We really wanted to reach Belmont before the predicted heavy rains arrived, and made it with 30 minutes to spare. Because we were hurrying when we heard intermittent creaking noises on a long uphill we were not eager to stop to track it down, but it sounded suspiciously like the noise we heard last week before our chain snapped. This time I found the weak link with the rivet pin disengaged from one hole. Rhona's sharp ears saved us this time. I noticed after the chain was repaired, some of the shifting problems were resolved, but I cannot see how the problems are related.
Bear Creek Mound was the first of many we were to encounter along the Trace
It was hard to imagine what life was like for the people that built this mound. They apparently were not living a bare subsistence lifestyle if they had the time and energy to drag dirt to build this mound. Were the workers volunteers or slaves?
The Belmont Hotel B&B was located six miles from the Parkway. The host, Ron Deaton, provided a recommended backroads route that avoided Rt. 25. I suspect the route was suggested by experienced cyclists and was a pleasant way to come into town, and as promised avoided heavy car traffic. Upon our arrival in town we were passed by a fire truck with lights flashing and the siren blaring. We were just in time to see a fire extinguished one block from our hotel. It was a consignment shop that suffered a voltage surge causing a heater to explode in the front display window and ignite a bale of hay, part of a display on the sidewalk. The fire was out when we arrived, but the owners were working on the cleanup all evening.
We are staying in historic Belmont Hotel,built two years before my dad's birth in 1924 which has been refurbished as a B&B. It still feels like a hotel and the WiFi works only slightly better than in 1924. Since uploading pictures will be a problem over the marginal cellphone network, I will enter some text later but leave the pictures for another time.
Ron Deaton, the owner had high praise for Randy Fought who arranged our B&B stays. Randy and the cyclists he sends are what makes his hotel profitable. Now an excellent Mexican restaurant (lines out the door when we were there) has opened and is expanding partly because of his customers. Downtown Belmont is trying to reinvent itself and businesses like the hotel attracting touring cyclists help.
