May 16, 2017

May, 14 2017
Here's the latest play by play on my trip. I don't have internet where I'm staying tonight, so you won't see this post until I can find service.
I spent my first night in a little Methodist Church outside of Richmond.  About six that evening, another rider pulled in to spend the night. His name is Malcolm Foley from Florida, but is a grad student at Alabama. We've ridden together the last two days. We did seventy five miles yesterday and spent the night beside a barbecue pit in Mineral, Va. Today we did about seventy and ended up in Whitehall, Va. Today was very tough, lots of hills, a headwind, and it got pretty hot around Charlottesville. By far the worst part was around Monticello, where was  a steep winding grade on a narrow road with lots touristy type traffic.
We are lunch at Moose's cafe beside Moose's gun shop. There was a lot of Moose bling as well a good bit of pro-gun signage like "Guns welcome, please don't use them unless you need to." I had the pot roast, and no shots were fired.
 We  are camped at the Whitehall community center, no shower, a cold water hose pipe, and no toilet. Right across the street there is a little country store where I bought a six pack of Rolling Rock and two cans of Beanie Weanies. As you can see, cross country touring is not quite as glamorous as you might have expected.
Tomorrow we have a short mileage day, but very tough. We have a very steep 16 mile climb up to Rockfish Gap on the blue ridge parkway, then about 16 more tough miles on the parkway. We may stop there or take a hair on fire descent down to Vesuvius, Va.
May 15, 2017
Made it to a crossroads called "Love, Va. 34 miles, could not have gone an inch farther. Hours of grinding away at four to five miles an hour followed by mere minutes of heart stopping descents.  Pulled into this campground around 2:00, are lunch and rested. Had a good dinner tonight. Boiled a pound of macaroni, added the cheese powder and a can of Campbell's beef and vegetable soup. Um, um good.
Another rider pulled in about 3:00. He's from New Zealand. Jay is very fit, he did in 3 what took us four to ride. We will probably all leave together tomorrow, but he will soon a distant memory.
I don't have internet or cell service here, so Kathy, I hope you are not to worried about me. By the way, Jay took a picture of a bear in the woods on his ride to here today. Do you know what a bear calls the pepper spray I have to fend off dogs?  A condiment.

A sad note about Jay: We found out later that he was hit by a car in Colorado and badly injured. Saw a picture of him in the hospital, tubes coming out of him in all directions. Things can happen out here.

May 16, 2017
I'm in Lexington Va. Waiting on bike repair for my friend. More about that later. It's about 1:00 and we have 28 miles to go today. Hope I can post again tonight.

living it up in Whitehall