Virginia

I have now been on the road for 2 days, and it has been a mixed start!

I was kindly dropped into the centre of Charlottesville by the hire car company (saving me a trip through the suburbs).  It was pretty scary to be just dumped in a car park with all my stuff, not really sure where I was heading.  I felt like a small boy being left at boarding school for the first time, and just wanted to chase the car as it left, so I could drive back to Washington!  The bike also felt very heavy when loaded, but I have got used to the feeling now.

The area around Charlottesville is very wealthy, and there were plenty of large houses.  An hour or so into the journey, I came across two other cyclists (mother and son) who told me they were doing the Trans America.  When I asked why they had no panniers or any luggage, the mother informed me that her other son was driving a support vehicle - I am very envious (this morning I posted some shorts back to Diane, as I have too much stuff and I am whittling down what I don't need).  I went ahead of them, but we met later that evening at my sleepover sight.

This was a famous lay over sight for Trans America cyclists called the Cookie Lady's Bike House.  Right on the route, it consists of a ground floor apartment with stacks of cycling memorabilia since 1976!  However, the Cookie Lady no longer runs it and it has definitely seen better days!  There was no electricity, and the house was filthy, with a very musty smell.  My fellow cyclists stopped for  bit, but the other son picked them up and they went off to a local hotel.  So I was left in the house, and felt very depressed!  Honestly, it was horrible.  I cooked pasta in the dark and slept on a sofa, which smelt like many people had done so before.  The only thing that kept me going was reading Clear Water Rising by Nick Crane, which emphases how hard the beginning of a adventure is.  He hiked for a year and a half from Santiago to Istanbul, just after getting married!  One day in and I was thinking of bailing!

I woke up this morning, and I found that mice had eaten the food I was given by the owners and excreted all over the kitchen.  The kitchen was also full of rubbish!  My advice to anyone who reads this and passing the house, as the Bike House is famous on the route, is not to use it anymore, unless you like dark dingy places and sharing your space with all sorts of creepy crawlies.

Anyway, today was a tough introduction to cycle touring.  25 miles uphill into the Appalachians!  I had read that the Appalachians are tougher than the Rocky's, as it is very steep, and God I hope so, as I do not want to do that again!  I was hoping to get fit as I go, as there was no training, and today was a stern induction!

The scenery was very beautiful though, and there were lots of other cyclists on the road.  I was also helped by the cool weather, which I do not expect to last long.  I saw deer, eagles, millipedes and lots of road kill.  Once at the highest point of 3000 metres, it was a nice run in to Lexington, where I am staying tonight (I have treated myself to a hotel with a spa!).

I hope hick/trailer trash/hill billy are not racist terms, but I saw plenty of that today!  Sometimes I wonder how I am in the richest country on Earth!  It is confusing, as America shares many characteristics as the UK, and the language is the same, but this is a very different country.  Little Britain, and even Salisbury centre on a Saturday night, are nothing compared to the stuff here.  I think many of the people I saw had never left the valley, let alone the country.  That reminds me, when I hired the car, the guy who served me asked if there was a Hong Kong in the UK (place of birth on driving licence)..........

The people I met on the first day have coincidentally arrived at the same hotel, so will go and have a catch up with them.  I also need to shed some more weight from my luggage (I have been allowed to put the bike in my room).  The bathroom has got all my cycling gear drying after a quick wash with soap.

Hopefully a little more Clear Waters Rising will help to get rid of the slight homesick feeling I have, but as many people have warned me, I need to expect the first weeks to be horrible as I adjust.  What is real though, is that there is a long way to go!