Well the plan was to ride my bike from Knoxville TN to richmond indiana, visit family, pick up a car, fix it and drive it home. I used google's walk there to find most of my route which actually worked pretty well and it was giving me 110 miles the first day, 99.8 the 2nd and 135 the third. Ive been doing alot of 90+ mile road rides and 6-7 hour mtn bike rides so i wasnt terribly worried about the distance but some things i were worried about were hearing banjos (it is the middle of nowhere in tn and kentucky), getting lost, the rear derailer i pieced together out of 3 broken ones laying around the shop.
Seeing as this is my first tour naturally i start a bit later than i hoped because i wasnt completely prepared and everything starts off good, mentally around the 40 mile mark my mind isnt happy so i pull out the ipod and all is well. Another 10 miles or so i stop eat find out my good buddy craig has broken yet another NRS... start back out with the legs feeling good despite the headwind/loads of climbing ive been doing but i keep having this nagging pain in my arm/hand that i chalk up to a bad over the bars incedent on the mtn bike a couple weeks ago.
about mile 85 i start to feel a bonk coming on and finish off a bottle of water and buy an energy drink which saves the day and by mile 95 or so i finally come across the kentucky border and the sight of a new state justifies the entire days worth of pedaling, also with the new state comes rolling hills over the 30rpm in granny kinda climbs the back roads of tn have been giving me.
about 8pm lights a blazin i finally make it to my hotel with about 110 miles in for the day but it feels more like 150 since ive been on the bike since 9am.
Next day wake up with my elbow/hand killing me, I brush it off take an advil and set out for the next days route considering buying a real touring bike because i realize this touring stuff is awesome, ive been reading about it forever and dying to get out and do some on my own and could never get the time off until now. Anyways make it another 60 miles or so before my arm pain forces me to cheat and go for the rental car thing the rest of the way, my excuse is their is a 12 hr race next weekend on the mtb i want to be ready for but really i just wimped out with my arm pain, legs surprisingly felt great though.
Well get back to richmond, mom forces me to get an xray and found out i have a broken hand and a good deal of swelling in my elbow so that makes me feel better in a strange sort of way, fix the car, hang out with family, drive home, stay up till 4 am playing with pics and writing this (if i sound out of it that is why). well, you made it this far so here is the pics, if your curious about anything ill be coherant tommorow, thanks for reading
ready to rock hard and roll fast (still dying to get that lightspeed shirt)
downtown knox
hello mr trucker guy
i see da interstates
hellooooooooo
