It’s day three of my ride across Virginia.  I flew into Tennessee and we’ve been covering ground ever since.  We are currently in Charlottesville.  It is just the two of us, Liz, the coordinator of the tour, and myself.  We have an RV and bicycles.  One of us does the riding and the other drives the RV.  It’s nice having the RV every 10 or 15 miles with cool water, food and all my gear.  We cover about 60 to 70 miles a day.  I ride the first 30 or so, then Liz does 20 or so and then I do the rest.  I get a break in the middle of the day as I drive the RV.  It’s Tuesday night now.  On Saturday we will be joined by a few more and on Monday I will come home, flying from Washington DC.

Today was a tough day.  We climbed up the Blue Ridge Mountain range and then about 30 miles along the ridge.  It sure was beautiful up there.  The climb up, however, was one of the toughest climbs I’ve ever done.  I rode up 2,000 vertical feet in only 3 miles.  That was some steep road.  At the top I passed the baton off to Liz.  Yes we actually have a baton.  It’s a large toothbrush (since it is a program to raise money for Children’s dental health) that has been passed from rider to rider in this trans American bike relay.  There at the top of the Blue Ridge I passed it to Liz and let her take the last 26 miles of the day (including the downhill).  Now we are camping out in the RV in a KOA site outside of Charlottesville.  Tomorrow we will take an easy day.