Standing in her wonderful little house, looking out of her window at a blazing hot roadway that wound up the steepest mountain in the Appalachian chain, I realized that this was a moment where I could step up to the challenge and kick a little butt. Instead, I ate some cookies and took a nap. I'm telling you, this adventure-of-the-open-road stuff really wears you out.
Here's another picture:
Back to my nap. I woke up and spent the evening checking out all the Cookie Lady's memorabilia, then I found out that the temperature would be 15 degrees cooler the next day. I also ate some mac and cheese. How's that for detail?