West to Kentucky

Day 5 - Rogersville, TN - Middlesboro, KY (by way of Jonesville, VA) - 85 miles.

Spent Thursday night in the dugout of the little league baseball park in Rogersville, TN. We asked permission to sleep in the city park from the local sheriff. When we arrived at the park we found a number of little league games in progress and a carnival happening on the other side of the park. We both at hotdogs and watched peewee baseball until dark. Unfortunately the carnival went until midnight, about 3 hours past our normal bedtimes. Lots of teenagers were roaming the park all night, hence we bunked down sleeping lengthwise in the covered dugout. The mountain south seems to have a lot of teenage angst.

The morning saw us take a number of wrong turns leaving Rogersville adding 6 unnecessary miles. We also had the first flat tire of the trip. Due to our superior preparation skills, neither of us had ever changed a bike tire. Luckily we were able to figure it out and were on our way. Before lunch we climbed both Clinch Mountain and Powell Mountain, encountering our first switchbacks. Legs are rounding into shape as we dominated both mountains (exhausting ourselves in the process for the rest of the day.) Lunch in Jonesville, VA was the lowpoint of the day (trip?) as we still had 36 hot miles to go. Everyone assured us it was all downhill, of course everyone was wrong.

Yesterday also marked our first dog attack. As I was riding along after Clinch Mountain enjoying the scenery, Cody, ever the faithful wingman called out 'Dog!', right as I was about to run over a dog who had come to challenge me. I yelled and swerved to the left, only to have another bogey (dog) come hard on my heels to the left, barking and growling. Following our trusty battle protocols, I reached for the water bottle and pedaled as fast as I could. I tried to squirt the dog with a closed water bottle, which of course was unsuccessful. At this point I had two hellhounds on my tail just as Cody noticed another big black hound steaming down the hill towards us. I am pedalling, yelling and squirting gatorade everywhere; Cody for the most part seems to be laughing. Pedalling at full speed I finally manage to soak both dogs in gatorade and outrun them to the top of the hill. Cody outruns the third dog and we are in the clear. Learning from our first sortie, later in the day a little southwest Virginia yipper had the gaul to test us. Both of us gave him direct squirts to the face and he whimpered away in shame.

In total we biked 85 miles yesterday in 95 degree heat, making it to Middlesboro at 8 pm. Perhaps our hardest day of riding yet. We got our first hotel room of the trip last night, and today is our first day off. From here we will head north to Berea, KY to meet up with the Transamerica trail.

Photos as soon as i can navigate the Middlesboro Library computer system.