Day Ten - The Cookie Lady.

Really sorry about the lack of updates recently, it's hard to find Internet access.. especially seeing as I have an 11 digit phone number, and places like Starbucks and McDonalds require you to register with a 10 digit one, or be an AT&T customer. So basically I rely upon Librarys and Motel wireless access to do all this stuff..

Also, thankyou everyone for your messages and emails, I'll try and reply to them all tonight after I catch up on blog posts.

Anyway, the following refers to Sunday 10th May.

I woke up this morning after a fairly disturbed night due to my acquired roomates snoring, I slept in until about 7:30 or so, got all my stuff together and went out in search of food. Before I left for the US, Taco Bell was reccommended to me, and i've wanted to try one on a number of occassions, but never have. This time was to be no different, it was shut. After a wrap thing from burger king (it was that or McDonalds.. not that much is open early on a Sunday in my defence..), I set off. I'd heard that today was meant to be particularly tough, so I went with the mindset that I had all day to do the distance and speed east hugely important. I find myself getting frustrated if I get stuck going 6mph up the side of a hill, and so by knowing they're coming helps you plan out timescales and distances better. During my cycling, I spoke to quite a few people who were interested in where I was going etc. I also found time to eat some frozen yoghurt from a fruit farm, which was both tasty and hugely satisfying. I had about 6 miles to go until the Cookie Ladys house from here, and my pace didn't go above 10mph. The last two miles were ridiculously steep, if I had stopped moving the I'd have to have pushed. I met Bert again at the top of the hill having set off before me this morning. We walked over the bridge to the cookie ladys house. I should explain who this is for those those who don't know - she is a lady who has lived on the trans-am trail since it's creation 30 years ago, and basically gives water, food and shelter to cyclists passing through. We sat and heard her stories of all the people she's met (she reckons over 12000 cyclists over the years). She then took our polaroids which will eventually go on the Internet, and gave us the keys to the bike house.

This house is where I am now, and it's basically a shrine to the Cookie Lady and the Trans-Am. People leave something here as they pass through, be it a jersey, a postcard, a note, a newspaper cutting, you name it, it's here. There is also a load of tinned food which we can help ourselves to, and sofas to sleep on. I also found out that the outdoor shower is a cold one, which was a necessary but somewhat unpleasant experience. You would be surprised at how cold water can stay in a hosepipe when it's hot outside...

I decided that this would be an ideal time for me to do all my laundry, and I did just that.. ALL my laundry. I got it all hung out to dry by 4pm, where it was still hot, but definitely cooling. I've since brought it all inside, time will tell if I get it all dry in time, or I start tomorrow with wet socks.

Tonight I've eaten a tin of macaroni + chili, which was tasty, but burnt my mouth. I'm going to get an early night tonight, tomorrow may well be even harder than today. Not 100% where I'm going, either a really small place called Vesuvius, or onto Lexington, about 18 miles further.