Thurday, May 31, 2001 : Damascus to Lenoir
<< back to index
Stats
Wind/Weather: 50-70 SE 5-10 Headwinds Rain
ET: 11:00:00
DST: 82.69 miles
AVG: 13.8 MPH
RT: 5:59:12
MAX: 37.4 MPH
(1886.08 total/110.95 daily average)
Cities traveled through: Damascus, Mountain City, TN, Zionville, NC, Boone, Blowing Rock, Lenoir
Remarks
I had a bit of a challenge trying to get out of town today. According to my map it looked like US 58, the highway I needed to leave town, was not part of the interstate. But when I asked for directions at a gas station they said you needed to be on the interstate to get on that highway. I found a side road that followed the interstate for a little bit, but then the road ran out. I don't know why but I decided to walk across the grass to see if I could follow it. I ended up walking through some pasture and had to climb over a barb wire fence to get back out and then I finally caught up with the interstate about a mile from the correct exit. I just had to stay in the grass because I was paranoid about getting in trouble for actually riding on the interstate. Once again the interstate had much better shoulders than most of the roads I rode on. Eventually I got on US 58 and headed toward Damascus. The road's shoulder was non-existant and the traffic was heavy so I found myself riding on the little gravel that there was beyond the shoulder. Once I got to Damascus I stopped to get some pop to drink. The pop machine I bought it from was actually selling Pepsi 20 oz. products at 65 cents. I've never seen them lower anywhere else. I saw a gas station selling gas a few days ago at $1.509 a gallon also. I wonder if everything is cheaper down here. Eventually I made it to through Tennessee, which was just a small portion. I stopped at a Burger King for some breakfast. It seemed like pedalling was a real struggle at first today. But it didn't feel like there was much of a headwind. I think I must have been climbing most of the first three quarters of the trip. Then once I reached Blowing Rock and heading for Lenoir, it was practically all downhill. There was a road sign with the downhill symbol and the words, "Next 8 Miles." I've never seen anything like that before. I just kept going down and down and down. I wonder if I'm starting to get out of the Appalachian Mountains. I didn't get in as much riding as I wanted today because I was sitting in Boone for quite a while waiting for some rain to pass.
| |
