We eat a lot though out the day, stopping periodically for food. We figure we burn on the average of about 5 to 6 thousand calories a day. Here the three of us just finished sucking it all down.
Ever wondered where President James Monroe used to live? Now you know.
Our lodging for the night in Charlottesville, Va.
You meet some of the nicest people in the world on a tour like this, Claudia on the left, and Mallisa were no exception. Claudia is the substitute Post Mistress at this tiny little corner Post Office in the town of Kent Store. I only saw one store and a Post office. Mallisa used to own a little corner store that closed for one reason or another, and told us that she just loved it when touring cyclist came by. She rides a little herself. 
We stopped to take a picture of this old hounted looking house. Turns out it used to be a school at one point.
This old building sat by itself on the side of the road. It made me wonder what role it played in the history of this place.
German engineering in progress.
Believe it or not, there's a snake down there. I went down to the stream to see if I could photograph some of those neat little turtles. When this snake about 3 feet long slithered away from about 5 feet away from me.
The old train station in Mineral, Va. It's abandoned, but trains still use the tracks in front of it.
Leaving the Mineral all volunteer fire department on our way to Charlottesville.57 hard miles today. there were a lot of hills. Not very big ones, but a lot of them. It is by far our hardest day yet. We didn't pull into our motel till well after 7:00PM. To make things worse. The University of Virginia here in Charlottesville has it's graduation this weekend. So this town of 45,000 plus, is really cooking. We almost couldn't find a place to stay.
Today's ride took us through some really nice hill country. There were miles of rolling hills and numerous little stream crossings that gave us an excuse to stop every few miles. It is beautiful country out here. At one of these stops, A snake gave me the scare of my life when it took of just a few feet from me. I yelled, "Snake!" which brought Lisa and Fabian to check out what all the commotion was all about. They didn't seen impressed one bit.
The rain haunted us though out part of the day, but we were fortunate enough to avoid the showers. I think it was The Lord Giving us safe passage, because at one point we were traveling during rush hour on a very busy winding road. If it were raining, visibility would have made it very dangerous. Thank You Lord Jesus.
We also went past two former presidents homes. James Monroe. and Thomas Jefferson. Did you know that 6 of our nation's presidents were from Virginia, including George Washington?
Saturday will be our first rest day. Our bikes are giving us a little trouble. Fabian needs his rear wheel professionally trued, and Lisa and I need to have our front derailleurs looked at. I have trouble shifting in to the small ring. Almost like there's not enough pressure in the return spring to over come the friction of the pivot. Weird, I've never had that happen before. Also my bottom bracket for the crank arms started to come loose. It was making strange noises that got worse as the rise progressed. Luckily I brought a full home mechanics bike maintenance kit along and was able to address the problem, but shoud have it checked to see if there were any related problems.
Tonight we stay at the Budget Inn in Charlottesville, but will have to hunt for another place tomorrow night since it is graduation time here. Thank you all again for thinking and praying for our safe journey. I'm not quite sure when we will have internet again, but will make updates when ever possible.
Aloha kaua, Ted.
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