Part 1: Day 2, 27 May 2018 – Glendale VA to Mineral VA, 82 mi, 2614 ft ascent, 5% max grade, 13.0 mph avg.


After sleeping on a hard floor, I was glad to see the sunrise.  After a quick breakfast we were back on the road again. It was cloudy and rainy in the morning, but soon the sun came out and things got a lot better. The miles went by slowly at first.  It took awhile to get into the groove, but once we did our moods improved and the miles started rolling by. We rode uphill all day, steadily gaining about 300 ft of elevation with ups and downs along the way.  Our destination was the Mineral Volunteer Fire Department, which we reached just before it started to rain.  The guys graciously allowed us to stay overnight in a hall attached to the back of the station.  It was set up with a stage and lots of tables and chairs.  It reminded me of my elementary school.  Rob and I found a store nearby, bought some beer, and sat out in a warm soft rain drinking them.  After getting cleaned up we walked to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner.  For the second night we slept on a hard floor, but it rained overnight and we were thankful to be dry.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Part 2, Day 6, Carbondale to Chester IL

Image
64 miles, 5:25 riding time, don,t know clock time today, 11.6 mph avg, 1329 ft ascent We got a late start today from Jack’s house.  I think we got started around 10:00. Our first task was to find a grocery store to reprovisiom.  Bike touring is all about managing hydration and calorie intake. Today our route would take us through a 38 mile stretch with no services. We chose to take the Mississippi levee alternate route which would take us into the River valley. I was surprised at the amount of water; there’s a lot of flooding. Farming in a food plain is full of risk.  The white mound between the silos are sand bags. About 20 miles in we came across an intersection with 3 road closed signs.  We decided to proceed and found out the signs were not kidding...nowhere to go but back.  We backtracked 3 miles to the Bottoms Up bar and grill to get advice from a local. Cristy told us the water was only 6 inches deep on one road, so we backtracked again and decided to go through the water; Crist
Read more

Part 2, Day 13, Eureka to Valley Center KS

Image
67 miles, 6:33 riding time, average 10.2 mph, 1614 ft ascent We got an early start today, leaving the city park in Eureka at 0600.  It was a nice park with a municipal pool, so we really enjoyed swimming and relaxing at the pool after yesterday’s ride.  Today our goal was to go off-route to Duane’s Aunt and Uncle’s house in Valley Center.  Duane is planning a rest day, and as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I will end Part 2 there.   The route out of Eureka was on Highway 54, which I described in my last post.  There wasn’t much traffic early in the morning, but the wind was blowing at about 20 mph from the SW with gusts of up to 30 mph.      There wasn’t anything to block the wind; this is wide-open country. This is a PANO photo from my iPhone. A disadvantage of front panniers is that gusting wind creates a force that turns the front wheel and causes me to swerve slightly.   When big semi’s pass they also create gusts that have the same effect.  The road was long and straight, so I c
Read more

Part 2: Day 1, Berea to Springfield KY

Image
79.8 miles, 6:41 riding time, about 10 hrs clock time 11.9 mph avg, 4065 ft ascent The day started at 0600 when a friend of Steve H’s named Shunnan arrived at Steve H’s house to ride with us,  Steve’s wife June drove us from Lexington to the same place in Berea where I left off last year (yes Rob, no gap!) The ride west from Berea was very green with rolling hills; much like riding in Maryland or Virginia.  This part of KY is about horses and farming.  The contrast with Eastern KY is striking; I did not see any billboards for rehab centers and the houses were very suburban until we got a ways from Berea, and even then I did not see the signs of dire poverty I saw in eastern KY.   I had beeen e-mailing a fellow Westbound TransAm rider named Duane who started his ride on 16 June.  I knew he was in Berea on the 4th of July so I was hoping to connect up with him.  At one point Steve, Shunnan and I missed a turn and as we were riding up a hill along come two cyclists going the other way.  T
Read more