Day: 58 Bad Roads, Fun Day

After spending the night in Charleston we had an 80 mile ride to Beckley, WV. We took some of the worst roads we have encountered all trip to get there. The ride today had many steep hills making it clear we were in the Appalachian Mountains. For 30 miles this road we took was full of large potholes, loose gravel, and so much overgrown brush that we would be limited to one lane, I was wishing I had my mountain bike to get through it all. Either way it was a great time adventuring through the ridiculous but scenic road. To finish off the day we had some very long steep climbs that reminded me of when we went through Montana and Wyoming.

It was a longer day on the bike so we didn’t get in until 3:oo pm. We are staying at Mountain State University where they put us up in the dorms there! Our dinner was at the MSCIL, a center that helps people with disabilities start living independently in their communities. Beckley, WV is a small town of about 20,000 and has a pretty little downtown. The mayor and chief of police both welcomed us and we feasted on a wonderful lasagna dinner while many of the guys were interviewed by the local news stations. While at the disability center I got talking to Miles and his mother. Miles has some mental disabilities and mood changes, sometimes he is very mature at his age of 31 and other times he acts only six years old. Talking with his mother I found out Miles was in a car accident ten years ago, so he was exactly my age when he became hospitalized and life changed forever. She told me how he has progressed a lot in the last ten year, he is now walking and has recovered from his brain surgeries in which they had to take out a part of his frontal lobe. In conversations like this I try to focus on the positive and understand what things have been like for Miles and their family; however, inside and I can’t help but feel so saddened by such a tragic situation. Again, another reminder to live everyday to the fullest, you just never know what can happen.

This evening I cleaned and tuned up my bike, I had another flat today so I had to patch some more tubes and change out my tires. Afterwards I did a bunch of updates to my blog and hung out with Dom and Rion. I can’t believe the trip is coming to an end I don’t even want to think about it. Tomorrow we have a real tough 100 mile day into Blacksburg, Virginia.