June 27, 2022
West Jefferson Rest Day
by George and Josh
After 4 days of hard work, climbing and descending both Skyline Drive and the BRP to just beyond it's mid-point, we took our planned rest day in West Jefferson. I'm in bed a few minutes before going to sleep and thought I'd keep our readers posted by recounting today's events from my perspective. I'll try and include some Josh moments since he hasn't written an entry and is currently fast asleep with his family in the room next door.
We have been able to stay in the same AirBnB for the last 2 nights because of the rest day. It's a very nice 3 bedroom apartment over a store and a tavern in downtown West Jefferson. There is some street noise and bar noise occasionally, but the place has been really comfortable and served us well. After yesterday's ride we all went over to the New River Brewing Company to celebrate 4 hard days in the saddle/SAG wagon. I had an excellent tasting brew called a Kentucky Common paired with a bbq sandwich- my second one of the trip. Annabelle fell in love with the Lazy Susan mounted on our huge round table and kept passing out menus and forks as we waited for the food to arrive. Once back home we typed our CycleBlaze journals and went to bed.
When I woke up this morning Josh was busy on his MacBook- a sight I see often. He was going over plans for the rest day and looking at footage shot by his drone. The drone does some amazing things. Though he hasn't stated it aloud, I'm assuming he'll be editing all this into some sort of video of the trip. He is really excited to shoot some extended footage tomorrow over the Linn Cove Viaduct, a bridge that extends out beyond the mountain as opposed to on top of it. He told me to be ready to ride this part repeatedly to "get some really good shots!" Temperamental artists- sheesh! I just hope the drone doesn't crash like it's done before. There's no way to climb down after it.
After returning to my room I decided to re-read the birthday post I wrote last night. To my horror I discovered I had never saved it before shutting down the computer and losing all my hard work. So like on a bike ride gone wrong I said "No use crying over spilt milk" and got on with a re-do. If you read Josh's Stage 4 post early this morning and didn't see my "birthday" edition then you can go back and it's there now.
The Henderson family spent some quality time together for the rest of the morning by going out to eat and also finding a playground. Madeline finally found a coffee shop up to her standards (Bohemian Coffee down on the main drag) while I cleaned and worked on my bike, washed clothes, and read the new Hunger Games book; don't judge- I teach 7th grade Language Arts so it's, um, research (and because I think it's great!) Afterwards I met Madeline at an outfitters store to buy myself some swim shorts for today's main event- tubing down the New River. We rounded out the morning by eating lunch at Sweet and Savory Deli, and then visiting Ashe County Cheese to finally learn what the heck Miss Muffet ate while sitting on her tuffet.
The tubing lived up to the hype courtesy of Zaloo’s Canoes. The weather had looked sorta sketchy when we were booking our reservation but it ended up being mostly sunny and around 75 degrees. The water was crystal clear and flowed along at the same speed I seem to be climbing the steeper parts of the BRP- 4 or 5 mph. The only scare occurred when Josh lost his Army hat that Annabelle had been wearing in the river. After abandoning the search the hat found Madeline by floating right up to her tube. Clean living!
The rest-day for the 5 of us ended with a trip to Boondocks. I had the Blue Ridge Brutal Brown, the signature beer of the big bike event in West Jefferson every year known as the Blue Ridge Brutal. The picture above is from when I rode it last year and was enjoying the spoils of my labor in the mix zone at the end. After supper I drove Madeline to the top of West Jefferson to watch the sun begin to set.
With our batteries recharged it's time to get back at it tomorrow as we ride to Little Switzerland, NC. The route is around 75 miles and has about 7.5 k feet of climbing. Hopefully it goes well as we're down to 3 days until the finish.
George
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 3 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |