found a warmshowers host that let me set up my tent on his front porch.
A cool sunny day made riding Sunday wonderful. Mostly flat roads into the North Carolina countryside. I felt like I was really getting in shape. Killed some mileage with some speed.
It was the greatest feeling crawling into a tent when the rain is coming down hard all around you.
Donnie and His wife Sarah live in this house. They were really cool and have had awesome adventures with each other. They rode a tandem bike cross country and hiked the entire AT together.
They had just had a baby one month ago.
That's Donnie on the right and his baby girl named Piper. The guy holding the baby was Jon. Jon bike across the country twice in the 80's-before smartphones.
They Bought me dinner and had some friends over for beers. Good times. I felt so good after drying out and getting much need encouragement from everyone I met that night. Thanks again for that!
Made my way into Mooresville on Monday. Stayed with another warmshowers host who has completed multiple shorter US cycling tours and European tours with his wife.
Eric was on his way back from Mississippi the day I called, but told me I could set up camp in his backyard. Had. Couple of drinks with him and his wife over some good conversation. They made me some amazing coffee the next morning. Eric gave me some great suggestions for routes once I cross into Tennessee. He even offered me a ride out of the busy morning traffic- which was awesome. I was really fortunate that he let me stay on such short notice. Thanks again Eric!
I was going to take 3 days to get to Asheville. I talked to my buddy Chardon (who i use to work with at True Timber) Monday night and he Told me that I should make it in 2 days because be was having a party. That was my motivation.
Put in about 85 miles on Tuesday to get to the base of the blue ridge mountains.
(Sweet mural!)
A banana between an English muffin makes great banana bread.
I made it to the campsite right before dark. It was an RV campground but the owner told me he would give me a discount for just a tent. (I was surrounded by RV's)
The field use to be a driving range. I thought I was going to be swinging some golf clubs that night until I realized it had closed down.
The owner of the campground was Dan.
He had purchased the campground from his father. I really enjoyed talking to him about traveling and his business. He was really smart and had a lot of good things to say about life. He loves riding motorcycles and dreams of doing the Pacific Coast someday. Thanks for hooking me up with some camping!
(Dan)
So this morning I set out to do one of the hardest rides of my life.
I called a lot of people back home on Sunday. Hills and Mountains get me worked up. But I was reminded that its not a race, slow down and enjoy "every leaf that you pass by" I was feeling really
motivated after all of the encouragement and just catching up with friends.
I would be climbing thousands of feet up to Mt Mitchell via rt 80 and the blue ridge parkway. (the highest peak east of the Mississippi). Well, it was 2-3 miles up more switchbacks to the peak, but I made it to about 5800ft in elevation. A very hard climb. I was just moving at a snails pace.
Anyways- I made it to the parkway. After 10 miles from my campsite. About an hour and 1/2 of steep climbing.
The rest of the 13 mile climb up the mountain (via parkway) was slow and brutal. It doesn't help the each mile of the parkway is marked when you are doing 3-5 mph carry tons of gear. I was working 5x as hard to be reminded every mile how slow I was and how much further I would have.
Makes you realize a lot of work was put into making this scenic road.
The views made it all worth the climb
I did it. The 2nd half of the ride was almost all downhill. Hitting speeds of almost 40mph.
All the way into Asheville..
(#sickselfiebrah!)
I made it to Brent's apartment then rode into town for some dinner. Made it over Chardon's house for a really cool violin performance in his back yard.
If you like Andrew Bird.. This guy played some really good tunes and did a lot of looping. (Multiple recordings over each other to make the song sound like multiple people are playing).
This was an awesome portable house that was in his back yard. I think a few people were living in it. It had everything that you would need.
Resting up in Asheville for a few days then its through the mountains to Tennessee!
