Finished my Cross Virginia biking trip

I cut short my cross US biking trip and Returned from my cross Virginia biking trip with an one-way rental car after driving 530 miles via Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland in 10 hours almost no stop.

My issues with the cross America biking trip are that biking is not interesting enough to do the whole day, and so far I only biked half of the day and nothing to do the rest of the day. 

With the same amount of time and money I can have more fun traveling overseas and see more different things. The Transamerica biking trail pretty much looks the same in Virginia, and will be long, boring, and dangerous in Kentucky. Worst of all, I am already intimidated by dogs and trucks in VA, And there will be more coal trucks and stray dogs in KY.  

I took the biking trip to enjoy the views and train my body, but it is clear to me now there are better options than this biking trip to achieve the same goal. I ended this trip at the VA/KY border and then drove from Lexington KY in a rental car back to home. 

Another reason for me to drop the cross U.S. Biking trip was to escape from an elder in the group. She was kind and nice but generated a lot of stressful situations like a ticking time bump, such as backing the RV into a stop sign, turning oppositely from intended directions, frequently misplacing items, technically challenged with phones and electronic devices, to my biggest surprise throwing always my biking shoes by mistake. I worried all the time when around her which defeated my purpose of a relaxing trip.

As to hiking on PCT, I have a second thought as well, after seeing a few AT hikers this trip. It would be better to find hiking companions than by myself. I do it another time. 

I was thinking about stopping at Maker's mark in Loretto, KY to take the tour and claim the bottle of whiskey they made for me since 2008, but discouraged by the price tag they posted line:

How much is my bottle worth? While we believe that each bottle of Maker’s Mark® is priceless, we do recognize that there is a great deal of interest (and trade) in various collector’s bottles that we’ve released over the years. We invite you to visit StraightBourbon.comto find out what collectors may be paying for bottles similar to yours.

Anyway, stay tuned with my next venture. Before that, you can browse my other venture blogs:


   Fall 2011 Argentina/Chile/ Colombia/Ecuador/Peru http://southamericajt.blogspot.com/  
   Fall 2012 Taiwan/China/Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand/Nepal/India. http://asiajt.blogspot.com/   
   Fall 2013 Middle East (Greece/Turkey/Georgia/Armenia/Iran/Spain)  http://jtmiddleeast.blogspot.com/
   Summer 2014 Cuba/Mexico/Guatemala/Honduras/Nicaragua/Costa Rica http://centralamericajt.blogspot.com/
   Spring  2015 to Taiwan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. http://jtseasia.blogspot.com/  

   Fall 2015 UK, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Netherlands  http://easteuropejt.blogspot.com/

    Summer  2016 to Italy, Vatican City State, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Germany.   http://italyeasteuropejt.blogspot.com/

Day 10 to Break Interstate Park shared by VA & KY

I did not ride today because of lack of sleep last night and heavy rain in the morning. 

We ran into a self proclaimed trail angel in Haysi Virginia and then took a lunch break to enjoy roasted chicken and potato salad in the RV.

We camped in the Breaks interstate park shard by VA and KY.  Trees, trees, and more trees. I am ready to end my trip at the entry city of the Transamerica biking trail and go home. I am just not into biking that much to finish the cross U.S. Biking trip. 

Day 9 to Rosedale Virginia

I rode only 14 miles today to avoid steep downhills. We arrived in the elk garden church near Rosedale Virginia to sleep in tonight. The church has nice kitchen, garden, etc.,except shower and wifi. 

So far, I have been very intimidated by dogs and trucks. This morning a truck was flying by me two inches away to share the two way road with a passenger car, and the sucking force almost dragged me towards the truck. Pretty scary. 

Day 8 to Damascus, Virginia

Biked 27 hilly m today and led the team this morning. Stopped by a little town named sugar grove that has a shop selling 24 favors of ice cream and I tried peach. I just arrived with the van  in most AT hiker friendly town Damascus and will camp here tonight. It has 4 bike shops, 2 camp grounds, 3 hostels, and free wifi offered by the town.  I saw three AT hikers walking via town.

Stayed overnight next to the oil mill falls, camped next to a nice inn with strong wifi, and had a nice group dinner

Day 7 to Wytheville, Virginia

I rode on the van to the mid point to f today's 60 miles ride, then I biked toward the team to meet them and turned back towards the mid point for a quick lunch. In this way, I could ride on my own pace and taking pictures. I then enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and had soda at Sonic, 1st time visiting. We camped at KOA and I soaked in the swimming pool.