Radford, VA to Sugar Grove, VA – 65.41 miles, 10mph, +4968 elevation gain

From my Saddle – week 1. Yorktown, Va to Sugar Grove, VA. 441.51 miles total. 3776 to go. Lesson One! God is truly in control. Everyday in every way. Lesson Two! Jocelynn is absolutely incredible. Lesson Three! Everyday is a new adventure. You must roll with each obstacle. Enjoy the challenges. Lesson Four! Honestly, I wish it would slow down. Lesson Five! Stop watching the news. Americans are incredible people. We’ve met so so many. Lesson Six! Solar panel chargers do not work on cloudy days. Lesson Seven! I love your support. I need your support. I miss all of you. Question 1- I am not sure how Biden won VA. I have only seen one Biden poster. Trump/ Pence posters everywhere??? Today was an awesome day. I lose everything and forget everything but we already knew this. Jocelynn is getting used to working with an exhausted over 50 year old who had a brain injury. Not fun for her. I couldn’t do this without her. She is the best support coach ever. My phone died. I depleted 2 solar chargers. So my miles are actually 65.41. Some very hilly terrain but tomorrow has bigger challenges. We met a new friend Frankie from CA. He met us as we were coming out of a country church I cycled by and decided to join. That was an “ interesting” experience. I miss my BSCC family let’s just leave it at that. It looks like a dry day tomorrow. FINALLY!!! Hopefully I can get my miles in quicker. Click “read more” to see a few photos.

Lone Star, VA to Radford, VA – 47.5 miles, 10 mph, 4006 ft elevation gain

A FANTASTIC WET day. Not the miles I had hoped but some big climbing and I just couldn’t do any more scary downs with wet brakes. Hopefully just one more wet day to get through. Have I told you all how incredible Jocelynn is??? Well. She follows my bum all day. Sets hydration alarms and sun screen alarms ( didn’t need those today) and makes sure I’m on course all day!!! LOVE her. Oh and she finds the best lunch spots too. I feel fantastic.

Natural Bridge, VA to Lone Star, VA – 36 miles, 11.3 mph, +2158 elevation gain

Jocelyn was the hero today. Some very tough situations. Had to stop in a not so safe spot. We have chased the storms all day. It’s pouring and thunderstorming. Gods plans are perfect. He Gave me almost 35 miles. Met several new cross country friends. There really are bunches of us out here.

Lyndhurst, VA to Natural Bridge, VA – 64.67 miles. 9.8mph 4879 feet in elevation climb. (Insane)

Once again this day did not disappoint. I am loving every minute. I met 3 new friends all heading to Oregon. There are actually 11 of us within 30 miles of each other heading west. You thought I was the only crazy!!! Nope. There are lots of us. Highest mountain climb today and what most cross country cyclists say is the hardest day of the whole trip. Truck brakes overheated. My brakes overheated. We had to sit and let things cool down. First time walking a bike down. Grade was close to -12%. We got the laundry done. Yeahhh. It’s so so awesome to share Gods healing testimony with others. Check out the pictures by clicking on “read more”.

Palmyra, VA to Lyndhurst, VA – 56miles, +4361 elevation gain

What a day! One challenge after another but we conquered the Blue Ridge Mountains. My Strava quit working when my phone over heated. I also knew I needed to cool my core temp down so several breaks in the air conditioning truck. We had a road closure. We went through Charlottesville and we had not 1, not 2 BUT 3 under passes The Silver Bullet wouldn’t fit. We spent a crazy amount of time getting through town and had to be separate a good bit.
We met Eric The Fed Ex driver who stopped to check on me while I was loading a new map. We met Pete at our lunch stop. Great people. We got honked at 3 times by not so nice, in a hurry folks. We just wave and pray for them. We got lots of encouragement for most other motorists. 56.6 miles( first day I didn’t meet my goal)I would guess over 4,000 in elevation climb if not 5k. Pretty sure Kristy said this was my 4600 day. 92 degrees will 100% humidity. We are staying at a HOTEL tonight. Yippee I’m consuming a ton of food. Drinking gallons!!! Click “read more” to view photos

Doswell, VA to Palmyra, VA – 65 miles, 11.1 mi/hr, 2,856 ft elevation gain

Day 2. 65 miles of incredible countryside, amazing honeysuckle smells AND I got to ride with my new friend Beverly. She is over 10 years older than I, riding solo, and self supported on a bike carrying 75 pounds. She is my inspiration. We had so much fun riding together. We enjoyed my first 34 miles of the day together. She is actually headed to Astoria, OR too. She left Sunday from Yorktown too. I’m really hoping to catch up with her again. Very hilly!!! Very hilly. 2800+ feet in elevation change today. However this might be an easy day compared to what’s coming. . We enjoyed some more great food and are settled in for some recovery and rest. click “read more” to view photos

Charles City, VA to Doswell, VA – 64miles, 12.6 mph average, 2,000 ft elevation gain

Day 1- AWESOME. Simply awesome. Met some awesome people. We were prayed over this morning. Got honked at by 3 not so friendlies. So I prayed for them. I am humbled to ride through so much history where battles were fought and won. I can not imagine those times. Enjoy some of what VA offered today. 64 miles12.6 mph average. 2,000 feet in elevation climb. enjoys the photos

Yorktown, VA to Charles City, VA – 43 mi, 11.2 mi/h ave, 989ft elevation gain

Day 0 is in the books. It exceeded my expectations 1000%. I met so many incredible people. I was able to help 2 cyclists. One with nutrition and one with hydration. An adventure cycling tour guide saw me and stopped. He told me he was dropping his tour off at the beach where I dipped and when he saw me again he wanted to know my story. 43.12 miles. Goal was 25. Tomorrow is the official start date and the 5th anniversary of my accident. I am kicking traumas butt. Enjoy the photos.

The time has come to finally begin our coast to coast trip. Donita and Jocelynn took off early this morning for VA and have arrived in Yorktown. The Silver Bullet has landed. They are tucked in DaPalace for the night. Tomorrow Donita will dip her tire in the bay and will do a warm up ride. Due to a loss in the family this week, Kristy will join Donita in a few weeks.

Death Valley is another favorite National Park of mine. It’s a playground for me and my camera. Some see just a desert, a barren wasteland, and the madding stillness of silence, but all of this grips my soul and makes me feel a sense of wonder and deep part of it all. I keep finding myself coming back every few years to soak it all in. Death Valley has been on my bucket list of places I would love to ride my bike. Today I got that chance. Let me tell ya what, it is HOT here even in the morning. I planned to get up earlier,  but I hit the snooze button a few time.
I didn’t quite make sunrise on the Valley. I got out the door around 6:20am. It was already 81 degrees. I wasn’t expecting hills on this route but there were some. Badwater is 282 below sea level. total elevation gain for the ride was 1266 ft. and the total loss for the day was 1293. It was a fun hot ride with maybe 10 cars on the road. I saw a few coyotes trying to find breakfast. When I arrived at Badwater I had intended to rest a bit, but the flies… I took some photos as fast as I could and hopped back in the saddle. By mile 28 I was out of water and it was 111 degrees. Thankfully I had phone service and called Kelly. She came out to the rescue with a cold Powerade (thank you Coke and Eric Heitman!) My plan was to just refill the bottles and finish my planned ride of 50 miles but when I got off my bike I was super dizzy, so I called it a day.