Teh Megablog: Ashand to Mineral, Mineral to Whitehall, Whitehall to Waynesboro

Heading out of Ashland

ScotchtownGotta love the sign

Clothesline outside the rescue squad

The past three days have been increasingly hilly (and increasingly beautiful). Two days ago, we left my mom and Ashland to head up to Mineral. Similar to past days, we had a mix of forest and field, with a cool morning and sun later in the day. I felt great; we did 45 miles (fully loaded for the first time since Yorktown) and averaged 11.5mph. Early in the day, we passed Scotchtown, Patrick Henry's home - twas pretty cool, and the old ladies there were sweet. They also had rams. We did get to go through Bumpass, and as you can see from the post office pic, that really isn't made up. We cycled in over Lake Anna, which is the site of the most recently built nuclear plant - I think. In Mineral, the joined rescue squad and fire department offer bicyclists a place to rest, and since there was a group using the banquet hall the next day, we set up our camping gear out back. The folks were great and the area was nice.

Wild roses by the road - a common occurance

The solar home - nicknamed the trojan goatDad finishing the 80 mile day
Storm clouds rolling in - still gorgeousI almost sat on this dude

Yesterday was probably my toughest day thus far. I hadn't slept that well in Mineral, and my abdomen was pretty much failing. So I got up in a bad mood, biked over pretty hilly terrain in humid, mostly sunny weather, and though we got good distance, it was taking a lot to keep going. From Mineral, we went through Palmyra and Charlottesville (where we got lost and ended up on a super busy road with graduation traffic) to Whitehall. It was pretty, but oh so tiring. We came into town pretty late and had the offer of camping behind their Ruritan building (with no bathrooms or water or anything). A massive storm was kicking up over the Blue Ridges, headed straight our way, and we ran into our first bit of trail magic. :) This wonderful, wonderful man in a minivan rolled down his window as we passed and offered his spare solar home, which had just been completed and which is completely kick-ass. Bamboo flooring, new everything, a cool deck, smallish (and efficient) space... the works. 2 miles away from his place, we got caught in the storm (complete with lightning), and we poured the last ounces of energy into sprinting through the rain. (My panniers withheld the massive quantities of water - yay!!) We stayed on the road as instructed, but Tom (the amazing guy) had been expecting us to miss one of the turns and go straight onto a different road. At some point, we were soaked through on this gravel/dirt road in the middle of nowhere, and Tom drives up, tells us to get in, and drives us back out to where we were supposed to be going. He dropped us off with towels, changed vehicles, and went back for our bikes and remaining gear. Once he delivers that to us, he goes to his house, grabs wine, apple cider, chips, salsa, grapes, ice cream, and honey-roasted peanuts, and feeds us. I love Tom. Having shelter was amazing, and he even gave us breakfast and energy bars this morning before we left. Many thanks to him, his wife Sue, and their awesome kids. Total mileage was around 80, with average speeds just under 11mph. My spedometer is now unresponsive, so I'm using my dad's cyclocomputer.

Woke up this morning, still pretty beat, but in a much better mindset, and headed out of Whitehall. We went over some more rolling hills, climbed a ways on backroads (up through Afton), got over the Blue Ridges at Rockfish Gap and came down to a hotel in Waynesboro. My dad was not looking so great on the hills today, but he has been dealing with some super not-good leg cramps. He's not so used to these hills, nor, for that matter, is he used to the country. We did about 30 miles today, and dad's average was about 8.3mph. (For the record, I expect my avg would have been a bit higher, since I was riding a little more than my dad on some of the hills). In Afton, we caught up with one of the long-standing legends of the trail, the cookie lady. This awesome lady, June Curry, is 88 years old and provides food, water, and shelter to any cyclists that care to take it. We had some cookies and some conversation with her, and she is definitely one of the more loving people I've met. Bikers are her family, and she has rooms filled with things that transam folk have sent her. Tonight at dinner, I felt like I'd been biking - three giant plates chock full of food = nom. Gotta love all-you-can-eat buffets and steak houses.
Tomorrow, we re-climb the Blue Ridge on a more popular and more easily-graded road to get back on the trail, and we'll be following the Blue Ridge for a while (probably beyond where the trail goes down - Vesuvias - to some road that goes down into Buchannan. One of the great things about the decent today was that we took US250, which is not as scary of a descent as the transam likely is. Since the Buchannan trip would be about 80+ miles, we'll take two days to get there.