June 4th – Charlottesville, VA to Vasuvius, VA

Mileage: 47 miles
Terrain: Very Hilly
Temperature: 80 ish degrees
So this morning Shannons’ parents cooked us breakfast which was great with all the climbing we did. I carbed up and ate tons of pancakes and breakfast food. We then began climbing mt Vesuvius!! So there was about 40 ish miles of climbing, honestly I thought it was going to be a lot steeper climbs however, it was really just gradual climbing all day long. And then we got to the top where we got to descend. The climb there was very beautiful scenery, gorgeous overviews of the hills of the mountains. As I thought climbing up the hills it really is a matter of mind over body. My mind was telling me GO, GO, GO and my body was telling me NO, NO, NO!! But I concurred that darn Vesuvius!! It ended up being 5,000 feet of elevation gain that we climbed!! I found out that short stops were better on my legs because if I did long stops and then got back on the bike and started climbing my lets would BURN BAD. Although they felt like they were on fire most of the day…lol, yet somehow the ride was very enjoyable. Oh yeah, so I was going to say that I have really come to like my handlebar bag, you know the one that I thought I would never own…lol.. however, it is so convenient, you can carry LOTs of food and all kinds of good stuff. You can pick up food and stuff along the route at small town convenience stores etc. So we finally got to descend and it was quite the adrenaline rush. I think that my max speed was 32 mph or something. I am quite sure that I could have gone much faster however; I choose to ride my breaks almost the entire way down. I even stopped half way down for about 5 minutes in order to let my breaks cool down. I like to go fast but not that fast, because it can be very dangerous. So we then coasted into mt Vesuvius to a country store named Gerties. It is a very small store/restaurant. They have people write their names on the walls ceiling anywhere you can find a place. This place is kind of like a small hole in the wall. Very small inside and then this is where we camped at, behind this store in a yard out back. The owners who live next door let us use their hose in order to rinse off. The restroom is a porta potty. Well that’s all for today, tomorrow is going to be about 75 miles so it’s going to be a long day.