Day 10: Radford to (Almost) Cedar Springs: I thought the headwinds would come in Kansas!

May 20, 2006

Woke up in the RV at my now usual 6 am, packed up, loaded the bike, and went inside for a final email check and breakfast before saying farewell to the Lees and their menagerie.

It looked like it might rain at some point, but the clouds moved on. Unfortunately, the wind moving the clouds stayed against me all day, but it was a great day to ride otherwise.

Newbern was a neat little town with lots of historical structures and the smell of wood-burning stoves from some of the homes. I mailed home picture CDs and a couple of other little things, but I probably should have stayed there longer and looked more at the history of the place.

Then just past Draper was a tar papered country store that was struggling for business, waiting for a campground to get reopened for more business to come through and trying to get locals back with a sale on Marlboros. The proprieter chatted with me for a while, his grass-covered boots punctuating each sentence that attempted to hide his frustration with the business.

A brief rest stop--talked shop with the proprietor

Wy Sor? Because I've been sitting on this little seat for hours!

I had lunch at a beautiful wayside (Carter? Collins? C-something anyway) on a frontage road after Grahams Forge before heading on to Max Meadows. Max Meadows to Wytheville was tough--stopped and gave some business to a wood-countered country market in Max Meadows rather than the gas stations at the interstate a couple of miles earlier, but the wind was thwarting my efforts to move forward at any type of reasonable pace. I stopped at a miniature horse and donkey farm along the way just to get out of the wind for a while, hid behind a bush for some wind relief a few miles later, and behind the barn of an historic "poor farm" right outside Wytheville.

See...my gas is cheaper than your gas this summer! $2.50 for Pepsi!

I think this was Cristey's jumping off point--Ft. Chiswell

Poor Farm on the way into Wytheville--hid on the other side of this for a while just to get out of the wind

First Taco Bell! I needed the energy to head into the headwind for a few more miles...

Wytheville did me good and gave me my first taco bell of the trip, along with some incredulous questioning by the lady at the counter. I think she was ready to jump ship and head out with me! Even with the wind, I didn't want to stop for the day and left Wytheville after getting directions confirmed by a lady at a pharmacy drive-thru!

The wind was terrible to Rural Retreat. At one point I watched this beetle bug come in for a landing (I was moving slowly enough to watch these things) and he ended up skittering about on landing like a Southwest 737 on ice.

There weren't any good places to stay in Rural Retreat, and a couple of campgrounds were just south of there, so I headed on. The campgrounds were farther off route than I like to go, so I pulled into a church with a pavilion and asked the lawn-keeper if it would be ok if I stayed there since it was headed toward late evening.

The pavilion was littered with an old bird nest that got too big or too old for the rafters, and there was an auction going on somewhere nearby. The cows kept looking at me and my strange mechanical contraption, but the sunset over the dilapidated barns was worth it. The night ended up being pretty cold, but it was one of the best of the trip so far.

Fairview Church campsite near Cedar Springs

Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 433 miles (697 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	3
Comment on this entry	Comment	0