Update #08 - Saturday, April 07, 2007
Glen Echo, MD
2,775.22 miles (4,440.35 kms) since Jan 01st
1,934.46 miles (3,095.14 kms) since March 03

After 23 days of cycling and almost 1370 miles of travel, I finally got a well-deserved day off the road. This is from a great new friend I met through the Warm Showers Program, Bones M. Bones rescued me last night after a 75 mile ride from Manassas, VA. I was hoping to maybe connect with some friends of mine in Arlington, VA but they weren't available. Being that it was a Friday and also Easter Weekend, I wasn't sure that I was going to connect with any association member in Washington, D.C. After a ride through the District of Columbia and Chevy Chase, MD around dusk, I was able to call Bones up from a payphone in the Kensington, MD area. Bones came and got me with his pick-up truck. I had actually overshot his town by around 15 miles. Bones and his wife, Adrea, share several things in common with me. They are both recumbent riders and they took a cross-country trip back in 2003.

It was good that I had a place to stay inside last night since the temperature had dropped into the 20s. When I got up around 6:30 a.m., I saw that there was around a half inch of snow on the ground. This was kind of strange since just a couple of days ago, the highs was in the 80s. The snow was short lived since by noon it had all melted away. Tonight, the temperature is supposed to be in the 20s also.

Today was a good rest day. I actually took a rare nap. I did some much needed work on my recumbent. One of the main projects was to put on a new front derailleur cable since the old one was quite frayed. The old cable had just over 23,000 miles on it. Monday, I'm going to stop by a bike shop in the Mount Airy, MD area, which specializes in recumbents, to have them check out my rear derailleur, which I'm having some shifting isssues with. Also, I had a good time playing with Bones and his wife, Andrea's cat Jack, who is around a year old. He is one playful kitten and my toes have been attacked several times.

Along the way since my last update, I've met some nice people. I had a good visit with some Warm Showers members in Raleigh, SC. I've met some nice ministers along the way and got to speak at several churches. One Sunday, I was able to speak at two different churches.

I guess one of the neatest things to happen this trip occured several days ago. I stayed with some Warm Showers members in Bowling Green, VA, which is between Richmond and Fredericksburg. Robert and Danielle have three cute daughters between 5 and 8 years old. I had a good night with them. In the morning, I was surprised by a $20 bill stuck between two turkey sandwiches. This was after Danielle had bought me some food the following night. Robert took the day off from work and he told me that the family wanted to do something special for me. I had mentioned to them that my sleeping bag was at least 10 years old and not very warm. Robert told me that he wanted to trasport me and the bike into Fredericksburg and stop at a store to get me a new sleeping bag. We stopped at Gardner's Outdoors Shop where I got a really good sleeping bag rated for 20 degree weather. The bag weighs around 3.5 pounds and fits into a bag about half the size of my old sleeping bag. I also received a new helmet light, some small stuff bags, some inner tubes, and a patch kit. I can't thank them as much as I think that I have to for all of the kindness they showed me.

I am on my way to Maine. I'll be crossing into Pennsylvania near Hanover, SW of Lancaster, sometime this coming Tuesday. I estimate that I've got between three and four weeks of travel to get to Maine. Possibly, I'll be going farther up the coast than what I've cycled before. This would have me cross New Hampshire and Vermont farther north than what I've done before. I just hope that the mountain gremlins will look nicely upon me so I don't have a repeat on what happened in 2003 or something worse.

I'll try and post an update as often as I can if my plans change. The next update should be posted between April 14th and April 21st.