6/19 66 143mi ? catawba,VA

Woke upearly and had a hikers secial for $5 at the exxon gas station just outside of town. I got on the road real early at 7:30 and just decided to make some good miles today. Started off with a climb pretty much right off the bat and it wasn't real steep so whatever. Saw a lot of horse trailers on the descent, must be some good equestrian stuff around here. Rode on backcountry farm roads a lot and parralelled the highway a lot. Ran out of water and stopped by a church to see if they had a hose or something. There were 4 cyclists lounging around ther and 1 of the girls, Aaron, gave me some water and I took about half a bottle because I felt bad about running out when I should know better. They told me there was a rider around 10 minutes ahead of me and I thought it might be mike since he had taken a more direct route than me and cut off some miles. I caught up to mike while later and he was in bad shape. He said he was really dragging and just wanted to get to the coast. I think that he needs a day off because he is overtrained, but I don't think he will take one. Beat the darkness and made it to catawba. I gave a little fist pump when I made it into town because I really wanted somewhere decent to sleep. I haven't really been to emotional like that outwardly on the bike. I think I might have given a little fist pump after summitting monarch pass, but I don't know for sure. Found a city park and just after I got there and laid my stuff out apolice officer rolled up, uh oh I thought. He was cool and said to not worry about it. I was al settled down reading my book when he rolled up again and I thought oh no again. He had picked up a couple of thru-hikers and was dropping them off at the park Iwas staying at. I met spoon and hazard, all thru-hikers have trail names, andthey definitely have it harder thatn I do. they were very excited about stuff that I take fr granted on this trip. I rode pretty much all day today, literally. My longest stop was for lunch which was like 30 minures, maybe. snacked on the go and would stop to fill up my bottles. Can't wait to get over the last climb tomorrow, but its going to be another long day.