Thu 5/27 -- TOUGH hills. "Only" a 45-mile ride, from C'ville to a
cabin on the Blue Ridge Pkwy, about 15 miles south of the Rockfish Gap
entrance. Beautiful ride, but LOTS of climbing. I paid a visit at the
Cookie Lady's house and met the lady -- June (?) Curry -- herself.
She's been feeding and housing bikers for years, but is now 89 years
old, and pretty feeble (deaf too I think). But she's a legend, and it
was great to meet her. She told me that the remaining hills up to the
BRP were hard (correct), but after that the BRP itself was easy
(wrong). The cabin we stayed in was pretty plush (e.g., hot tub on
deck) but small-- lots of bodies on the floor for the night. I
actually pitched my tent, but chickened out (in) due to thunder and
lightning. It never did rain tho.
Fri 5/28 -- My blog title was prescient. My ass is sore. Loooong ride
today -- 70 miles -- esp. after Thursday's long and hard day. Another
10-20 up and down BRP miles, and then an insane-o downhill full of
switchbacks, with gravel and potholes and shadows thrown in for good
measure. A burning rubber smell let me know that I should stop for a
few minutes midway down to let my brakes and rims cool down. The end
of the ride featured many miles hard by I-81 -- very familiar from all
my car trips along that (miserable ugly endless) road. Lots of "roller
coaster" action--big downhill carries you up the following uphill--
which was kind of fun (although with very little BQ, Howard). Spent
the night in a Church of the Brethren campground--no alcoholic
beverages, but I persuaded the cook that wine should be an ingredient
and she readily agreed that a drop of red and one of white were
required. So we drank leftover alcoholic ingredients, not beverages.
BTW, dinner was prepped under a canopy in RAGING thunderstorm--and it
was uber-delicious, fettucinis alfredo and with pesto. I'm travelling
with some real foodies -- yes!
Sat 5/29 -- Nice not-too- long (54) ride to Christiansburg through
beautiful rolling farmland, although with a brutal uphill over the
last 5 miles or so. Just made the beer all the sweeter.
(Sent from my iPhone)
SUNDAY we rode from Williamsburg to Glendale (E of Richmond) and
stayed in the Sunday school room of the Willis Methodist Church, which
keeps its doors open for bikers. A late afternoon rain storm drove in
Heidi, Jamie, and Mac, 3 young women (mid-20's) on a self-contained XC
ride, who joined us for dinner & then brkfst on Monday. Philip (22)
perked right up, but had a major barrier to overcome -- I think our
guests "played for the other team," as the saying goes. The ladies
were enjoyable company, and pitched right in to help Mike and me with
dinner & brkfst prep and clean-up.
MONDAY's ride was very short, and petty ugly. We spent the night at a
KOA in Ashland (N of Richmond) hard by I-95. Blech -- although the
roar of traffic (unlike the roar of snoring the night before) was at
least sleepable-through.
TUESDAY we rode out of the Richmond area (yay!) to a farm about 20
miles W of Lake Anna, near the little town of Mineral. It was a long
ride, made 6-8 miles longer than necessary due to a couple of tactical
errors on my part -- one a flat-out wrong turn (which cost me a beer
'cause I misled Jerry too), and the other a brain freeze when Hugh and
I set off to "pick your own blackberries" forgetting that it's May
(they're a late summer crop). Oh well. Hugh made BFF's with the
blackberry lady and Paul and Alice, an older couple we stopped and
bought honey from. The farm was a beautiful respite. At dinner we
celebrated Mile's 55th birthday, and then were serenaded all night
long by the whiporwills.
(Sent from my iPhone)
