Day 16. Waynesville, NC.
Remember how I said I was going to tell you how I feel about the mountains after we rode over them? Well you might say the mountains and I have a bad romance. On our ride into Asheville 3 days ago, we climbed over 6,000 feet (80 miles). The day before that we climbed to 4412 ft elevation before we rode down into Newland, NC (65 miles). Those 2 days were the most physically demanding thing I have ever done. And we also saw the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. Every time I cursed the incline for making every part of my body hurt, we'd reach the peak and look out onto the Blue Ridge Mountains and just forget it was even hard to get up there. I am so proud that every rider made it into Asheville without having to be picked up by the van. Even one of our leaders, Nate (who's done 3 Bike & Build trips), said that that was the hardest day he's ever had on Bike & Build. And once again, once everyone was together, it was gravy.
Asheville was interesting. It was the first place we've stopped where the hospitality left something to be desired. I don't think I ever saw or talked to a single person who worked at the church, and we're used to really engaging with our hosts. It was a really great location in relation to the downtown area though, and we were able to explore a little bit. The town of Asheville is, I'm told, called the "San Francisco of the East." I believe it. Super hippie town. Almost uncomfortably so. It was just an odd stay all around. I know that we've been incredibly spoiled with how great our hosts have been thus far, and I'm just holding Asheville to a high standard...but I was ready to get out of there. The Habitat crew we worked with was awesome though. We had 2 really great build days with them. I was cutting wood with power saws and drilling and we put a roof together and installed all the windows in this house...it was a really good experience. They even gave us all t-shirts on the last day because they liked us so much. So Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity - tight. Asheville itself - meh.
Today we rode into Waynesville, NC. It was a nice short (and minimally hilly) 32 mile ride. Myles and I were "Sweep" which means that we are the last 2 riders of the group to make sure that everyone makes it to the host site. We rotate 2 different people on sweep everyday. Today was a great day to be sweep because it was such a short ride, and we went through towns the entire way. We had coffee with Kelly (one of our leaders who was driving the van today) in Asheville to give everyone a head start, then just cruised. We stopped at a flea market on the side of the road and talked to the locals about what we were doing. Some of them had even seen us on the news :) We ran into a couple of local cyclists who were training for a triathlon in the area and rode with them for a couple miles...It was a super smooth day to be sweep. I did lose a contact about 6 miles from our host site and have to ride in with kind of altered perception...but it was cool. We had lunch in town here and I had some real delicious fish tacos. Tonight there happens to be a block party going down on Main St. We're all pretty excited about it (and I keep forgetting it's Memorial Day weekend). There's also a bar called O'Malley's (where we'll plan our escape?). Waynesville is looking good so far....
I can't believe we've been on the road for 16 days and ridden over 600 miles already. We cross our first state line tomorrow into Tennessee! Exciting. Time is flyin', next stop Gatlinburg...
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