Day 83, Troutville, VA

Miles – 0

Miles From Start/To Finish – 3,904/260

Ave Riding Speed – 0 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 0

Weather – Cloudy, some rain and 81

Today went by fast. I was up at 5:30am and sat down in the hotel having coffee and catching up on e-mails. I snuck back in our room where Kim was still sleeping at 7am with her cream with coffee. Kim did a load of laundry. Why Kim you may ask. Well, I would probably keep wearing my dirty biking clothes.

We went down for breakfast, late, but the breakfast lady was kind enough to pack us a couple bags of cold breakfast goodies. I recharged our bike-lights and went about planning the remainder of our trip. We’re closer than we thought and have about 260-miles to Yorktown. Wow, it’s coming up fast. We planned our route and checking in with my high school friend, Scott, to make sure everything works for him. We’re excited to have him ride the last leg of the adventure with us on Saturday.

Kim is making flight reservations back home. We’re going to spend a few nights with Scott and he was able to find a couple bicycle boxes to ship our bikes home via Bike Flights. This week I’m going to call Michael’s Cycles, back in Chaska, for any special tear-down instructions.

Kim and I had an early dinner at the Cracker Barrel again today. The rest of the evening we’ll be packing up and ready to head out early in the morning for an average miles day of close to 60 miles.

Below are a few of the lessons we’ve thought about or learned over the past, roughly, 4,000 miles as we’ve had lots of time in the saddle to reflect:

We are all stronger than we think. The human mind and body are limitless. They may need some training though.

The clock keeps ticking forward. We can never go back. Live “your” life each day.

I believe that family is not defined by the blood in your veins, it’s about the sensation in your heart. Kim and I have a HUGE family!

When I was very little my dad told me to never walk over or past a lost penny or coin on the ground. If you do, it’s wasteful and you probably have to much money. Back in my day (thought I’d never ay that), 10 lost pennies would buy a Bub’s-Daddy bubblegum stick at the Bay View grocery store a half-mile tricycle ride from my house. I feel guilty every time I’ve ridden over a lost coin on the highway during this adventure.

Talk to people. I mean actual speak. Texting and e-mails have a place, but the spoken word is the closest thing to physical touching and we all need it. We tend to think or judge people without even getting to know them because of where they are from, how they are dressed, the color of their skin, the tattoos or piercings on their body, grooming habit, the kind of car they drive or bicycle they ride, race, orientation and on and on. Other people are so interesting and we can learn so much from a simple conversation. A simple hello or asking them how their day is going is all that’s needed to reach out and learn something.

The 24-hour entertainment news channels, we all know the ones, are there to impose fear. They know that we as humans love to be afraid or worry. Turn it off, go outside and have a conversation with your neighbor.

Bright colored clothing is great for being seen riding when riding your bicycle along the highway. It is not optimal when you are trying to blend into the natural scenery while taking a potty break along the highway.

The road is not flat.

Around the next corner you are never sure what you’ll find. You can fear it or you can embrace it. I like the idea of charging forward with anticipation and gusto to see what’s next.

We are so blessed to have the eclectic group of family and friends around us. I say eclectic, because you/we are all different, yet we have each other in common. It has been so awesome to have everyone with us along all of our life’s adventures.

We have been purposeful in trying to be good examples to our grandchildren, children, family and friends. Even in failure we tried to fall well and be a good example. We have not always succeeded and fallen short, but you have stood by us and supported us in getting back up.

I ignored reading anything about this bicycle adventure that was going to tell me how hard it was going to be because I didn’t want to know. I wanted to be the judge. Hard yes, but worth every pedal stroke.

Riding a bicycle across the country is a great way to lose weight. The real trick will be to keep some of it off when we get home. Kim and I have both lost 15-20 lbs. I think I was in high school the last time I weighed this much/little.

Kim and I have been through many hard times, just like everyone else. We’ve been fortunate to go through them together.

The picture is of our non-typical room today. This one is roomy, super clean and awesome. We usually have to walk on the beds to get around our bikes and bags.