My First Rest

I made it to Asheville!
It took me 21 days, and 1300 miles.

I am currently staying at my friend Xenia's house near Warren Wilson College, indulging in food and friends.  I will be here for a week, and then hop on my bike again and head west.  This initial southern journey was sort of a test run, a shake-down cruise, to see if the rest of the trip would be possible.  I know that it definitely is, and even as waves of soreness catch up to me even after three days of rest I am excited to get back to cycling.

I will be riding with my friend Alexander Blume for the rest of the trip, and he is a great writer/editor so maybe I can get him to contribute words here.  No large stops are planned for the rest of the trip, but we will visiting as many people as we can between here and California.

The most picturesque spot at all of Wilson.

I didn't give myself a zero day until I arrived here, so my plans for the week include relaxing, delighting in food, showering, seeing friends, and modifying my bike to make it clipless and add bar-end shifters.  Also, Alexander is a big planner so he is making me figure out what the future looks like a little more.  We even have a rough itinerary now.  

An odd thing happened to me when I went for a walk with my friend Xenia earlier.  We went for a two mile loop or so, and halfway through it, as we were descending into a slight valley, I had the distinct impression that I was in fact going uphill.  I love it when my brain misfires like this, and try to analyze what I am feeling.  The impression persisted despite looking closely at the slope and verifying that I was going down.  I stopped moving so as to put my whole mind to the sensation, and then it hit me.  I have not had to work to go downhill in over three weeks.  Normally I just stop moving and pick up speed, but this time I distinctly wasn't.  The feeling lingered, a vague niggling in the back of my mind, for the rest of the walk.

Also, since I got my resupply box, I can upload some of the photos that were on my camera since the beginning.  These span my trip so far.

The first day! Dipped my rear tire in the Atlantic

Helen, my riding partner for the first three days

Our not-very-impressive 'America-by-memory's

On more reason not to trust Google Maps Bicycle Beta (this is a road)(this is also a pond)

Biking with my Triathal-aunt

Trying out other approaches

Visiting DC

Traveling solo through beautiful lands