Day Five – Christiansburg to Wytheville

Five days of riding. After some relatively long days the last few, today was a nice break. 50 easy miles through the hills of southwest Virginia.

Another cool, foggy morning for the start. Our hotel wasn’t on the route… in fact it was about 2 miles away via a 4-lane divided highway. So Heidi took JP and I to the start of the day via the MCC. We rolled out from the Christiansburg Library parking lot.

The ride was relatively uneventful. There was definitely a fair bit of climbing with a number of pitches >10%. The scenery was beautiful (again) but definitely more rugged. We got chased by two “silent” dogs which was probably the most exciting thing to happen all day. I read a blog post a few weeks ago where the author categorized loose dogs from least to most dangerous. At one end of the scale were old dogs who mostly just lay in the yard and bark because they really don’t have the energy to give chase. Next are the playful barkers who are generally interested in asserting their dominance of their territory and will give chase but are really just having fun. Then come the puppies. These critters are dangerous because they don’t understand the risks to chasing cyclists… they’ll jump out in front of you and endanger themselves AND you. The most dangerous dogs are the silent ones… these dogs are actually after YOU. They don’t give away tactical advantage by barking; rather they get up to speed in the grass behind you and only really make themselves known when the paws hit the pavement just behind your bike. We had 2 of those today. Luckily we got away (and one of the silent dogs was too small to be a real threat).

Also, the kids are getting marginally better at taking pictures out the window of the MCC. I think the picture below is me (?).

JP and I rolled in to Wytheville around 2pm. The final climb in to town wasn’t as bad as climb into Christiansburg, but it was still an attention getter… mostly because of the heavy truck traffic and ZERO shoulder.

So we’ve got a down day tomorrow here in Wytheville, and I’m not sure we could have timed it better. They’re having a Chautauqua Festival this week with music, performances, and food in the park downtown. For those readers in NY, yes, _that_ Chautauqua. Apparently the institute funded the creation of a park here in Wytheville and helps organize this yearly festival. Tonight was bluegrass night, so Heidi, the boys, and I ate ourselves silly and listened to some great music. The VW Boys (below) were mostly bluegrass with an attempt at comedy. Definitely amusing.

I should note that the festival had “fried kool-aid.”. I’m not sure how exactly you fry koolaid, but after eating some, I’m fairly certain that’s not the way you’re supposed to eat it. It was not good.  Art and JP stopped in just as we took off to dunk the kids in the pool for a bit.  We were nice and gave them fair warning regarding the strange concoction.

Tomorrow? Classic rock. I think Heidi is going to do up her bangs and get some leg warmers on.