Blogs

Some riders fear the West Virginia leg of the trip and some thrive on it. Today was day 2 biking through the beautiful but often daunting Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. While some hills feel like an escalator, stretching for a mile or more at a moderate grade, others are more like roller coasters, with many dips, slants, and steeper slopes. Regardless of the exact conditions of the hill, though, there may be no greater feeling to a cyclist than grinding away until your glutes and thighs burn and then finally looking up to see nothing but sky as the road folds over itself at the top of the hill. Then comes the relaxation that accompanies the exhilarating downhill as your heart rate finally comes down a bit and your legs seem to melt down from the seat to the pedal.

Today the R4WH team was greeted with a beautiful mountain morning after our wonderful stay at the Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, WV.  Our dorm rooms were situated on a vista overlooking the stately historic buildings of the college and the majestic misty mountains beyond.  The team rolled out for a challenging 60 mile day to Petersburg, WV.

We had a great turnout at the solidarity ride today! Thanks to everyone for your support and for some great conversations!

The weather was again on our side today. The day started cool and dreary, and everyone fully expected a downpour. By the time the solidarity ride started, however, the sun came out full blast, and it really felt like a typical summer day. After doing either 25 or 40 miles of riding around Northeast Columbus, the riders were greeted by a full spread of subs, burritos, noodles, bagels, fruits, and veggies.

The team departed Mammoth Cave National Park bright and early this morning at 6:45am after an evening of fairly severe raining and thunderstorms. The morning consisted mostly of drizzling, rolling hills, and beautiful fauna and flora.

We even unexpectedly entered Hodgenville, the birthplace and boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln.

In order to beat the heat, the group got off to an early start this morning.  The roads of Tennessee continued to be very well maintained and provided some stretches of rolling hills and green surroundings...although others did not handle the heat as well.

Hello from Milan (MY-Len), TN! We departed the Memphis suburb of Germantown early this morning for a 98 mile ride in the most heat and humidity we have experienced so far on the ride. The road was smooth and beautiful, however, which helped the riders survive. We also passed some interesting sights today.

Tonight finds us in the town of Marvell for a final night in Arkansas.  Our ride out of Little Rock this morning came with a nice surprise: along part of our route we were sharing the road with another group of riders training for the Tour de Rock, a local bike ride coming up soon.  We in the support van had a great time chatting with some of them who passed by our rest stop.  They were really supportive and hopefully we'll get a chance to connect with their club again in the future.

Yesterday, we rode about 40 miles from Hot Srings, AR to Little Rock, AR -- a pretty short day by R4WH standards. Yet, somehow, we had 7 flats! Liz alone had 3 flats, much to her chagrin. 

Some call her the Queen of Flats