"Entry for Saturday, 13 September 1997

1. The Supermarket & Retailer Mountain Racing Team (SRMRT) poses for a group photo before the day's challenge. Left to Right: Robby Poore, Ray Poore, Steve Maister, and Jonathan Poore.

2. At at rest stop going up Whitetop Mountain. Left to right: Steve, Robby, and Jonathan.

3. Resting at Whitetop Gap elev. 3740 feet (1140 m). Steve, Robby and Jonathan.

4. The SRMRT is caught walking up one of the steep sections. Steve, Jonathan and Robby in the distance.

5. Ray celebrates entering the last state of the cross country trip.

6. Pugh's Store in Piney Creek North Carolina. Steve and Robby.

Last Modified on 9/24/97 at 5:39:07

Day's Narrative: This was the day of the mountains.

The four of us, Steve Maister, Robby Poore, Jonathan Poore and Ray Poore, had our pictures taken in Steve's new shirts (photo 1) and then ate breakfast. We got off about 9 am. This was a little late, but it would be a short day, so we weren't in a hurry.

We left Abington, VA and started down US 58 headed for Sparta, North Carolina, about 60 miles (100 km) away. As we were leaving town we noticed a sign warning that vehicles longer than 35 feet (10.5 m) were not allowed on the highway going to Volney, NC, which is where we were going. Usually this means that there are tight mountain curves. We really didn't have any choice of roads, so we were resigned to crossing whatever mountain there was.

Only a little way out of Abingdon, VA we reached the North Carolina state line and stopped to take pictures at the sign. Ray celebrated entering the last state of the trip (photo 5).

About 10 miles (16 km) down the road we noticed lots of mountain bikes on trailers on the road. We stopped and asked one of the drivers and found that they were being carried to the top of Whitetop Mountain to ride down a trail made from an old railroad grade. A short time later we started the ascent of Whitetop Mountain. The grade was quite steep in a few places, and only Robby with his Trek touring bike had gears low enough to allow him to pedal up those sections of the road. So we all walked them (photo 4). This made the ascent much slower than we had expected. About noon we reached Whitetop Gap (photo 3). The climb was about 2000 feet (610 m).

Connie caught up with us about 1 pm and we had lunch at a roadside store. We were well behind our schedule due to the steep mountain grades. At the store we asked and discovered that we had to climb one more mountain before starting the descent into Mouth of Wilson. Yes, that's really the name of the town.

We climbed the next mountain which also had a couple of steep grades where we walked. Down the road after the descent we stopped at the first store we found, Pugh's Store in Piney Creek, NC (photo 6). It was now about 4:30, and our "short" ride had become a long one due to the mountain grades and frequent rest stops.

Stacy and Lynne caught up with us just after this rest stop. We were really looking forward to the motel and hot showers in Sparta, which now was only 12 miles (20 km) away.

We got to Sparta and discovered that its only motel was full, and Connie, Lynne and Stacy were nowhere to be found. I called Connie on the cell phone and she said she was 12 miles (20 km) down the road and had rooms reserved there. We really didn't want to ride anymore, but we had no choice. By the time we got to the motel the sun is getting close to setting. It turned out that the motel was really bad -- one room smelled like there was a dead animal under the floor, and in addition we could only get two rooms when we wanted three. Lynne and Stacy found another nicer motel a few miles farther down the road and we told the owner that we were leaving and got our money back. They didn't accept credit cards.

We mounted up again -- the sun was now behind the mountains -- and rode to the next motel. We got there before it got dark enough to be too dangerous to ride, although Robby, Jonathan and Steve put the flashing red lights on the backs of their bikes. The motel was nice. We were all really bushed.

Tomorrow we will have a short 55 mile (90 km) ride to Winston Salem, NC. The mountains are behind us now. However, we will have some hilly roads near Chapel Hill.

In Winston Salem we plan to stay at the Holiday Inn-Madision (there are 3 Holiday Inns in Winston Salem). The phone is 910-767-9595. We don't expect any difficulty getting rooms since it's Sunday and it's been our experience that most motels are empty on Sunday night.

[Connie] It's 11:30 PM now and we're all really tired. We have learned through the past weeks that Saturday is a hard day to get a motel. I took the rooms I found since they were there and at the previous motel in Sparta, they had put up the "No Vacancy" sign just as I rode up. The motel we left was a "Mom and Mom" motel. The lady was running trying to get laundry from the dryer onto the beds while also having to cook a meal for some customers for the restaurant--graded A in November '96, but distinctly more like a C- today.

There were two able-bodied men around who seemed to think that if something needed to be done, it was her job. She worked extremely hard to pull it together, but the one room was pretty bad.

The first thing a motel guest notices is smell, and that of sour vomit, dead creatures or whatever, is not acceptable. I had waited for about 2 hours while she tried to pull it all together and hadn't even seen one of the rooms -- the stinky one -- until Lynne and Stacy came up. They were the ones to go down the road to see if there was another motel further on. There was, and we are much more comfortable here. In our room -- which Steve would have had to share -- there was no light in the bathroom, no doorknob on the inside of the bathroom door. In short, the place was a disaster.

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© Ray & Connie Poore, 1997