On Saturday, we decided to check out the Trail Days event in Daleville, which was offering free gear repairs for thru-hikers and cyclists, ice cream, live music, and other goodies for adventuring folks. We got our camp stove repaired for free by a local camping store on site called Outdoor Trails, and Billy from Willow Mountain Gear put some beautiful rainbow snaps on Petunia’s rain cover because the Velcro tabs weren’t working out so well. Thanks, both!

We spent a good chunk of the day there, meeting many awesome hikers and answering lots of questions about Tunes and our travels.

Later in the day, we rode to Catawba and gorged ourselves on some ridiculously hearty and delicious home-style southern cooking at a locally famous restaurant called The HomePlace. We were served roast beef, fried chicken, green beans, corn, pinto beans, cornbread, mashed potatoes and gravy, cinnamon apple mush stuff (I don’t know not quite apple sauce or apple butter… but it was delicious), and blackberry cobbler with ice cream for dessert. I wish we’d taken a picture of the table, but we are the ever-hungry tourists and we went from plated to sated way too fast for any photography. This being our first meal at a restaurant indoors, we got a window seat so we could watch Petunia and our bikes and smile at all of the other diners who were curiously looking on at the scene of the loaded bikes and adorable pooch.

The restaurant owners allowed us to camp out on a large gazebo on their property, which was conveniently close enough to waddle over to our tent and pass out shortly after dinner.

Today we rode a beautiful and slightly hilly stretch to Radford, where we met a man named Rick who was originally from Oregon, and he offered to let us camp in his yard and even fed us a tasty ham and potato casserole. They have all of their family over for dinner on Sundays, so there were lots of young cousins and Aunties asking us about our trip and petting Petunia. What a nice family- they even have us a bunch of trail mix to go. We think we’ll make it to Kentucky in the next day or two.