May 8, Ride day 6
It was set to be a cold day (in the 40s) but no rain expected. As we were getting ready to depart the camp, our neighbor campers came walking by with their parrot! All sorts of strange people (and creatures) you meet while traveling across the country!
We rode 65 miles and finished at a winery for the night. They let us park the RV there as long as we got there in time to order delicious pizza and some wine, good motivation to finish the 1.5 mile uphill gravel road! We had a nice meal for Mothers Day and the owners of the winery invited us to join them for a nice wine tasting on the cold evening. There was also a couple staying in their B&B that joined us. We chatted while overlooking their gorgeous property.
May 9, Ride day 7
Had a relatively easy 70 miles. Very good signage in this section so no wrong turns. It was the least remarkable day so far, the scenery isn’t quite as good as we followed an interstate much of the way. I am not sure what we saw the most of today, churches or folks on riding lawn mowers. Certainly saw over 70 of each though! That evening we stayed in the town park of Wytheville, Virginia, right next to the police station! We had a few odd looks from the officers as they walked by as we were grilling up burgers in the parking lot. Mom had the genius "college days" idea to put our end of day beer in some coffee mugs and refer to them as our cool-aid. Rog didn't quite take the hint when he said, "We don't have any cool-aid!" just as an officer walked past.
We met another rider today on the road. He met us at our little camping spot and we cooked him up a burger. He goes by "Rock Doc" as he works as a geologist at Penn State University. He is 71 years old and traveling fully un-supported!
Happy Mother's Day! Thanks Mom for doing all the things you do! (Cooking us food, cleaning up as we bike away, calling ahead to find a place to sleep, going to Walmart every other day, and many more)
May 9, Ride day 7
Had a relatively easy 70 miles. Very good signage in this section so no wrong turns. It was the least remarkable day so far, the scenery isn’t quite as good as we followed an interstate much of the way. I am not sure what we saw the most of today, churches or folks on riding lawn mowers. Certainly saw over 70 of each though! That evening we stayed in the town park of Wytheville, Virginia, right next to the police station! We had a few odd looks from the officers as they walked by as we were grilling up burgers in the parking lot. Mom had the genius "college days" idea to put our end of day beer in some coffee mugs and refer to them as our cool-aid. Rog didn't quite take the hint when he said, "We don't have any cool-aid!" just as an officer walked past.
We met another rider today on the road. He met us at our little camping spot and we cooked him up a burger. He goes by "Rock Doc" as he works as a geologist at Penn State University. He is 71 years old and traveling fully un-supported!
May 10, Ride day 8
Today we biked 70 miles and went back into the Virginia mountains inside of Jefferson National Forest. We had a late lunch with Mom in Damascus, her and Riley were able to explore some hiking trails while they waited for us. The town is known as Trail Town, USA. 7 trails come thru town, including the Appalachian Trail and the TransAmerica Bicycle trail.
We continued on another 15 miles. I expected the next section was going to be boring, but this bike route has all sorts of secrets. It turned us onto a paved one lane farm road but over a steep hill. Then we dropped into a beautiful quaint valley. The road winded along a small river and next to modest homes. No photos of this section as I was enjoying the moment
. We ended the day staying at a lovey church next to a cow pasture. The pastor came by later an introduced himself and came back in the morning to let us use the church bathrooms and prepared some coffee for us. There were 3 other riders that also stayed there that night, they were from Washington and planning to bike the same route as us.
Picked up my sweet new under-helmet sun hat at a outfitters store in Damascus
May 11, Ride day 9
We left the camping spot about an hour after the other rides. We soon caught one of them on the first big climb into the forested hills. He didn't look too happy!
The campground turned out to be 5 miles closer than expected so that was nice. We ended with 63 miles for the day. It was a hot one today in the high 80s for the afternoon and three steep climbs to end the ride. The climbs also mark the beginning of the Appalachians. Prior to the start of the steep hills we caught the other 2 riders from the night before. We chatted at the small market for a bit as we fueled up for the final stretch.
We stayed at a very nice campground called Breaks Interstate Park (a shared state park by Virginia and Kentucky). At the camp, we ran into another ride, Mark from Manchester England. So we had him over to the RV for some dinner, beer, and ice cream. He was one of the guys from the Love camp up in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Mark and I planning out the next day with our ice cream. There is a lot of planning and re-planning that happens in the evenings! Checking the weather, places to stay, places to get lunch, what time to leave, etc
- Beautiful mountains and outstanding views of valleys below
- Natural beauty and pretty flowers everywhere
- Lots of bike paths to start the journey
- Surprised by amount of trash on the side of the country roads
- Narrow and windy roads, good for cycling but not good for Anita driving the RV
Reflections on Virginia
- Places to visit or bike
- Recommend biking the Blue Ridge Parkway and would love to go back and bike the Skyline Drive
- If anyone wants to do a 1-2 week cycling adventure, Virginia offers lots of options
- Hike some sections of the Appalachian trail
- The town of Lexington and Charlottesville were cool
- Visit some of the many museums along the route, Revolutionary and Civil wars
