Some tidbits from our first 1000 miles:

Jacob had: 1 tick, 2 “bee in the jersey” scares resulting in one sting, 1 huge moth in jersey, one million nats attacking his face.

Touring bike milestones:
The first day I could barely manage to get on and off the beast due to weight and balance issues.
First two days I had to tap the brakes going downhill beginning around 25mph because it started feeling “squirrelly”.
It was day 3 before I felt comfortable reaching down for and drinking from water bottles while actually riding. (took me 3 whole days whaaaat?)
Day 4 I had our top speed clocked at 40.5mph (don’t tell mom!)
Day 5 I noticed every time I cough or clear my throat my quads would “shiver” and talk to me.
Day 7 my bike fell on my leg and cut me up a bit. Grrrr I’ll show you who’s boss, bike!
Day 10 Jacob said “I love how you are manhandling that bike now!”
Day 13 I finally felt comfortable to listen to music (low volume) while riding.

When people ask where we stayed last night (any “last night”), we look at each other with blank stares for a few seconds, hmmmm think about it, and generally come up with different answers… days blend together into one big biking soup. Was last night the church or the campsite? Doesn’t matter…

Dogs are passionate about bike tires. They hate and/or love them… Lots of barking and chasing.

We went slowly up the VA and eastern KY mountains. Sometimes so slowly that I would see a fuzzy caterpillar crawling across the road in front of me and not be entirely sure which way to go around it…sometimes the caterpillar was faster than me. And sometimes, I swear, that caterpillar turned into the stoner caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland and began taunting me. “You are not Absolem. I am Absolem. Whoooo are yooou?”

Lacrosse ball rolling is magic for my upper back and traps. I tense up going down mountains and need to brake a lot which causes  rock hard knots. Thank you Dr. Kempe for teaching me the healing powers of the lax ball!

We took route 11 a long way in VA. Days and days. Route 11 is also Lee hwy. I could have biked from my parents’ house, took one right turn on Lee Hwy and gone all the way to KY!

In KY there’s no way around being covered in a layer of coal dust from morning to night.

Jacob doesn’t know how strong he is. His body will do more than his mind thinks it can. I, on the other hand, think I’m stronger than I am (I’m superwoman, right? Riiiiight, egomaniac!). We make a good team and keep each other in check.

1000 down, just a few more to go!
Xoxo Robin.