May 21, 2021
Day 9 - Blacksburg, VA to Draper, VA
Tunnel closed
We started this morning later. I couldn't seem to get out of bed. My legs sill feel sore and slow. We slept well at our warm showers hosts place though. Laura and Tommy were awesome and we're really into biking. We felt right at home at their house. They were leaving for a gravel tour across Virginia today, so they were busy packing their tandem mountain bike. We all left together and rode into Downtown. They dropped us off at a coffee shop and we waited for the bike shop to open. At the bike shop we got Mary's brakes sanded down and I found another bib! Last night I also tightened the bolt inside chub's left pedal - the one that attaches the platform to the spindle- and I think that helped the clunk go away. Worst case scenario I'll buy a new pair later and ship these home to service them when I get time. We left around 1120 and decided to take a "shortcut" courtesy of google maps. We took a road that had a sign saying "tunnel closed". After and exhilarating mile down hill, the tunnel was indeed closed: there was a military base on the other side, so the tunnel must have been closed for years. Stupid google. So we started to climb back and an old man with a chunky hound dog stopped us by the road and showed us printed pictures of bears thet were on his property. He must have seen us ride down, knowing we would turn around, and grabbed the pics. He has definitely done this before. We climbed out and found a Walmart on route in Radford to stop and buy a fuel canister for the pocket rocket. I think we only have 15-20 miles left to draper, where we are staying with another warm showers host. We had to flee the Walmart parking lot because of bad music so, we went to a nearby church to eat lunch.
After some hummus and avocado sandwiches we continued on to our destination for the night. It was only 15 more miles or so. We met our warm showers hosts for the night (Jennifer and Curtis) up at their winery near draper. They let us sample some of their delicious wines, let us shower and stay in our own room, and made us a vegan friendly dinner of pasta! They were so hospitable. Their daughter Sibley had hiked the AT, so we talked alot about camping and human powered travel. With Curtis and Jennifer, we talked about fermentation and building. We couldn't have asked for a better half rest day.
Mileage:32
Altitude gain:2044
Today's ride: 32 miles (51 km)
Total: 398 miles (641 km)
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