The challenge for today was to locate three towns (from a list of twelve) and get pictures of ourselves and our car in front of a public building with the name of the town on it. We also needed to get a local citizen in the picture with us. Did I mention that we were dressed as astronauts?
The first stop was Buena Vista VA, a short run off I81. We pulled up in front of the police station behind about four other teams who had already gone about corralling volunteers, including the chief of police. Photos were taken, the event was explained, and we were on our way.
120 miles later, we convinced a young couple in Hillsville VA to take a picture of us in front of the town hall. A waitress from the restaurant across the street came out to investigate and convinced us to have lunch in her establishment. The staff there was curious and quite enthusiastic about the whole thing. The team from Alberta Canada pulled in just as we were leaving; we sent them to the restaurant to seek out volunteers.
The final town we chose was Mountain City TN. We planned to run across a local road that seemed to offer a more direct route. More direct, yes; faster, no. This road turned into a twisted mass of asphalt that slowed our progress to a veritable crawl, adding hours and frustrating me to no end. After a minor meltdown on my part, we altered the plan to head for Elizabethton TN via I81 and a series of larger state roads. This was much quicker, but we were then left with the task of convincing the skeptical and scarce local populace to help us out. After explaining and providing documentation showing that we weren't revenuers or Russians, we finally got our picture and headed back to the interstates for the last 80 mile run to the hotel.
A very long day, and tomorrow looks to be just as long. At least we don't have to dress up like astronauts.
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