After our marathon day yesterday, we had a rough night last night. The gym mats were comfortable enough, but we both had trouble with leg cramps, me especially. They kept me up most of the night. I was wondering if I could ride at all in the morning, but about 4 o'clock I finally took a couple of ibuprofens, which after a few minutes relaxed the muscles miraculously. I've never had cramps like that before; I guess we dug so deep yesterday that we hit bedrock.
Anyway, we're in Virginia, the last state of our trip, at last. Marie-Christine left Lookout ahead of us, planning to ride 64 miles for the day. After yesterday's long, hard ride we opted for a more modest plan, only 30 miles to Haysi (HAY-sigh, not HAY-see). But the route included three sharp hills in quick succession. Like yesterday, we handled the first two with a few rest stops. And knowing that the day's ride was short, we took time at a couple of scenic spots overlooking the Russell Fork River. The pictures include one of a rock I wanted to climb out on. Sandy said no, so I'll photoshop myself onto it at some future date. As we neared the top of that second hill a truck was passing us, and because the road was narrow I pulled over near the muddy right edge. The wheels shot out from under us like a watermelon seed and splat- we were lying on the road. The trucker went wide enough we weren't roadkill, and in fact we had no scrapes or bruises. So it goes.
The third hill was the shortest, but ridiculously steep. Trucks were struggling to get up it in their lowest gear. Our lowest gear was our feet, which we used to get up the last 150' of climbing.
The climbs in the Rockies were long but mostly not steep. Some of the hills of the Ozarks were very steep, but short. Either way, they were rideable. Some of the hills we've seen so far in the Appalachians are so long and so steep, they're simply unrideable. At least they are for us, carrying our own gear. I'm glad we're riding west-to-east. We're in much better condition than when we started, and if we were facing this terrain early in our trip it would have been discouraging. We met two westbound young men on our descent from that third hill. They are hoping to reach the Rockies by September 15.
We reached Haysi early, and stopped at the library to use their computer and wifi. When Sandy told the library staff we planned to stay at the town's only motel, she got a disapproving reaction. It turns out there is one B&B not mentioned on the Adventure Cycling map. The librarian called the B&B for us and we killed time at the library until the room was ready. When we rode over there we found that our lodging was a railroad caboose, very comfortably fitted out. The owner, whose house is next door to the caboose, asked us what time we wanted breakfast, but not what we wanted to have. We weren't expecting much since she only charged $60, but in the morning when we emerged at the appointed 7:30, she was on her way over with our breakfast: Coffee,orange juice, milk, eggs, bacon, sausage, freshly baked biscuits, jelly, and sausage gravy. What a feast! But here's a puzzle: we've been in the South for two weeks and haven't seen grits on a menu yet. I guess KY and western VA just don't do grits.
The pretty girl on the steps of the caboose is Sandy.
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