Day 11 May 22nd

Honaker, VA to Elkhorn City, KY 58 miles
The day started out good. I got enough sleep and no one bothered me. I charged my phone while I ate a peanut butter sandwich outside the library. There was a big climb right outside of Honaker but it wasn’t going to be as bad as the day before. On the way down I met a guy named Danny who was going to San Francisco. He seemed ok and he was setting a good pace for me to follow. I lost him when I had to repair my tire. I was fixing it in the parking lot of a pharmacy and a nice lady came out and offered me some Gatorade which I was very appreciative of. There was another climb through Breaks Interstate Park but again wasn’t as bad as the day before but maybe worse than the morning. On the way down I had to fix my tire again but this time there was a lot more traffic, little shoulder, and no one offering me something to drink. I made it to Elkhorn City by 2 after 40 some miles and had lunch at a diner. The ladies there said I could probably make it to Hindman, where there is a library, free camping, and where Danny was going. It was going to be another 60 miles but they convinced me to give it a try.
Disaster. My second tube is totally messed up with holes. So I decided to switch it out for the first one which only had one hole. I got it fixed and rode for a few miles toward Hindman. But this tube became flat after a few miles and I was completely out of patches to fix the holes. I had patched 5 holes that day on my two tubes. Plus the wheel wont fit through the rear breaks which makes me think that the rear wheel is bent and causing the tubes to rip also. Now I had a 10 mile walk back to Elkhorn City. The road was very curvy and dangerous with little shoulder and cars passing at pretty high speeds. Eventually a man name Lythe picked me up and offered me a ride into town. We stopped at a mechanic he knew but the mechanic didn’t know what to do to fix the bike and didn’t really have any suggestions. Lythe dropped me off in the middle of town. They are actually having a civil war reenactment this weekend and I am camped by a group of confederate soldiers. Even the kids are dressed up like it’s the 1860s. I had BBQ and a blooming onion for dinner which lifted my spirits for about a minute. I really don’t know what I’m going to do about my bike. I’m going to try to get my old tire back from the store in Radford but I still have to get to a major city with a bike shop. Elkhorn only has about 1000 people in it and very few services. I’m probably going to have to hitch hike or pay someone to take me to a major city like Lexington, KY but even that is a 3 hour drive. Maybe a re-enactor is going that way but it’s going to be tough to find out. I’m really worried that this is how my trip is going to end.
I also forgot my pants when I was getting dressed outside the Honaker Library so now I only have a pair of mesh shorts and I think my map fell out in Lythe’s truck. But if I make it to Lexington it shouldn’t be that hard to pick up the trail again because a new sheet of maps starts pretty close to there.
What a terrible day.