It’s been 21 days since I started this journey. I’ve already met so many great people, seen many beautiful places, climbed many hills, and have been chased by many dogs. I would change a single moment of it. I’ve managed to make it across the Appalachian mountains and will be crossing into Illinois tomorrow already! I am also proud to say that we have already passed my initial fundraising goal of $5,000 on Sunday, May 18th! Since then I have doubled it and we are already above $6,500!!! That has made the miles all the more worthwhile and I couldn’t be happier with how that is going.
Not long after the first few days I met another rider, Ben. Him and I have been biking together for about a week and a half now with some gaps in between. We also met another rider, Roman from London, UK who we’ve joined up with the last few days as well. Then wouldn’t you know it, we met with 2 ladies from the Netherlands biking in the same direction and combined riding forces as well! We added one more to our group, David, and we’re riding 6 riders strong. It’s fun having people from all over to hangout with and talk to.
I spent two days at the Appalachian Trail Days Festival in Damascus on my own and met a bunch of AT through hikers. I was the odd duck out on my bike but they took me in. It was an awesome event with tons of vendors and the churches hosting meals and doing free laundry and showers for everyone. There was also a bunch of live music and food to go along with it all. I was definitely glad to have taken a couple 0 mile days there. I even ran into my Sioux Falls friend Andrew at the festival who began his AT through hike in late March!
Naturally we’ve been caught in the rain a few times but have managed to stay out of it at night. One of the days I was rejoining Ben and Roman and managed a 97 mile day through the hills of Eastern Kentucky, which is really about unheard of . I definitely can understand why… haha I’m not sure I would do that ride again! No pain, no gain I say. Doing that ride has definitely grown my confidence that I am able to start doing longer mileage days and should be primed up for the rest of whatever the route can through at me for distance and elevation gain. For more details on my days, check out my Polar steps linked on the main page. At the end of today I will have rolled 1,000 miles on the TransAmerica trail.
Westbound and Down 