Days 9 & 10

Sunday, July 17

The ultimate rest day today. We went out to a diner for breakfast for $10- 3 eggs, homefries, toast and coffee/tea for each of us. That has become our typical breakfast because it's cheap and it's hard to cook breakfast without a fridge so we usually go out. We went to the grocery store and cvs to pick up some food and supplies, patched up my two tubes, did laundry and just chilled out. It rained for most of the afternoon so we were happy not to be riding. Dinner was corn in the cob, rice and black beans, cooked in our hotel room.

We are excited to get back on our bikes tomorrow and crossing our fingers for no more flat tires for a while!

We are straying from our route tomorrow because of advice given to us by a rider coming from the west (he was by himself and started on June 1. He had about 3 more days to go when we saw him- very impressive!). He said this will save us about 50 miles and lots of hills- wahoooo!!

Saturday, July 16

We were exhausted from Friday's long ride so we slept in until 10 and then waited out the rain until about 1:30. As soon as I got on my bike, I realized my bike had it's first flat tire. So we turned back to the campsite to fix it up. It didn't take long and we were on our way. We rode 40 miles to Wytheville and we knew we needed a rest day asap!

We showered at the beautiful community center for free, which was awesome. When I got back on my bike to ride the mile down to the park we were going to stay in, I realized my bike had it's second flat tire! And it was the same tire. This was very frustrating and I decided not to fix it because I didn't want to get dirty directly after my shower and it was getting dark out. I walked my bike a short way down the park but we decided it was too creepy and wide open to camp out in. (Ben was very creeped out by this town because nobody was out at 9 pm on a Saturday night, every store was closed except for fast food restaurants, and he thought the streets were too wide...) So we found the nearest cheap motel. We picked up some ice cream on the way at a Sonic. It was my first time at sonic and I found it very strange! Every car has their own personal speaker to order in a parking space. Even though we sat at the tables, we still had to order through a machine and they brought the food out to us. I was also disappointed because the employees weren't on roller skates like in the Sonic commercials. But the ice cream was great!

The highlight of today: we passed the section of the interstate where North 81 and South 77 are the same road an South 81 is the same as North 77. This is a very rare signing phenomenon and Ben was pumped about it!

Location:Lithia Rd,Wytheville,United States