Thursday, May 20, 2010
Today was a tough day. Very tough, actually. I think it was perhaps the most climbing we have done on this trip (or at least the most climbing we have done in a very long time). We didn’t just climb up hills today. We climbed up mountains. 
My body is very, very tired. The hills/mountains started two miles outside of town and really didn’t stop until we arrived in Elkins. Fun.
We had our lunch stop in Weston, WV. It was an interesting town. During our lunch stop, we walked to see the local asylum.
It was enormous. Apparently it was built during the civil war and just closed down in 1994. It was actually a little creepy… 
After lunch, we headed back out in an attempt to conquer the Appalachian Mountains. As we were traveling up yet another one of the CRAZY mountains that West Virginia decided to throw in our faces, we passed a woman working construction on the side of the road (she was manning one of those “slow/stop” signs before construction started). When we arrived at her post, we were incredibly tired, as we had probably already been climbing for about 4-5 miles and we were 70 miles in to our daily ride. Here is a quick recap of my conversation with her (as I was very slowly crawling by on my bike):
Me: “Hi.”
Construction woman: “Hi.”
Me: “Any idea when we’ll see a downhill?”
Construction woman: “Um…” (pause) “You’re in West Virginia.”
Awesome lady. Thanks for the encouragement. You just squashed what little motivation and positive thoughts I had left…
After more climbing and more mountains and even more climbing, we arrived in Elkins. Only six miles longer than we were originally told. I am very tired. And very sore. But I am incredibly proud of what we did today. We successfully conquered the Appalachians (or at least part of them). We’ll head out to beat them again tomorrow, too. And we will not be defeated.
End of the fiftieth day. And it was mountainous.
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