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| (St. Paul Fleeing Damascus in a Basket) |
Miles Ridden Today - 114.00 Average Miles Per Hour - 12.71
So we didn't really sneak out of Damascus in a basket, however Sarah and I did head out bright and early this morning with a rather inauspicious start. We knew we had some climbing to do and we were hoping she would be able to keep up with the climbs. But before we did that we had to check out the offerings of cycling glasses at the local bike shops. Due to a mental lapse on my part (I seem to be having more and more of those lately) I inadvertantly left my sunglasses on the bike rack on the way to Breaks (those are the breaks?) when Amy and the kids met me on the side of the road and I've been wearing some cheap dollar store sunglasses that I bought during one of my fueling up stops. But they are just not cutting it so I knew I needed some new ones.
Now one of the things you have to understand about Damascus, VA (not the biblical town of much reknown or the current city in Syria) is that it has become incredibly popular with mountain bikers in the last few years. Its a long story but apparently a developer and other local organizations have worked extremely hard to make it a mountain bike friendly place - so much so that they like to bill themselves as "Trail Town, USA". I can't tell you anything about that from personal experience but I CAN tell you that their attitude towards road cyclists is not as generous.
However, they do have a lot of bike shops - seven to be exact. Considering the fact that the 2010 census listed the population at 814, that's basically one bike shop for every 116.2 people. But of course, the shops are for all those folks who are riding the trails.
So Sarah and I stopped by a few of the shops that were actually open on our way out and I tried on glasses then phoned Amy and told her which shop and which glasses to pick up as I didn't have enough money with me. She would meet me later on the route and I would switch out my cheap sunglasses with her.
However, we had a long way to go and many mountains to climb. I would be diverting from the Adventure Cycling Association maps today as I would be relying on the advice of my mother-in-laws friend Ginny Russel who had relocated to Floyd from Long Island with her husband Jack (yes, Jack Russel like the terrier - and they have one!). She had given us directions that she said would be a shorter route than the one I had been given. I only wish I had looked at the topography first - but more on that later.
So we would be heading out on the same route as the ACA maps, namely US-58E, otherwise known as the Jeb Stuart Highway, which apparently is the longest numbered route in Virginia. I didn' t know that at the time but I was able to enjoy this view with Sarah as we started our journey outside of Damascus.
Ahh, sweet tranquility.
And then I found out something else about my darling daugher - she is competitive. My in-laws have a little saying they like to use when they are out sailing with others. Even though its supposed to be a leisurely "cruise" there is always crowing rights for those who get to the destination first but you don't want to appear to be trying to get there first so they always say, "not racing".
Well, on our way outside of Damascus we saw there was a bike trail that ran parallel to US-58 and it was on the other side of the stream. As we were leaving town a family of five was also wending their way in the same direction but they were on the bike path (The Virginia Creeper Recreational Trail). Sarah, as usual, was in the lead (I always do that so traffic behind us will see me first and go around - I'm her buffer) and I could see her see them. She began subltely at first, just picking up the pace a little from 13mph to 15mph. Although the had originally had a bit of a lead on us (about 1/4 of a mile) from Sarah driving the pace we started slowly but surely reeling them in. Sarah could smell blood. She began ducking her head and slowly but surely we began to catch them. However, the incline was also slowly but surely increasing - that never deterred my beautiful girl who just cranked away steadily. Before long we had pulled even with them and they noticed us! For a while they kept the pace up with us and it was a bit evident that they were "not racing" also. However, we had a bit of an advantage - I had already ridden about 2300 miles and Sarah has but in 200 miles, much of it in "rolling" terrain like this. Soooooo, we continued "not racing" and before you know it we were leaving them behind. We weren't sprinting, my competitive daughter just set a steady blistering pace that left them behind. It was at that moment I realized that if she ever wanted to start seriously training for it, she would be a hell of a bike racer!
However, all that "not racing" did have a price. Unbeknownst to either of us, there is a large mountain outside of Damascus that we needed to climb. A mountain that had 16 percent inclines and had one section that was about two miles at 8 percent! I followed behind Sarah and kept telling her that we didn't have to do this, that we could stop, or that we could rest but she would have none of that. She wanted to conquer the mountain. She reminded me that I never stopped and I never walk up the hills, that I was doing this for the kids who couldn't stop their fight and she was going to do the same. I actually started to tear up hearing my little girl exhibit such determination. It actually made me realize that what I was seeing in her was what I've been doing for six weeks now and although I'm starting to feel weary, seeing my daughter fight her way up the mountain made me realize that I can finish this - I can make it all the way!
