Touring Tunes

We left lovely Crozet yesterday after getting some good rest in a field adjacent to their fire department, having an insanely overpriced and mediocre breakfast, and drying our still-wet clothes at the laundromat. We could see the mountains toward Afton and our big climb over the Appalachians not too far off in the distance.

On the way up, we stopped in Afton to see the home of the late “Cookie Lady,” June Curry, an angel to cyclists who had provided cookies (of course), water, showers, and rest to bicycle travelers since around the Bikecentennial cross country ride in the summer of 1976. Ms. Curry died in 2012, but the legend continues by a woman named Hope who has taken up the torch, and even though she wasn’t home when we stopped by, Hope had offered to leave the house open for us to view when I’d called her the day before.

June never charged for her hospitality and was adored by many world-wide. Cyclists had started sending postcards and leaving trinkets, notes, maps, bike gloves, and all sorts of items for June, and her home was full of thousands of postcards and thank you letters filling several rooms.

I was touched by her spirit of generosity, kindness, openness, and by what she had inspired. I thought of the families and people we’ve met so far who have similarly opened their homes, hearts, and refrigerators (it’s true– we’re always hungry) to us. It was almost haunting, like being in a mausoleum, but full of the spirit of love and hope that carries on and is shared by many. I felt inspired and recommitted to letting that same spirit shine through in my own life.

While most of the day was uphill, the predicted rain held off and it was gorgeous along the Blue Ridge Parkway and the vistas were incredible. It felt like we were really going up, up, and up with each scenic overlook proving that we were no longer at the base of the mountains, but we were eye level with other peaks.

After some of the treacherous climbs in PA, this almost felt anticlimactic. The weather was great, the traffic was almost nonexistent, and we were feeling strong. Greg carried a couple of my water bottles to help out when my knee started to bother me a bit, but overall it was a good climb with breathtaking views.

The welcomed descents led us to a little town called Love, where we stayed in a small cabin for the evening. When we woke up this morning, Greg was not feeling well after fighting off a sore throat for a few days, so we’re taking a sick day and we’ll be ready to rack up some more miles tomorrow.

We’re still working out the kinks of uploading and editing, but for now, here’s a little sample of the bike cam footage!

Upon arriving in Charlottesville, we were greeted by my friend Dawn from Harrisonburg, VA, who drove an hour to be our first and only sag wagon, bringing delicious pasta and chicken dishes from a local Italian restaurant, wonderful desserts, and a few tiny goodies for Jamie. It was so nice to share dinner with a dear friend.

We’d called a local youth hostel in Charlottesville last night looking for a place to sleep, but they wouldn’t accommodate Petunia, so they referred us to another house-share type place that was really close to our route. We stayed with hosts Flame and Raven in a room in their home called FairHaven and it was very comfortable and nice! Here’s Flame, Greg, Tunes and one of her paintings behind them.

They even let us share their organic fruit, home-grown strawberries, and breakfast supplies. We slept in til 8:30 and cooked amazing berry-banana pancakes this morning. We didn’t get on the road until after noon, but it was nice to have a slow day after 2 weeks of daily riding. Tunes was happy for some R&R too.

We passed some beautiful views of the mountains that we’re headed toward. Trying not to psych ourselves out too much for the steep elevation gains headed our way this week.

We thought we might push on to Afton tonight and see the trail-famous Cookie Lady (2.0) and her cyclist memorabilia center, but we had hot dogs in Crozet instead, and were invited to camp out for free at their fire department. We did some much-needed laundry by filling a pannier with soapy water and washing clothes by hand and hanging our things on a rope tied between two trailers in a field. Hopefully it’ll drip almost-dry by morning. We called it an early night in hopes of having enough energy to tackle the climbs tomorrow.

It was decided yesterday that we would forgo the trip to the eastern coastal town of Yorktown, VA, the official start point of the TransAmerica route going westward, in favor of just heading west toward Charlottesville. Somewhat disappointing, but sometimes compromises must be made to move forward.

We stopped in a small town called Bumpass and stocked up in their tiny local store, and the owners invited us to sign their bike tourist guest book. We’re just a few days behind another rider heading to Oregon.

We ended up having an early dinner at one of the two restaurants in Mineral, VA and thought about camping near Lake Anna until we heard the local fire department allows tourists to stay free in their field and even use their showers. The price was right and the firefighters and EMS folks were very nice. There was even a fenced in field and Miss Petunia did LOTS of running.

And some resting and napping, too.

I guess we were just too distracted to notice the train tracks running 20 yards from the field we camped out in, but when it felt like a train bolting through our living room as we were all sound asleep by 9pm, we certainly realized that this town wasn’t so quiet after all.

It must’ve had about 50 cars on it, too.

We bid adieu to Mineral this morning and headed on west. We stopped in one small town called Palmyra in search of lunch, but the local gas station only had the usual candy and junk food. A few simple turkey on white bread sandwiches that we bought from their fridge turned out to be a month past the expiration date, but luckily we noticed this before we ate them. Blech.

The town did have a cool old jail though, so we horsed around in the stocks before heading of to Charlottesville, where we are spending the night. More on that story later.

We rode through a lot of rural nothingness around Beaverdam, VA yesterday, although there are plenty of mostly Baptist churches to be seen. We stopped for a quick lunch we made up (ramen noodles and chili in a can) in the shady courtyard of a church before pushing on south toward Coatesville.

We rode until dark, and not finding any campgrounds or parks, set up in a discreet spot behind some bushes in the backyard of a church. Can you see our camp site? Exactly.