Day 11: Buchanan to Roanoke, VA (20 miles)

After yesterday's rest day - which consisted of sitting by the pool (not in it, because it was being cleaned or something) and blogging in the sun, playing fetch with the motel border collie, watching Darma & Greg and Family Guy, and eating multiple candy bars - we woke up early and were on the road by 6:50am. One of our earliest days. That means we'll make some pretty good mileage!

Getting on the road early is good in theory. We used to want to get on the road by 6am, which would mean waking up by 5 or 5:30 for us normal bikers. Anna and Aaron, however, take 2 - 3 hours to prepare in the morning. I don't know if it's the B.O.B. trailer (Beast of Burden, aka "The Yak"), which is hard to pack and unpack, but they are slow to get ready. Tony and I can wake up late and be ready in 20 or 30 minutes depending on how much we rush. Anyway, we've decided that waking up before 6 is too difficult. Maybe it's all the TV watching at night. The motels, aside from being expensive, lend themselves to a lot of TV watching. None of us have cable TV at home, or even broadcast TV, so when relaxing in the motels we take advantage. So it's hard to wake up early. Most times we wake up between 8 and 10 and are on the road between 10 and noon. Not a great schedule. So this morning when we were on the road before 7am, we were pretty excited. But like I said, getting on the road early is good in theory, but it's actually pretty damn cold for bike riding at 7 in the morning. We put on our jackets for the first hour or so to prevent freezing.

We had a light breakfast, which means 1 banana, so we stopped at a country store for a breakfast sandwich. They had regular breakfast sandwiches, on regular bread, and breakfast biscuits which you could order with sausage or ham, egg, and cheese. My conversation with the lady at the counter went something like this:

"I'll have a biscuit sandwich, with ham, egg and cheese."

"Well do you want a biscuit or a sandwich?"

"I want a biscuit sandwich."

"A sandwich has bread. Sounds like you want a biscuit."

"Just open the biscuit and put the stuff inside of it."

Although they don't understand the nomenclature, they did make a great biscuit breakfast sandwich. With the sandwiches and chocolate milk as our fuel, we were off to Christiansburg, about 60 miles away!

On the way, we met some other cross country bicyclists. A group Brits who had SAG support (i.e. a support van following them the whole way with their gear) were riding the opposite direction. In other words, they are almost done with their trip. We can't wait for the day when we are the ones almost done with our trip, and come across a group who's just starting out. It wasn't the first time we'd heard it, but they warned us about the dogs in Kentucky. In general dogs haven't been a problem, except for one instance near Charles City, VA. Aaron went far ahead and then turned left into a dirt driveway to turn around and wait for us, but instead of stopping he suddenly started to pedal furiously towards us with 2 dogs chasing him. Luckily a truck came along and began to honk at the dogs and scared them away. Another time, we turned onto a road and saw a team of 4 or 5 dogs on the street a few hundred feet away. They were white with black spots, and from that distance Anna thought they were humongous - "They're the biggest dogs I've ever seen! I think they may be cows!" We decided to speed past them and hope for the best, and it turned out that they were the cutest little dogs you ever saw. They couldn't have been more than a year old. They made you want to just get off your bike and go pet them. Kentucky, however, has a reputation for unleashed angry dogs. We are planning to get dog spray just in case. These Brits assured us that dogs were not as much of a problem as people say... but I think we'll buy the spray just in case.

A little later we ran into another group of 4 guys who were riding cross country. They are going the same way as we are, only faster. They have an injury too, so they are taking it easy and are aiming for Christiansburg today like us.

After they left, we started to rethink our goals. We have an injury too. Anna has had a sinus infection for a few days now, and the Blue Ridge completely exhausted her. So we looked at the map and decided that Roanoke would be a good idea. We could be there by 12:30, book a room, and relax. The journey is more important than the destination, and if any of us are overworked then it just starts to feel like... well... work. So it's off to Roanoke! Only a few miles away!

In Roanoke we booked a room at the Howard Johnson (HoJo) near the Roanoke Airport. Then we rode our unloaded bikes to lunch at Red Robin for chocolate malts, burgers, and beers (both root and ale). Next to the Red Robin was a clinic where Anna received antibiotics while Tony and I napped on the grass outside. Hopefully Anna's sinuses won't get in the way of her bike riding anymore!


After our nap, we went to Wal-Mart for some groceries, biked to hotel to shower, and took a cab to the movies to watch The Incredible Hulk. After the movie was over we noticed that Get Smart was starting right away so... we had a double feature night. Then we went back to the Red Robin for dessert, where our waiter told us about his friend who was recently hit by a car while riding his bike through an intersection. This is the most common type of bicycle accident. The waiter was really interested in our trip and proceeded to tell everyone in the kitchen about it. We don't usually make it a point to tell every single person we meet about our trip, but maybe we should. Everyone we tell gets very excited about it. It's a good way to spread joy and excitement, and a great ice-breaker.

We called a cab to drive us home, but after waiting 45 minutes we decided to walk home the mile instead. Unfortunately I don't have too many pictures of this day - I guess I was having too much fun!