Good Day (not all) Sunshine

Today was just a really great day of riding.  From beginning to end, despite being rained on at our destination, it was just a really good day.  One of those days that, when this is over, I'll look at as a good example of why I went.  

We started early from Blacksburg, where we enjoyed our short stay.  Our target today was Lexington.  We didn't see much of the Virginia Tech campus, just a little, but we enjoyed the London Underground pub, the Red Carpet Inn, which was a decent, dated, but clean hotel, and our Italian dinner at the local "lifestyle center."  We rolled out this morning after visiting the local McDonald's for its "big breakfast," which means the maximum calories we could intake from their breakfast menu.  Eaten, as always, from their parking lot, it still was a good start.  The outskirts of Blacksburg were immediately different from the previous days' journeys, in that we have now left coal country, and we've left the poverty filled areas of eastern Kentucky and southwest Virginia.  The countryside has returned to farms, and the farms seemed, for the most part, pretty well kept.  We saw a few self-described "horse farms," but oddly didn't see any horses at them.  For the most part, our early morning had us riding from the Blacksburg area into the northern reaches of the Roanoke area.  We stopped for a snack in Daleville.  Or Troutville.  I don't remember which.  Both are close to each other and north of Roanoke.  We found a brand new Sheetz store, so they had some snacks and some sandwiches we bought in case we found no alternatives.  We had hit 39 miles and it was really only about 10:30AM.  Good so far.  

Riding out of Blacksburg, the haze hadn't lifted yet, and a mountain appeared in the mist

We took off from the Dale/Trout area, and I immediately notice that Adventure cycling took us from Route 11, into some side roads where there we lots of rollie hills, back onto Route 11.  When they were going to do this a second time, I looked at the map and suggested we just get rid of this "bubble" on the map and go straight on Route 11.  Jerry didn't sound too enthusiastic about this idea, because we'd just completed 2 days of riding on highways, but went along.  It turned out fine, as Route 11 parallels Interstate 81, so most traffic just goes on the Interstate, leaving 11 pretty quiet.  In addition, it eliminated a lot of unnecessary roller-coaster hills which we typically see on the Adventure side-roads.  Ironically, after riding on my sealant filled tubes without trouble since Lander, Wyoming, my front tire went out on a very smooth road.   In any case, a quick fix with a non-sealant filled (more vulnerable) tube and I was back in business.

Beautiful views from Bicycle Route 76

We made good time on Route 11, and covered another 24 miles before breaking for lunch.  We went into a town called Buchanan, Virginia, which they said had a historic downtown.  We were up for looking for grub there.  We stopped at the The Fountain Grill, which was kind of an old-fashioned drug store with a lunch diner.  It was decorated in a mid-century kitschy style with Elvis and rat-pack photos and various memorabilia on the walls.  It was really a nice little place.  We had hot food, followed by cold ice cream, and the folks there filled our water bottles with ice water after.  It couldn't have been a better lunch stop.

A really great lunch stop!

During lunch, I asked one of the other patrons, who was wearing a shirt with a logo for the "Back of the Dragon," which I had seen a few times earlier this week.  The guy said that this was a local road that goes from Marion to Tazewell Virginia, named similarly to the "Tail of the Dragon" which is located in Tennessee into North Carolina.  Thunderstruck, I asked them if this road left out of Marion and went by a state park (Hungry Mother State Park) and it went up a hill for about 20 miles, ending in a gorgeous view of the valleys below?  They said yes, that's the road.  I couldn't believe it.  I had found that road when I lived in Knoxville, and most of the times that I traveled the area I took this road.  It has, by an estimate, over 400 turns, and the 20+ miles used to take me about an hour to do.  It always paid off with the incredible view, and I used to take my golf clubs up there and hit golf balls off the top, just to see them fly for hundreds and hundreds of yards into the valley.  According to the website, a local Tazewell military veteran who began to publicize the road as an alternative to the Tail, and some of the roads he traveled on his motorcycle in Bavaria, beginning in about 1999, well after I left.  A road that always amazed me, and I didn't think anyone knew about, has now become semi-famous as a sports car and motorcycle magnet road.  Cool. 

Look it up at backofthedragon.com 

As we left Buchanan we saw an old foot bridge over the James River.  They have cut off access for safety's sake, but it was kind of nice to see this old bridge.

No, we didn't cross this bridge

As soon as we left The Fountain, we realized that it had hit mid-day, and with it, temperatures went well into the 90's.  It was just baking hot on the roads.  We knew we were going to have to hydrate well if we were going to make it the last 23 miles into Lexington.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, the weather was going to hydrate us today.  As we got closer, the clouds rolled in and the thunder began booming closer and closer.  As fast as we could keep rolling up Route 11, called the Lee Highway in these parts, it didn't look like we were going to outrun this one.  And we didn't.  About 4 miles out from Lexington it started coming down in sheets.  Fortunately the lightning was well away from our area, so we felt safe getting a little refuge from the rain under some smaller set of trees.  We put on our raincoats and used them for the first time in a while.  We waited out the rain until we thought it was letting up, then pedaled into Lexington.  As we were passing the suburbs, it started up again with a fury.  We found a portico in front of a local retirement home and pulled under for some relief.  While waiting it out, I looked up some local hotels.  I found a "historic" Hampton Inn right near downtown, so we opted to spend a few dollars more than the Super-8 on the outer outskirts in order to be close to some better dinner options.  We must have been a sight, coming in from the rain, soaked to the skin, checking into our room.  We showered, washed and hung up our clothes in the room and headed out to find some dinner.  We stopped at a place called Bistro on Main, and it was a good choice.  We had, for a change, a well prepared dinner, something we haven't found often on this trip.  Although the Dairy Barn in Eminence did offer some good fried stuff, it was nice to have a good meal tonight.  Of course, as soon as we stepped out of the restaurant onto the street, the rains came back with a vengeance.  We hid out under an awning at a bank and waited out the worst of this storm, then walked back to the hotel.  Rain is part of the deal on a bike trip, and we've been very lucky since Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.  Overall, we can't complain too much if that's all that's happened.  There's a good chance of rain for the next few days, and that's one reason why we're going to do a few short days.

The soggy streets of Lexington, VA, home of VMI and Washington & Lee Universities

Our plans tomorrow are to climb up the big hill called "Vesuvius" to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and then to stay at a cabin at the top in a place called Love, Virginia.  We hear there is no cell reception up there, so I will likely not be reporting for another day.  Then we are on to Charlottesville, and then a long ride into Tess' apartment in Richmond.  We will likely arrive in Richmond on Saturday, stay Sunday, and then make our final ride into Yorktown on Monday. Then that'll be it!  It's hard to imagine that this ride is almost over.  We've been working at this for so long that sometimes it seems we've been at it forever.  But it will be over next week.  Definite mixed emotions here that I'll be exploring in the next few blogs.

Today's numbers: 85 miles, about 4,600 feet climbed.  95+ degrees