"Watch out for deer, bears, and people!"

Current location: Chillicothe, OH

Total miles traveled: 509 miles

Good eveni... I mean morning! We checked into our hotel at 12:25 a.m. after spending over 3 hours desperately searching for a hotel. We were so desperate that we even stopped at the sketchy hotels.

First, we woke up around 5:30 a.m. so that we could leave by 6:00 a.m. 6:00, ha. HAHA. Ha! By the time we fed all the cats, dogs, and chickens, it was after 8:30 before we rolled out. NC was very uneventful, which I am now very grateful for. Driving through VA, we began to realize that something was odd, but having not watched the news, we were completely unaware of the fact that armageddon hit the area. All the restaurants were slam packed full, but we just figured that it was Saturday a.m. and folks in Lynchburg must really like to take their families out to breakfast on Saturday mornings! There was an hour wait at cracker barrel and the hostess explained that the power was out in the area which is why everyone and their sister/cousin/momma were out at breakfast. Okay, so Lynchburg had no power, simple right? WRONG!

We literally could not find any power from the time we left Lexington, VA to the time that we finally arrived in OH. The whole state of WV had no power whatsoever. We had no cash on us, which is typically not a problem; however, the lack of power led to lack of phone lines, which led to lack of credit/debit cards being able to be used, as well as lack of working ATMs. This became a huge problem. At one rest stop, we met Mr. Overshare who was also on a bike and gave us a bit of advice... "Watch out for the deer, bears, and people. Especially the people. My buddy just got run over and his baby was due in 2 weeks." Whomp, Whomp, Whomp. Exactly what you want to hear on a cross country motorcycle trip!

Our motorcycle can go around 170 miles between fill ups so we kept riding thinking that we would hit an area with electricity sooner or later; however, that did not happen. When we finally found a gas station in West Virginia that had gas, we were told that we could wait in line (2 hour wait) but the station would likely run out of gas in the next 20 minutes.

Out of nowhere, the strangest and most unbelievable thing happened. This bluegrass band showed up and started playing bluegrass music. I swear I am not making this up. They busted out with some Oh Brother Where Art Thou tunes. I looked around to see the reaction of other folks because I thought surely the heat had gotten to me and I was beginning to have hallucinations. No one seemed to be alarmed and/or discombobulated, so this must be a regular occurance. Next something amazing happened. This is not a religious blog, but if you are not a fan of Jesus, you might want to skip past the next few paragraphs.

If you know me at all, you know that I do not believe in the power of good people. It's not that I want to be untrusting, it's just that my life experiences have led me to this conclusion... I mean, hello, have you seen this scar on my right cheek? You will never be able to convince me that God wasn't taking care of us our first day.

A random lady heard us asking the cashier how far the nearest ATM or place to get cash was since we had none whatsoever, and she gave us $15 in cash. I couldn't believe it. Here is a person who has no power, her home could be in disarray but she is offering to help us. We got her address and her repayment plus interest will be in the mail as soon as we return. Since they were about to run out of gas, we drove to the next exit, where we were told that there was one more gas station about 5 miles away. We started driving and all of sudden, we ran out of gas and had to switch to reserve. Finally, after what felt like forever, we arrived at the pumps. A very nice policeman came to talk to us and we told him our situation of gas how we were so far from home. He told us that he would try to sneak us in before they ran out of gas. We assumed that he was just being nice, but about 45 minutes later, a fireman came by to get us out of line. Wow! These people in the area are so nice.

We kept looking for a town with power so we could get gas, but after two hours, there was nothing! We missed our exit somehow and we were beginning to get frustrated when we saw a gas station that appeared to have power. We stopped, ran in to check, and received news that we were mistaken. There was gas, but no credit cards. While I was telling Ricky this news, the man in front of us overhead our situation, got out of his tricks, and said that he was going to fill our tank up. I couldn't believe how much we were being looked after. He refused to give us his name or address for repayment, and simply asked that we "pass it on to the next fellow." After this experience, I have renewed faith that there really are good people this world.

We decided to drive for another hour, but four hours later, we were still driving. Because no one had power, everyone decided to stay in a hotel for the evening. After being rejected by 15 or more hotels, we arrived at America's Best Value. There was a sign that said no vacancy but my bladder was about to explode so I went in to ask if I could use restroom. After I finished, I asked the clerk how far the next town was because we had been riding for over 12 hours and we were cold, tired, and frustrated. He explained that it was about another 60 miles to Columbus but they probably wouldn't have any rooms either. I sighed heavily and thanked him for allowing me to use the restroom. Just as I was about to leave, he said "well, we do have one room, but it has no air conditioning." I almost started to cry because of my elation! "We don't care, we'll take it and it will be perfect!" I screamed. It was perfect. It didn't get too warm and the only downfall of the room was the fact that it was a smoking room.

We were so grateful for the kindness of everyone that we have met so far. I can't wait to see where our adventure takes us next!