Touring Tunes

Our day started off beautifully with a wonderful breakfast prepared by Rick’s daughter Jessica who woke up extra early to fix us some extra scrumptious pancakes. Rick said a very thoughtful blessing echoing our feelings of gratitude for having met such kind people and he wished us well on our journey, and then we demolished our hot cakes and set off for the day.

Having been told a few towns ago not to miss the pie at the bike store in Draper, Virginia, we were disappointed when we rolled up around noon to find that they were closed on Modnays. But before we left, someone called to us from a window above the store offering to let us in to use the bathroom and refill our water bottles. So we did just that and luckily for us, the gentleman also found two pieces of delicious pecan pie and served them to us in the storefront’s way comfy wooden rocking and swiveling chairs.

As we calorie-loaded, a woman rolled her bicycle up to the storefront to also meet the disappointment of the shop’s closure, but luckily for us she stayed and chatted.

Peggy shared that she rode the Bikecentennial, the original TransAm bike trip in ’76, with her small poodle named Pooh, who rode in a wicker basket on the front of her bike! She showed us her gnarly scar from a knee replacement, the result of a fall on that same ride, and she pointed out the Oregon dirt still visibly lodged beneath her skin. Pooh had survived two wrecks with her on the trip. She’d done the last bit of trail “with just one leg,” a feeling I could somewhat relate to thinking about my knee pain on some recent climbs, limping along by shuttling myself forward cranking hard with my good leg. Peggy unwittingly became my cycling hero. Her daughter had “gone across”in 2004, and “not to be outdone,” her husband was making the trek this year, and she was the support wagon for him.

We compared notes on her visit to the Cookie Lady in ’76 before the latter had even officially earned said moniker, her dog carrier and pooch’s temperament, and the route across the country some 30+ years ago. She was so interesting and it was so serendipitous to meet a trail pioneer who had also brought her K9 companion along.

We made it to Wytheville and were treated to a free shower at their upscale community center. We also enjoyed complimentary camping in the park, which was adorned with pretty lights on the trees. Time for sleep.

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.

We are enamored of the way local folks exclaim about Petunia the “dawg on the bah-cycle,” and have been made to feel very welcome by a good heaping of southern hospitality everywhere in Virginia. After a recovery day, we began the descent down the Blue Ridge mountains.

It was a steep, curving road and our brakes were practically smoking on the way down, making our hands ache from pulling the brakes so hard to keep at a safe speed. Greg got his second flat tire on the way down and we found a spot to pull over and he successfully patched the tube.

At the bottom of the hill was the small town of Vesuvius, where a nice non-hilly coast welcomed us.

We made it to Lexington around dinner and were ordering some food to go, thinking we’d try and hurry 10 miles on to the next campsite, when a gentleman who had waved to us earlier while biking now approached us on foot to ask about our journey. His name was Tim, and he offered us a place to stay and he drove our meal back to his home so we wouldn’t smoosh it en route on our bikes.

Tim and Cathy are an incredibly kind couple who invited us to stay in their home that had dreamy 360° views of the mountains. Tim told us about his adventures hiking the Appalachian Trail last year, and as a couple, shared about hiking through Spain and Portugal. Tim even offered us help with the GoPro video uploading and showed us some neat features of the editing software.

They even checked out our website, so we took a picture of them reading the blog to post on the blog…. How meta. Sorry it’s not a better view of your faces. Maybe we’ll meet again and snap a better picture!

After a great night’s sleep, they outfitted us with some nutritious breakfast bars and coffee and we got an early start.

We thought we might detour to see the Natural Bridge, but at $18 a ticket, it seemed like a tourist trap and we opted instead to linger and chat with a sweet couple from Virginia who took a liking to Petunia. My little girl was happy to show off and then cool off in a bush.

The weather was great today and it was a pretty ride to Troutsville, where we thought we could stay for free in a park, but when we called the town, they told us no dogs were permitted. We tried Warm Showers, and while the only local couple couldn’t host us in their yard, they told us about an event called Troutsville Trail Days that happened to be starting tonight for bikers and hikers of the Appalachian Trail.

We arrived just at the right time– a free and delicious dinner was served to a big group of hikers and cyclists, followed by a short pilgrimage of adventurers and free spirits over to the local church where over 20 different kinds of desserts were to be had and judged in a baking competition.

We pretty much ate until we felt silly. A heavenly caloric food euphoria fell upon us.

We met some really fascinating people, like Anne, a young woman from California who was solo thru-hiking the AT from Georgia to Maine, having previously hiked in a desert out west so hot and dry that it necessitated carrying a very heavy 8L of water. We also met an amazing couple from Vernon, Connecticut who had been adventure cycling and hiking together since their 20s. They’ve been all over the world and were on the AT as part of their pursuit of the elite Triple Crown of hiking. They offered some keen advice about bike-camping and were very funny and inspiring people.

It was such a wonderful day… There’s no way we can even begin to describe it here. Less than three weeks in and this adventure feels transformational already.

Summertime cruising: http://youtu.be/t6FnMfTfjJ0

You’re gonna carry that weight: http://youtu.be/IxuRiZPVFZc