May 15, 2006
Day 5: C-ville to Afton: The Cookie Lady!
I woke up around 6 but didn't want to get out from under my extremely warm and cozy down comforter on Alia and Jen's couch. I heard Cristey up and around soon after (she'd gone to bed at 7:30), but we piddled around for a while waiting for fog to clear. We decided to shortcut to Afton via 250 and didn't know what services would be there, so we stocked up at 7-11 and headed out. 250 had quite a bit of traffic and I'm not sure I'd take it again, but it was ok and had fewer stream crossings (hence fewer hills) than the other route. I was saving my strength for the Blue Ridge.
The ride was really rather uneventful--plenty of service stops we didn't need and a logging operation of some sort, but not much else except occasional views of the impending mountains. And some difficulty regulating my temperature with the hills and irregular shaded and sunny spots.
We got off 250 to the much anticipated climb to the Cookie Lady's house. We'd been slow like slugs all day, so I knew the climb would be particularly slow. Good thing we used the outhouse at the country store back on 250, because we had plenty of time to listen to the little streams running along the road (no pictures of these as I was having too much fun trying to remain balanced at 3 mph the way it was). But really, the climb wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We probably could have done Mineral to here in a day, but with only 20 miles today, we got in by noon and had a 1/2 rest day of talking to June and checking out the bike house.
I waited for Cristey to finish walking up the hill, and we went on up to the Shrine of the Cookie Lady. Debbie greeted us, introduced us to June, and took us to the bike house to get settled in and cleaned up before our 2pm chatting appointment with June (no WAY I was taking a cold/outdoor shower from the hose here--it was chilly!). Meeting June was a moving experience--I mean, some people come on pilgrimage just to see her and the bike house.
I got my polaroid taken for Bike House posterity before jumping into the food provided here at the house--chips and a nutty bar to start with. Then I went for a little walk to take pictures and saw a heavily loaded biker walking up the last stretch before the Afton Post Office. It was Megan from Wales on a tour of the US. She wanted to spend time here and decided renting a car was too expensive, walking was too slow, and riding a horse was too complicated, so she's on a bike ride. Trans Am and then down the Pacific coast is her plan. But ends up she's had terrible luck with bike and trailer parts breaking. She said she got advice from a bike shop about choosing a bike, but it sure didn't look like the best touring option to me--only 24 spokes and ALL the weight on the back wheel isn't a good combination. Her pump isn't really working correctly either, so I got two of her tires pumped up with mine. I think the back tire has slime in the valve, so I couldn't do anything about that one.
We went to our 2 pm appointment with June and got to listen to a couple of hours worth of stories, many illustrated with her self-made model of bustling Afton in the 1920's (complete with outhouses). She can't sew or crochet since her stroke, so building is her new creative outlet. She and Debbie are now working on a Western-themed grouping since she likes reading westerns.
We heard stories about ice-cream dates, the railroad, resort guests from her childhood, schoolbus rides, interdenominational sunday school stipulations from a landowner, Santa Claus-the man of her house, cats, and a gay deer (I'll have to fill in more of this later).
Story of June's Gay Deer
So June has a deer head hanging on the wall in her living room. She likes to decorate everything for Christmas...everything including the deer head. Somehow she came into possession of a large gift bow that she impulsively placed between the antlers of the deer, commenting to a friend how the bow looked just like a ladies hat and didn't that lady deer just look contented with her new hat? Her guest gently pointed out that the deer (with the antlers) was male and probably wouldn't be too fond of the hat, to which June quickly responded, "Well, he must be a gay deer then..."
In all my thinking about the eighty-some year old Cookie Lady and the stories I anticipated hearing, this was definitely not among them!
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Megan went to clean up, Cristey and I went to see the Cookie Cats, and biker #4 for the night showed up. Geoff from MA came in on his trip from Pennsylvania to KY. But we all finally escaped the stories to go enjoy the bike house and make dinner--Spaghetti-Os for me and Megan and all natural raw foods for Geoff. Poor guy--he could hardly eat his dinner for all the questions Cristey and Megan asked him about his super-healthy diet.
Tomorrow I'm detouring a bit to go see Loopy, a friend from college section hiking the AT. We'd tried to arrange to see each other before I left and when he was in DC, but he was headed out to hike and the timing just didn't work. So today I got a call from him saying he was in Waynesboro--maybe 8 miles from Afton--and taking a couple days off from the trail. I debated about whether to detour since getting back up to the parkway will be a bear after heading down the OTHER side of the mountain, but I think it's worth it. I may try to leave my stuff at the hiker info center at Rockfish Gap or he may be able to find me a ride back up, but tomorrow's supposed to be a tough day of riding. I'll be up early to make up some of the time, but Loppy's guaranteed me a good breakfast at our meeting spot if I make it. I'm excited to see him and am glad I decided to detour. It's my vacation after all!
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2:42:41, 7.8 avg (don't laugh--I was a slug all day)
Today's ride: 21 miles (34 km)
Total: 209 miles (336 km)
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