We finally reached the top of the hill after an hour of climbing and we took a short break or, as Puck would say about Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, we "entered into a break". Unfortunately, we didn't have any toilet paper with us. Sarah went back amidst the ferns and did what she had to do, rested up, ate a snack and then we were back on our way down the backside of the mountain. Now up to this point we were still loosely following the ACA maps but as we were going to follow Ginny's directions we made a right at Konnarock Road, diverging from the map. About a half an hour later, disaster struck!
I don't even know what town we were in, since many of these smaller towns don't have names posted but I think it might have been "Green Cove" - again, I'm sort of operating without a map here. Anyway, Sarah has this habit of looking around when she rides. Don't get me wrong, I love that about her. It is one of the things that has been amazing about our rides together is that she reminds me how fun it is to just ride and not worry about my mph or how fast I need to go (I know, ironic considering our earlier encounter where she felt the need to dust the other family). Watching her enjoy herself on her bike takes me back to my summers in Germany when that's what we did.
But sometimes her enjoying the ride gets her distracted and causes her to forget to hold her line as it did today. She was looking at something off to her right, not anything in particular, just enjoying the view and I was following behind her about two feet back when I looked down to grab my water bottle. She chose that moment to slow down and veer off to the left. The result? She clipped my front wheel and I went down. HARD. So hard that I managed to break the buckle on my right shoe. Of course, here I am sprawled in the middle of the road but fortunately we're on the backroads of Virginia in the summer so there wasn't a whole lot of traffic. I peeled myself off the tarmac (yes, there was some road rash involved here) and made my way over to the grass on the side of the road to ascertain the damages to Sarah first, the bike second and me third.
First of all, Sarah. She was fine as she was able to maintain control of her bike and didn't fall over at all. For that I was very grateful. Me, I can take it but I didn't want to be in the middle of nowhere (once again with no cell service) and not able to get in contact with Amy. But she was feeling terrible. I could see that she felt guilty and she was so worried that I was going to be hurt. I tried to assure her I was okay (although at first I wasn't so sure) and that it wasn't her fault, too much.
Next, the bike was okay. The front right brake lever was a little twisted and scratched but not too bad (my right arm took the brunt of it) so I got that fixed up. Shifting was fine, wheels still true, brakes worked okay. Just a bit of scratching and road grunge, "easy enough to fix when we get to Floyd," I thought to myself. The good people of Green Cove reminded me of why I want to move out to this part of the country. No less than ten people in the space of twenty minutes stopped to ask me if I was okay. So the next time all of you Yankees are deprecating about those racist Southerners, just remind yourself that they are lot more caring of strangers than many of your Northern compatriots. I think most particularly of the time the van "right hooked" me and then just drove off. So I was the victim of a "right hook" and a hit and run! In case you don't know what a right hook is, here ya go;
Anyway, I took stock of the rest of me and realized that I had broken the strap off of my right shoe! What the heck am I going to do now? I don't know how long it will be before Amy catches up with us and I don't have a spare!
DUCT TAPE TO THE RESCUE!!!!!! One of the smartest things I ever read was the tip to always carry duct tape in your saddle bag/handlebar bag. I had read this a few years ago and as a matter of fact The Day I Made God Laugh (which, incidentally up until this trip was the last time I tried to ride a century) I was contemplating patching myself up with duct tape when the EMT's arrived. The doctor was pretty sure I was in a mild state of shock.
But back to the task at hand, I took the broken pieces and dut taped them together which seemed to hold for a while. We eventually met up with Amy and made the transfer of Sarah back into the van after first stopping at one of the numerous small convenience stores that you can find on the backroads of Virginia. They have sustained me on many of my rides thus far. We got Sarah some food (and of course the boys as they are like little nine-year-old locusts) and rehydrated her and then we said our goodbyes for the day as Amy and the kids were going to go ahead and maybe spend some time with Ginny and Jack in Floyd. I reapplied the duct tape that had been coming loose and went on.
That left me and my somewhat sketchy shoe to make it the next what I thought was 70 miles by ourselves. My reasoning was when I got to Jack and Ginny's maybe I could find a local bike shop and get a replacement shoe. However, I learned a number one rule of getting directions from people who don't ride - they have no idea how far things really are or how difficult the roads! When you get directions from Google Maps you should always plug in the bicycle option!!!! I'm sure Ginny was very consciencious in plugging in the shortest route from Damascus to Floyd and by Google Maps it does show it to be only 102 miles but it doesn't take into consideration that it is on roads that wind up and around mountains and rivers! At one point I was in a place call Mouth of Wilson and I was only two miles and a river away from North Carolina!!!! Of course upon hearing I was in the Mouth of Wilson, all I could think of was the character from Home Improvement and that started me laughing and giggling for about five miles - I think I was delirious!
