24 May 2010, Taylorsville, NC

(This is being posted late, but is the journal entry I wrote for my favorite day of the trip so far, the ride from the lake house to Taylorsville, NC.)

Day 11.  Mileage: 64

Today was super.  Definitely the best day yet.  Last night we were at the Lake House in Richfield (High Rock Lake).  It was a really exhausting day of riding to get up there, so most people just crashed. But today...

We stopped about 7 miles out at this gas station to pee, and it turned out to be the greatest place ever.  It was also a hunting post, so it had all kinds of camo and supplies, etc. Stutte bought beef jerky and this fantastic bandana that says "TATTOOED TRASH."  There was also a sign on the door that said "please pay before loading corn."  [Note: Joe just gave me a headlight that you wear on your head so I could keep writing after they turned the lights out.] After the gas station we trekked on.  The roads today were great.  THESE are what I call rolling hills: you roll down them and easily roll back up.  I can deal with these across the country.  I didn't drop to my granny gear once all day.  I hope that it's me getting better at climbing that's making me feel like it isn't so hard.

We saw a fire station with its doors open so we stopped and took pictures with the fire engine and firemen.  They were really nice, and by the time we got to Taylorsville (the station was in Salisbury), the fire chief was already following me on Twitter.  (How awesome is it that the fire chief from Salisbury, NC has a twitter?)

Moving on with our day, Stutte suggested that the next thing we should take pictures with is a fake animal, or something obnoxiously oversized.  Lo and behold, we happen upon a gigantic inflatable blue gorilla wearing yellow sunglasses and a bikini.  Her name is Rebecca Jane according to the super nice guys who owned the car dealership (I believe we were in Cleveland, NC).  Awesome pictures ensued. 

The last 16 miles were not quite as exciting, we were riding along the highway, which was nicely paved but not nearly as interesting as going through towns.  We had a couple tough climbs in there, and as we reached the peak of one of the last ones, we saw the mountains on the horizon.  It was gorgeous.  But we'll see what I have to say about them when I have to ride over them tomorrow and the next day...