Day Four – Lexington to Christiansburg

I’m not sure we could have asked for a nicer day for riding. Cool and foggy in the morning, mid 70’s and partially overcast in the afternoon. Wow. Doesn’t get much better for enjoying western Virginia scenery. I’ve only driven through this part of VA on I-81 and never really thought much of it. Turns out, it’s beautiful country. Hilly as all get out, but beautiful.

Once again, Heidi was able to score a hotel right on the route, so we we rolled out at (basically) 8am sharp. JP was tougher than I; he was in a jersey and shorts. I threw in arm warmers and a vest. Even then I was a bit chilly on some of the early downhills.

In the morning, Heidi and the boys went to a private zoo near Natural Bridge. It was a unique experience… very different than (say) the national zoo in DC. They saw some neat critters including flamingos, various big cats, and giraffes. A baby tiger stalked Dax from inside its pen. Heidi said it was cute… I think it’s odd to view Dax as prey to a big cat 😉 They were also able to feed a giraffe. Photo provided without comment.

JP was in pretty rough shape today after his epic ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway yesterday. He gave it the college try (I mean, he was all decked out in RIT gear), but he ended up jumping in a SAG wagon around lunchtime. We all had lunch at a BK in a gas station in Buchanan VA. I tell ya, there’s nothing like a whopper for a mid-ride meal.

As the day wore on, the hills got steeper. The 16 mile stretch in to Catawba VA was actually pretty tough. No single climb was difficult, but there were a TON of short, steep climbs with short, steep descents. Also, today I realized that roads that have “hill”, “gap”, “hollow”, or “mountain” in their name are bad. Roads with “river”, “creek”, or “mill” tend to be much nicer.

The final climb in to Christiansburg was a doozy. Long, variable pitch, and no shoulder. Hitting a climb like that at 90 miles in to a ride was a bit unfair. But I made it in to town just before yet another severe thunderstorm rolled through. I imagine these storms will be a trend this summer.

Day Three – Charlottesville to Lexington (up and over the Blue Ridge)

Ok. First of all, to all the Charlottesville weather forecasters who said “widely scattered showers with peeks of sunshine”… Bite me. It rained today. All day. Sometimes it was a sprinkle, sometimes it approached downpour status. Regardless of how you slice it, the radar showed a system the size of the entire state of Virginia rolling in. “Widely scattered” my butt.

Now that that’s out of my system… today was actually a very enjoyable ride. Even with the rain, the Blue Ridge Parkway is incredibly scenic. The morning started out in downtown C-ville. Heidi and the kids were going to hit some historic outpost in Stauton but the weather changed their plans. So we all rolled out of town a bit after 9.  Before we rolled out, Heidi got creative with the camera. The disc brakes look lovely in the morning light.

JP and I proceeded to get lost in the first 2 miles. We had been following VA Bike Rt 76 for most of the trip, but just outside of town it diverged from the ACA TA route. After a 2 mile detour, we were back on track.

Heidi and the kids went ahead to setup lunch. After a quick stop at the Rockfish Gap Visitors center and a refuel, they sat in the MCC in the rain and waited.. and waited.. and waited… Heidi continued to play with the camera. Note: in an RV, all exits have to be labeled as “exits” since it’s technically a house. This is the exit sign on our back door.

The hills started hitting fast and furious about 20 miles in. The second major climb took us right to the entrance of the park where Heidi, Art, and the kids were waiting. Art had to go down the hill and snag JP as the top of that climb was pretty brutal with a bunch of the dreaded right hand switchbacks (the inside of the right lane is the steepest on those). Here’s me cruising in for lunch.

Once in the park it was foggy. Like seriously. I put on all the lights I had so I could be seen. To add extra excitement, the wind was really hammering on the peaks. The climbs in the park weren’t steep, but they were definitely _long_.

At times the fog broke and we had some pretty amazing views.

 

About 18 miles into the park, I ran out of water. I got a text from Heidi asking where I was. Checking the GPS, my next “turn” was 4 miles ahead. I assumed that was my exit from the park and I’d be able to get water then so I texted her I’d be making the turn in 4 miles.

