Oh West Virginia, how do we love thee, let us count the ways; one mountain, two mountain, three mountain, four. Add some wind, a windey road, and the legs begin to get sore. The last three days have, by far, been the most physically and mentally taxing of the trip thus far. We can attribute this to one singular factor, and that factor is the wild wonderful state of West Virginia.

It all started with a mountain about 100 miles ago called bear, and that’s exactly what it was. The climb up to 2200 feet gave new meaning to the phrase, “feel the burn” and somehow on the way down the other side the was met with such a forceful head wind that we were actually stopped on the road regardless of the fact that we were going down hill. Minus a few choice pieces of profanity, the general sentiment was, “Are YOU KIDDING ME??”

The following three days included three more mountains, which seriously hindered our progress. As opposed to our normal 60 miles or so a day, we were averaging around 20-30. Thankfully now on the fourth day in WVA, we have put the last of them behind us. Allow us to share with you an excerpt from an email to Nikki Caffery enumerating upon some recent events:

“For the past 3 days we've ridden up four different mountains: Bear, Cooper, Backbone, and Laurel. The tallest of which was about 3200 feet, and when you're starting at sea level with no real conditioning to prepare you for this, that is an epic climb. it turns out Dagen has some kind of superhuman strength in those stupid soccer legs of his. Somehow he manages to consistently ride straight up the mountain without breaks. It is as impressive as it is irritating. The rides down the mountains make it almost worth the climb though. its pretty awesome rocketing down one side of a mountain having just sweated your brains out during a 3 hour climb.

A lot of the little comforts we take for granted have also become coveted treasures among our little group. Things like showers or food for example. We spend the entire morning ride longing for lunch, and days at a time aching for showers. but when we actually do sit down for a meal or step into a crappy little motel rain box, its like the most amazing thing you've ever experienced. Fried chicken or warm water never felt so satisfying as it does after a long day of riding.”

However, West Virginia has not been all bad…there have been some upsides to our journey through this state. Firstly, the pure amusement that we have gotten out of noticing the simple idiosyncrasies of West Virginia has been worth the trouble. For example, most couples who have just tied the knot plan an exotic vacation or at least some time off, but not here in West Virginia. Here they visit the “Honeymooner’s Gun Shop” just off of route 50 where they can purchase enough weaponry to start World War III just before they consummate their marriage. Other indication that we are not in Pittsburgh anymore would be the gas stations. In PA gas stations you may expect to see some candy, beverages, energy drinks, and maybe a medicine isle. In West Virginia the gas stations have all that but they also have dear and bear heads hanging from the walls, guns and ammunition so you can kill your own dear and bears for your walls at home, and yes booze…lots of booze.

West Virginia’s nature scene is also just about as breathtaking as its mountains are tall, and we got our first real experience with this just two nights ago. We had just finished coming down a 3 mile downhill ride off of Cheat mountain (which was invigorating as we found ourselves riding along side of the Cheat River). We found an excellent camping spot right by the river where we set up our tent so we could listen to the rapids as we dozed off. This also made for a great local to take a extremely homo erotic bath in the freezing water…please don’t judge us, we needed to bathe.

Other than that we have realized that Maryland roads are much more flat and better kept than West Virginians and that prices in this state are still stuck in the 1960’s. However, our journey in this state is coming to a close and we should be in Ohio by the beginning of tomorrow or the end of the day. Stay tuned, as the adventures continue.