But the most trying part of the journey was the fact that I wasn't yet finished with the Bubba Dogs! I spent a lot of time today on back roads and climbing up steep inclines and every one of these inclines seemed to have an unleashed dog on it waiting around some bin. I used the yelling, aggressive technique on some and that seemed to work. As loath as I was to do it I sprayed a few others with my water bottle. Some I simply out rode but a few I had to resort to the pepper spray. I thought I was supposed to have left these guys behind in Kentucky!!!! Oh well, the pepper spray works and at this point in my journey I really have no sympathy for these damn dogs or their owners. After the one tried to chomp on Sarah and made her ride into the opposite lane I'm of the mind to spray first and explain later!
As you can see from my average mph for the day it was slow going. There were not nearly as many downhills as I would hope in this mountain studded area and I found myself stopping at many rest stops along the way to rehydrate and refuel. The energy bars are great but they start to taste like sawdust mixed with glue after a while and I just need something salty - like barbecue pork rinds (shhhhh, don't tell Sarah - she'd freak out). I think I hit one of the lowest points of the day when I got to Galax, VA. Now granted, it's supposed to be "The Gateway to the Blue Ridge Mountains" and according to it's website it is;
rich with tradition, shopping, recreation and scenic beauty.
exploring trails by foot, bike or horse.
Galax, Virginia is home to the largest Old Time Bluegrass Fiddler's Convention as well as the New River Trail.
And you know all of it's true because it's listed on its website. However, it was all I could do in the heat of the day (the sign outside a local bank stated it was 98 degrees!) was think that I had 45 more miles of this crap to endure! My foot was cramping up a bit because in the heat it had swelled up a little but I didn't want to try to adjust it because I didn't have that much duct tape left and I might need it for emergencies so I decided to just suffer. I stopped at a local service station to get me some caffeine and a big salty bag of potato chips. Hey, at this point I'm burning off something like 4,000 calories a day so I decided to treat myself. Finally after half an our of propping my foot up and pigging out on chips and Mountain Dew I saddled up for the last three hours of the journey.
The bad part was it was now about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and I could tell from the terrain that my up and down rolling was not finished. So I ducked my head down and gritted my teeth, grateful for the caffeinated fruit chews I had score at the gas station.
Finally about 6 o'clock (and a few bubba dog encounters later) I found myself about ten miles outside of Floyd, VA. I looked up and low and behold there was a black mini van headed my way with a blue tarp bungee corded to the top - it was Amy!!!! I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew if nothing else I was getting close. After passing me she turned around and caught up with me. She told me all about the kids settling right in at Jack and Ginny's and how gorgeous the place was, how we had our own guest cabin and that it wasn't that much further. However, she warned me, the last bit of the road was a gravel road so I wouldn't want to ride on it after the 104 miles I had already ridden. She told me to just call her when I got to the bridge and she would come and get me.
Almost an hour later I reached said bridge in the gathering dusk and here is the site that greeted me;
Damn, I look rode hard and put away wet!!!!
Moments later, Amy picked me up, we rode to Jack and Ginny's, I peeled the duct tape off my shoe, I showered 12+ hours of road grime off my body, and we had a fantastic dinner prepared by Ginny and the kids - William is particularly taking all the "Chopped", "Cupcake Wars" and "Next Food Network Star" shows to heart as he concocted a fabulous salad dressing from ingredients in the kitchen and his own imagination.
And after some great dinner conversation with other adults it is time to now finish this journal and get it off to you my readers then a chance to sleep in a bed with my wife and no children in the same room!!!!!
Tomorrow, its off to Blacksburg to see if I can find some new shoes!
And today's report;
FFR - 6 raccoons, 3 possums, 4 squirrels, a deer, 10 birds of indeterminate species, 8 UFO's
RRL - a toilet (looked usable), some bags of dog food, a kiddie pool, two coolers and three pairs of mixmatched shoes spread out over 30 miles.
Stay well and I'll update more from the road!
For another perspective on our journey check out Amy's blog at http://www.crosscountrymama.blogspot.com//
To help us get the kids to Sunrise go to https://www.wizevents.com/register/register_add.php?sessid=1809&id=1056
Check out our website at http://www.connorsarmy.org/
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