The Petition Lives!

I've only got 10 minutes (whoops 9) on this library computer that is only slightly faster than smoke signals, so I will relate a single episode from two days ago. We arrived in Lexington, Virgina. (bonus question: What Civil War generals are buried here?) We came to a nice looking cafe where a guy sitting with his girlfriend asked about us. We told him we were about to go up Vesuvius. Apparently it is a grade slightly steeper than the one Sisyphus rolled that rock up. He told us as much saying, "I teach a spin class, and I can tell you, you'll be walking those bikes." Well, I didn't want to walk the bike because we've made it this far without having to do so. He gave us a different route. We took it and it was terrific. But the anecdote isn't this. It's this. The owner of the cafe comes out, sees our laden bikes and says, "How about a fill up for your water bottles." We tell her we want lunch. She asks about the trip. We tell her about the global warming petition and she takes it to every single patron in her filled cafe. They all sign. Probably they thought they'd get a free piece of cheesecake or something. But the sight was awesome. We could barely eat our food for people were streaming over to our table to sign. If this scene were to happen in Hutchinson, Kansas or anywhere in Kentucky then I would know that the battle was won.

Times up. I'll close with this. We have conquered 4 giant mountain ranges and have ridden 3,600 miles. All we have left is 125 miles of flat land to D.C. I cannot believe that we have actually traveled across the entire USA from coast to coast on bicycles. Bonus question 2: What has been our average rate of speed? Hint: Yonah is the fastest at about .3 miles per hour faster than me.

Matt