August 2, Wytheville, VA

Life is good!  Today was a very nice day.  Although our sleep last night
was sometimes interrupted by rain and trains and our planned early start
was halted by heavy fog, the ride more than made up other minor
irritations.

In total, we logged over 80 miles today.  While we were anticipating two
hard climbs, both with elevation gains of more than 1000 ft., the climbs
themselves were a bust compared to the previous two days of hard climbing.
We reached our highest elevation today, but you could not tell that by our
breathing when we reached the crest.  On the other hand we had several
wonderful decents.

Our first town this morning, Damascus, was one of the best pass through
towns yet.  It would have been a perfect town to overnight.  The
Appalachian Trail passes nearby which causes the town to host a lot of
through hikers.  In addition it is at the middle of the Virginia Creeper, a
37 mile long rails-to-trail conversion in the mountains.  There are several
outfitters which support the trail by taking bike riders to the trail head
in the mountains to allow them to bike down. What a way to bike!!

We spent several hours in this town talking to the local folk, getting a
proper cleat for Kyle's mismatched shoe, and eating a great breakfast at
the Dairy King.  Since 12 miles of the Creeper paralleled our road route,
we used the Creeper for the first big climb of the day (Note that we were
riding in the opposite direction as the hordes of bicyclists that had been
shuttled to the top for the ride down.

Prior to taking the Creeper we heard the story of an 80 year old man that
has pedaled over 120,000 on the Creeper.  During our ride up, we meet a 70
year old who had logged more than 12,000 miles.  Needless to say he knew
the Creeper well, including the bridge number that we needed to exit near
to get back to our road route.  My only disappointment was that we should
have stayed longer in Damascus.

Tonight we are camping in the Wytheville's City Park.  Of course we have
the permission of the local police.  It is a quite, restful park.
Unfortunately, it does not have a swimming pool.  Because we needed a
shower badly ( the Creeper put a lot of grime on us) we reluctantly pedaled
2 miles to the town's wellness center for a shower.  While pricey, the
shower certainly made us feel better.

While the day got a little warm in the mid afternoon, it has settled down
to a near perfect evening, It is hard to imagine life getting any better
than this.

Lastly, I have two final comments.  In our last 11 miles today, we had an
8 mile stretch where I averaged 18 miles an hour with bursts up to 22.  If
you have done loaded touring, you will understand how this feels.  You
should also know that even at this speed, Kyle was dusting me.  The second
is that after we rode 80 miles, Kyle put on his running shoes and went for
an hour run.  If I tried that, I'd be in a hospital somewhere.

Dick