124: . . . I long to see you

(Today's blog post title is a reference to the Shenandoah River, and that beautiful song. Though we spent several days in the valley, we never did see the river!)

Another splendid day for riding, as Roger said. Although that was in the morning, before it warmed up. Even so, it was really pretty pleasant today as we climbed up hill and over dale. 

Virginia farm

Wehit a high point in the ride about 20 miles from the finish and then, quite uncharacteristically for this part of the country, enjoyed a substantial downhill for a good long spell, with just modest little uphill segments now and then. It was one of the most enjoyable portions of our time here in Appalachia - rolling through the woods with a stream off to our left. We even came upon a spring pouring out of the hillside. Since it was plumbed (after a fashion) and cascading into a mossy cement trough, we figured we could drink it. And it was delicious!  Water with no flavor at all, cool and fresh, is a marvel. We filled a bottle with it before heading off. A little further down the road I saw another spring, this one with a sign that said 'not safe to drink.' That gave me some confidence that we were going to be okay having drunk the other, but you never really know. (Since I am writing this the next morning, I can report that all appears to be well!)

From the source

The angels were looking out after us yesterday. We had just pulled past a meat market on one of these country roads when a gentleman waved us over to the side from a driveway. He said there was an impaired driver in the store, and that they had called the police. He was cautioning us not to get back on the road until the police had come. I thought it was a fine time to get a drink or something, so we went back to the market and shortly, the guy came out and got into his car. As it turned out, he went back the way we had come, and not forward down the road we were taking, but I was still thankful that someone was attentive enough to notice the erratic driving and call it in. 

Lunch was at a small place run by two guys who are basically doing catering, and have a location for lunch during the week. They were nice enough to offer us drinks on the house with our lunches, since we had come 5800 miles to dine with them. And then, he asked, "do you like sweets?" -- and presented us with this delicious salted coffee chocolate torte. Why, yes - yes, we do like sweets!  When in Staunton VA, check out Lundch!

This was one of those days when we had a Warm Showers host down the road, and at one point, we really thought - uh, oh! Have we made a mistake?  We were about two miles from their home, according to Google, and it took us down a steep gravel road for 1.5 miles. I was thinking, "yikes! we will NEVER get the tandem out of here in the morning" and Roger was thinking, "there was a Budgetel in town . . ." and well, you get the idea.  We made it through the gravel section, and as it turns out, that's not the only way out to their home, and even though Google didn't know quite where they were, we did have enough cell service so I could call and make sure we were on track - and it turned out just fine! 

Tasha and Dave had another cycling guest for the night. So the five of us had a great meal and swapped stories of road trips. Dave actually is a cycling tour director, so he had good advice for us on our route out of Virginia.  All's well that ends well, eh?

Dave and Tasha, our hosts

Marty is three days from finishing his tour

The day's report:  Harrisonburg to Lexington, 63.4 miles/5942 to date

Today's ride profile