Ellenboro was a whistle stop - well a little more than that. It was cold and foggy but we all knew we had to keep at it. Dave nearly “picked up” at the service station when we went in search of food. The lady behind the counter found Dave pretty attractive in his school PE outfit when he did a little dance to keep warm. She offered to keep him warm and dance with him. Dave was playing along until she offered to lend Dave her bodysuit at home to keep him warm. Only problem was it was covered in deer-blood and was in the wash. Alarm bells rang for Dave and he sprinted to the safety of the RV – we’ve never seen him move so fast! Roger drove us onwards to Grafton as the sun came up.
We waited in the KFC carpark for Mickey to come in. We stocked up on ice, ice and ice! Mickey arrived for breakfast and a massage before heading back out onto the next timestage about an hour later. The intervening time gave us a chance to sort his washing out, and chat to a couple of the officials in the car-park. The KFC was full of senior citizens, all having lunch on their way home from church.
The afternoon leg to Keyser went through the rolling mountains of the Appalachians. Unfortunately on one downhill leg Mickey came upon a motorcyclist that had just crashed and was in a bad way, and this may have effected him later that night. We went through some interesting country, with lots of little shacks tucked in the bush just off the road. We thought we could hear the strains of Duelling Banjoes….. it sure made Rusty nervous. We also saw a giant truck motor-wreckers, although the trucks were mostly in good condition. Rusty was curious what happened to all their owners…..Just before Keyser we went past the “Honeymooners Gun Shop”. It made Rusty even more nervous. Rusty won’t be going back to the Appalachians!
Keyser was our last Walmart stop for the trip and if we’d known this we may have had a celebration! As darkness fell Mickey headed off to Cumberland, with undulating road with a lot more traffic. Cumberland was great as we had mobile coverage for the first time in quite a while…and our phones went nuts! It gave us the chance to call Australia, and thanks to Marg and Sharon, re-organise our flights and travel home.
Cumberland also gave Mickey the chance to mentally prep for the stage to Hancock. This stage had 3 steep climbs, the steepest of the Race. They weren’t long but they were steep with the last hill recognised as “A Walker” where it’s common for the racers to walk this hill. After the first climb Mickey had a 5 minute nap – he’s good at these – and recouped for the next climbs. He kept changing clothes every 5 mins – rug up then de robe, rug up, then derobe. Mickey couldn’t seem to control his body temperature. He made the second climb and whilst stating the third climb, a butterfly floated past us – at night – quite prophetic for Mickey. He nailed the climb – no walking for Mickey Campbell. It was quite cold as we made the descent into Hancock.
We rotated teams at Hancock and tried to solve Mickey’s temperature issues with some help from home, and get him out quickly and on the way to Rouzerville. This next leg was extremely challenging as Mickey had a number of hallucinations. He went past a graveyard where the gravestones were playing chess – perhaps a subconscious impact of the motorbike accident he saw earlier. Mickey also asked why all the Chinese people were out lining the streets for him. No-one had any idea what he was on about as there was just Mickey and us at 3am on the streets!
Mickey eventually hit Rouzerville just after dawn, he was tired but ready to plow on. We fed him again, fuelled up with sweet coffee, ice and water and started the final day into the finish.
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