Monday, September 2nd, 2019.
(A holiday for the reader, but the author is working diligently to provide interesting content for each and every one of you.)
Ride Report: 48 Miles, 3,976 Total Miles, 14.1 Avg. mph, 3,054 Ft. Climbing, 4,035 Calories.
Let me get this out there right away - to the extent that I can dissuade the reader from it, it’s not necessary to send expensive gifts to our home address when I pass the 4K mark tomorrow. Just sayin...
Oh - and this... If you read yesterday's post early (I know there were two of you by the time I modified the post.) and didn't see something about the kindness of strangers at the bottom of the post, go check it out again. I added it late after someone came to the door of The Rig bearing food.
As for today, there were still some great sights to see. The countryside wasn’t quite as remarkable as yesterday, but even in small snatches - amazing is still amazing. That’s kinda how today was. But to be honest, my focus isn’t today. It’s tomorrow. As I sit here typing this post, I can see tomorrow’s climb out the window. I’ll provide the reader all the details in tomorrow’s post, of course, but at this point the only word I can come up with is “intimidating”. Some of that is the unknown. But some of it has a basis in reality. Example: I rode the hill beside Dennis' house this morning before leaving Buchanan - it was 7-8%. Recall that Dennis told me Vesuvius was steeper than the road beside his house. By my math, that puts it in the 9-10% range minimum. But I should probably give it a rest, I’ve been worrying about Vesuvius like a dog worries a bone.
As mentioned previously, it was a short day today at 48 miles. And as planned, here we sit tonight just off highway 56 at the East end of Vesuvius (the town) ready and rarin to go tomorrow morning. Another nice stop over for the night in the Baptist Church parking lot. But we had to get here first. Getting here looked like this...
The day greeted Sig and I with this scene while crossing over the James River as we left Buchanan this morning. This would be our first crossing of a river that feeds Chesapeake Bay, where The Thin Blue Ride will end in Yorktown. Is this not an amazing scene? I love the languid river in the foreground and that the rapids commence just under the sun in the distance. And then there's the sun - obscured just enough by the morning mist to make the entire shot possible. The people on the boat were fishing BTW. When I asked (shouted) "Are they biting?" both responded in the negative. And right after crossing the bridge, the climbing started.
The route today generally paralleled I-81 early on. I was on two or three different frontage roads (they all had different numbers, at least) that were close enough I could make out all the noise from passing cars and trucks - but couldn't usually see them for the trees. The exception being when I passed over or under I-81.
This is a pretty typical example of said frontage road. That building is the Old Red Mill. I know this because there was a sign saying Old Red Mill.
And right across the road from the mill was this house. I gotta believe the house was originally owned by the guy who had the mill. Such appears to still be the case since the house is a B&B and the sign out front linked the house to the mill. Were it not for the ride and ride deadlines, it'd be interesting to stay. Susan mentioned today that in a couple of years we might have to drive the route and set up camp in interesting locations and then go exploring for several days. Sounds good to me. There have been a lot of interesting things we've had to pass by. We've seen a lot - but left a lot unseen as well.
As the reader can tell, this road isn't quite as good as the one in the previous pic, but the scenery is still top notch. Sig handles these roads better than Delta - which is to say that he transmits less of the road vibration to my sensitive anatomy. We'll leave it at that.
The pic doesn't do it justice, but we could see forever down this valley. Plus - the tree in the foreground really frames the shot well.
Today had us going thru Lexington, VA. I passed these guys, who were pulling a group of tourists. Hey - they were going slow and I wasn't staying behind horses. Anything Sig's tires go thru gets spun off onto my shins. Yuk. There was evidence in the roadway later that this was a good move. At least when we're not right behind the offending horse, we have time to dodge.
Downtown - Old Lexington on Business 11. There were some cool old buildings lining the street. After so long in the country, the boys can never make the quick change to city driving. In the city ya hafta "own" your lane and "ride big" or the cars crowd ya out. We did fine.
I took this one while waiting at a stop light. One of the locals asked me if I knew what that glow was behind the steeple as he'd never seen it there before. I told him it follows me everywhere.
ANOTHER ONE! These scenes just slap ya in the face when ya crest a hill. I would formerly grind up the hills and then head over the top and down. I've since learned that if I stop there to squeeze the sweat out of my helmet and gloves, I can catch some nice scenery. Such was the case here. We eventually rode to that line of mountains and turned left to follow them to Visuvius. That's the same range we get to cross over tomorrow.
Unfortunately we also run across some not so great scenes. Yesterday in Buchanan we heard about this gas station. It suffered an explosion in May that killed the owner, his son and grand daughter, and one patron. Because it bears mention, their names were Roger, Kevin, Samantha and Paul. Sad.
The Rig leaving Sig and I at the top of the last climb of the day. Often times we can keep up with The Rig on the downhills, but once the grade turns upward, not so much. After driving some of the roads she has, I'm sure Susan classifies this one as a good road. Ya can tell - it's wide enough that it has a center stripe. She says she thinks she has probably averaged 30 mph since hitting Kentucky. She should try pedaling.
Me - with the last uphill of the day behind me, that explains the smile. The Rig had just left in the previous pic.
This is the scene out the front window of The Rig. Gotta get over those mountains in the distance tomorrow morning. That road to the left of the house is highway 56 - it connects with The Blue Ridge Parkway 3.7 miles thataway.
Tune in tomorrow for more exciting news from The Thin Blue Ride.
Till next time.
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