we ended up staying in damascus for almost a week-- definitely our longest stop. the town is amazing, small enough that by the time we finally pulled ourselves away it sort of felt like leaving home. we stayed with our new friend dennett, who we met at trivia night and who graciously took us in. not only did he offer us couches, but also a ride to the carter family fold for an all-night bluegrass festival. the next night he took us to a farm party where nearly everyone living in damascus-- all ages-- came together to bet on how many cans of beers could fit into a heavy-duty tank used to store bull semen. neither of us won (it could fit 401!) but we did get to light fireworks and play in the old men vs. young ladies volleyball competition. we lost that, too. over the next few days we hiked and biked around the area to nearby waterfalls and rocks, (even rode into tennessee!), and got into the bad habit of staying up till the wee hours and sleeping till noon. the town is right in the mountains, and while only 900 people live there it has 7 bike stores and a bunch of outdoors stores (and a fly-fishing-outfitter/espresso bar). especially after a month of moving, we liked being able to walk around town and wave to everyone we knew. we finally admitted to ourselves that we actually do have schedules, and headed into bristol, tennessee (the self-proclaimed birthplace of country music) to get on a 15 hour wacky greyhound bus ride to philadelphia. we're there now, wandering aimlessly and adjusting back into city-mode.
anyway, in 3 hours we're off to ny. crazy that our trip is almost over. we have loved (almost) every moment of it--thank you to every person who helped us along the way, you have shown us how good people really are. maybe there is no way to escape sounding too corny, but we are definitely coming home with a wider lens of the country and a new sense of our place in it. we're already planning our next lap around... anybody want to bike the west?
love,
c+s
(oh, and our emails are cturett@gmail.com + skendall87@gmail.com-- please stay in touch! especially those of you who didn't give us your information. also let us know if you're coming through nyc, ohio, or southern california. we've got a whole lot of generosity to repay.)
bicycaling!
8.02.2007
writing from damascus, virginia, a place that has been our kinda-sorta-maybe destination since day 1! its awesome because it's where our bike route intersects with the appalachian trail and the virginia creeper trail-- an old railroad that's been converted to a bike path, which makes it a great little biker-hiker mecca right on the river and at the heart of the appalachian mountains. we're not sure what the next part of our trip will look like, we're thinking of hiking/boating around here for a few days, or getting on a bus and going somewhere for our last week (any ideas?) or maybe continuing east via bicycles before hopping a bus (or a ride? anyone?). it feels great to have such a blank slate in front of us and we're soaking up the lack of structure. it's also incredibly beautiful right here, and we're sort of thinking of making this a final destination.. forever.. we're also pretty happy to chill out for a bit cause we've had a crazy week.
since our last post we've found ourselves plunged into american history, biking alongside tourists on horse and buggies, following daniel boone's footsteps, passing through abe lincoln's birthplace and the home of the father of bluegrass, bill monroe. (!!!!!!!!!) we got into a little bit of a kentucky-slump as we started to realize how wide the state actually is, waking up later and taking afternoon cat naps and veeeery long lunch breaks. we spent one entire afternoon eating watermelon with an amish couple who were so good looking they looked like celebrities playing amish people. our tendency towards long conversation even got us into a few local newspapers, so if you're around kentucky look out for our smiling (sweaty) faces.
passing from state to state has made us ultra-aware of the slight differences between different regions in america, mostly in the food we eat, probably cause we eat so freakin much of it. entering into kentucky we immediately saw fried chicken and sweet tea served everywhere (woohoo!) and have become way too knowledgable about the variations of hashbrowns across the country. cara likes kansas hasbrowns, sara is a kentucky girl. we also hit a few college towns in eastern kentucky, and were actually way-too-excited to be back in the land of overpriced coffee and the whole collegey thing. (note to nate and mark: in danville we almost ended up camping on the lawn of the president of centre college! him and his wife are big fans of yours.) berea was also a cool place and the home of a college where every student works for tuition. we spent a whole day there hanging out with baptist hippies at a peace conference and a minister who refuses to wear shoes. town sirens told us there was severe weather in the area and we were happy to not be on our bicycles, especially after we made an anarchist folk-singing friend named jack who found us a big quaker meeting house to stay in, took us to a swimming hole, and even biked 83 miles with us the next day. poor jack joined us for our longest and hardest day as we got lost and found ourselves winding through lush tobacco fields and up and down mountains that stretched on forever. some surprises along the way: the red lick bluegrass festival where we stopped to listen and eat deliciously gross festival food-- we even got front row seats and free admission... and a writer's workshop in hindman where we were given a tent to sleep in, showers, breakfast and got to spend time with some cool writers.