WRONG! I had another 10 miles to go, and most was uphill. Once I realized my mistake, I tried to text Heidi to get her to come meet me with water. No cell service. Tried to resend the message. No joy. This went on for an hour while I continued to climb. Seriously, I was spent and got hyper focused on getting liquid in me. I finally got in touch with Heidi and she turned around to meet me. We literally met at the top of the very last climb before leaving the park. I spent about 20 mins in the MCC getting my feet back under me. Good times.

JP and I had split up after lunch. He started out about where he left off and began his climb in to the park. He made it most of the way through the park and put on over 5k of climbing for the day. Definitely his largest day climbing ever and a hell of a job working through the forest.

The last 25 miles is basically all down hill, including a 3 mile serious descent in to Vesuvius. I had to stop twice because I was afraid my brakes were overheating. When the rain hit the discs, steam shot off the rotors. Yeah, they were warm.

Anyhoo, that’s the day. 2 more days until our rest day. I can’t wait. 🙂

Day Two – Mechanicsville to Charlottesville

The alternative title to this post is “How to almost ride an accidental double metric century”. When I was creating the route, I used the ACA maps to determine the actual roads we are going to take as well as the distances between points. Apparently when I was doing the math for stage 2 I dropped ~20 miles from the route. It was already going to be long (97 miles) but when I actually went to put the route in to our GPS’s, I realized it was more like 117. Yikes. So, armed with the knowledge that our century had turned in to a double metric, we started our day.

It was raining at the start… We got all decked out in our rain gear after looking at the radar.

Turns out, we didn’t need it. After about an hour the rain ended and the temps were rising.

Thanks to the Beaverdam VA Ruritan Club for letting us borrow their parking lot for lunch. As you can see, it was clearly not raining at lunchtime.

Most of the ride looked like this:

Lots and lots of farmland. Corn, wheat, and some beans. Also, the cicadas had done a number on the trees in this area with lots of dead branch tips where the bugs have laid their eggs. Oh, and I almost hit a turkey at 30mph. I had to duck to avoid it. If I had half a mind, I would have grabbed it for dinner.

The day ended in an epic rainstorm coming in to C-ville. The last of the ride was “completed” in the MCC where we were safe from lightening, wind, and the impressive sideways rain. As JP put it, there was enough lightening that it looked like Castlevania. Crazy.

Tomorrow we climb up into the George Washington National Forest along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It should be a punishing climb. Wish us luck.

Day One – Yorktown to Mechanicsville

Welp, we finished Day 1. It was not without its drama, but it was very successful. For the most part we followed the ACA TransAmerica Route… tho my Garmin 810 sort of flipped out for a while and started navigating on the shortest path vs following the route I had put in. Luckily I think it only cost us 1/4 mile extra.

We started out at the Yorktown Victory Monument. As someone pointed out it may actually be brackish and not technically Ocean. That said, ACA considers it the ocean, and frankly I’d like to see _you_ ride through the tunnels in Norfolk.  😉

To be clear, we absolutely did NOT miss the first turn of the route and nearly get lost in Yorktown. Nope. Didn’t happen.

While we were out riding, the Potter part of the support team hit the Berkeley Plantation. Berkeley is the site of the first official Thanksgiving and the birthplace of William Henry Harrison (“I died in 30 days”).  Beautiful grounds, and a neat bit of history.  And as you can see, Bobby is a fan of perspective.

Anyhoo, it was pretty warm today. Average time of around 82 but definitely punching up to 90 around the end. Mostly flat, tho the initial part on the Colonial Parkway is pretty darn bumpy. Seriously, it was 20 miles of teeth chattering, butt numbing cement road. We were happy to be off of it. The rest of the day involved almost no shoulder at all, but thankfully Virginia drivers are (for the most part) polite and gave us lots of room.

A front is rolling through tonight and should drop the temps a bit for tomorrow. Time to shower, eat, prep for tomorrow, and sleep. W00t. Day 1 is in the books.