for those of you who actually read our nonsense, we've obviously had a pretty blessed trip and have had nothing but luck along the way. until all sorts of bad luck came at us at once-- we started the morning by getting totally lost on a busy highway and ended up staring at a sign that read "BICYCLES PROHIBITED", an ordeal which added like 12 miles. when we finally found our way-- onto another bad highway with no shoulder-- sara took a big spill onto the middle of the road. she's fine, but has a gnarly knee-wound to show for it. we stopped at the next grocery to get a bandage, only to find ourselves face-to-face with a 90+ yr old cashier who tried to charge cara 100 dollars and make her fill out an application for a value card. burnt out, we decided to push on, but got stopped only a few miles further by a sudden downpour forcing us onto the side of the road to avoid coal trucks with bad brakes. eek! we were starting to wonder if maybe this wasn't the best day for us to ride-- someone or something was trying to stop us from getting to damascus-- but we're stubborn and a little mad. as we went on a lightning storm erupted just overhead, hitting the closest power line and scaring the bajeezus out of us. we got off our metal bikes and huddled under someone's porch. we heard later that only 2 miles down the same road someone was killed by a flying roof. guess time was on our side. after that scare, the day did a 180: the woman whose porch we had invaded invited us into dinner, and later her son offered us a ride to the next town, abingdon-- another historic spot with a big festival going on. we went to see oliver at the barter theater, one of the oldest theaters in the country where, during the great depression, hungry actors charged 35 cents or the equivalent in food. farmers brought their surplus crops and everyone won-- in the first year, the actors made less than $4 but had a total weight gain of over 300 pounds. we offered our peanut butter and jelly and a few soggy granola bars but they were unimpresed. we really liked spending a night at the theater with spandex and bloody knees, although our neighbors might have felt differently. we also met a group of fireman who gave us a key to their station, lounge and showers included. we would've slept on their monster couches if not for the terrifying emergency dispatches that came in on the loudspeaker every few minutes. we went to sleep that night not only exhausted, but pretty grateful. sometimes it takes some real lows to appreciate the highs. maybe we had gotten a bit too used to things going our way. 
we'll let you all know our next destination as soon as we know it. in the meantime, if anybody feels like taking a road trip, or is anywhere north or east (or south or west) of here let us know, cause we might just find our way to your doors. for those of you in new york, we'll be home in about a week?
love! c+s
since our last post we've found ourselves plunged into american history, biking alongside tourists on horse and buggies, following daniel boone's footsteps, passing through abe lincoln's birthplace and the home of the father of bluegrass, bill monroe. (!!!!!!!!!) we got into a little bit of a kentucky-slump as we started to realize how wide the state actually is, waking up later and taking afternoon cat naps and veeeery long lunch breaks. we spent one entire afternoon eating watermelon with an amish couple who were so good looking they looked like celebrities playing amish people. our tendency towards long conversation even got us into a few local newspapers, so if you're around kentucky look out for our smiling (sweaty) faces.
passing from state to state has made us ultra-aware of the slight differences between different regions in america, mostly in the food we eat, probably cause we eat so freakin much of it. entering into kentucky we immediately saw fried chicken and sweet tea served everywhere (woohoo!) and have become way too knowledgable about the variations of hashbrowns across the country. cara likes kansas hasbrowns, sara is a kentucky girl. we also hit a few college towns in eastern kentucky, and were actually way-too-excited to be back in the land of overpriced coffee and the whole collegey thing. (note to nate and mark: in danville we almost ended up camping on the lawn of the president of centre college! him and his wife are big fans of yours.) berea was also a cool place and the home of a college where every student works for tuition. we spent a whole day there hanging out with baptist hippies at a peace conference and a minister who refuses to wear shoes. town sirens told us there was severe weather in the area and we were happy to not be on our bicycles, especially after we made an anarchist folk-singing friend named jack who found us a big quaker meeting house to stay in, took us to a swimming hole, and even biked 83 miles with us the next day. poor jack joined us for our longest and hardest day as we got lost and found ourselves winding through lush tobacco fields and up and down mountains that stretched on forever. some surprises along the way: the red lick bluegrass festival where we stopped to listen and eat deliciously gross festival food-- we even got front row seats and free admission... and a writer's workshop in hindman where we were given a tent to sleep in, showers, breakfast and got to spend time with some cool writers.
for those of you who actually read our nonsense, we've obviously had a pretty blessed trip and have had nothing but luck along the way. until all sorts of bad luck came at us at once-- we started the morning by getting totally lost on a busy highway and ended up staring at a sign that read "BICYCLES PROHIBITED", an ordeal which added like 12 miles. when we finally found our way-- onto another bad highway with no shoulder-- sara took a big spill onto the middle of the road. she's fine, but has a gnarly knee-wound to show for it. we stopped at the next grocery to get a bandage, only to find ourselves face-to-face with a 90+ yr old cashier who tried to charge cara 100 dollars and make her fill out an application for a value card. burnt out, we decided to push on, but got stopped only a few miles further by a sudden downpour forcing us onto the side of the road to avoid coal trucks with bad brakes. eek! we were starting to wonder if maybe this wasn't the best day for us to ride-- someone or something was trying to stop us from getting to damascus-- but we're stubborn and a little mad. as we went on a lightning storm erupted just overhead, hitting the closest power line and scaring the bajeezus out of us. we got off our metal bikes and huddled under someone's porch. we heard later that only 2 miles down the same road someone was killed by a flying roof. guess time was on our side. after that scare, the day did a 180: the woman whose porch we had invaded invited us into dinner, and later her son offered us a ride to the next town, abingdon-- another historic spot with a big festival going on. we went to see oliver at the barter theater, one of the oldest theaters in the country where, during the great depression, hungry actors charged 35 cents or the equivalent in food. farmers brought their surplus crops and everyone won-- in the first year, the actors made less than $4 but had a total weight gain of over 300 pounds. we offered our peanut butter and jelly and a few soggy granola bars but they were unimpresed. we really liked spending a night at the theater with spandex and bloody knees, although our neighbors might have felt differently. we also met a group of fireman who gave us a key to their station, lounge and showers included. we would've slept on their monster couches if not for the terrifying emergency dispatches that came in on the loudspeaker every few minutes. we went to sleep that night not only exhausted, but pretty grateful. sometimes it takes some real lows to appreciate the highs. maybe we had gotten a bit too used to things going our way. 
we'll let you all know our next destination as soon as we know it. in the meantime, if anybody feels like taking a road trip, or is anywhere north or east (or south or west) of here let us know, cause we might just find our way to your doors. for those of you in new york, we'll be home in about a week?
love! c+s
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coal train with 127 cars
