Virginia, Kentucky, and back to Virginia

Well, the day's ride out of Baileyton, TN, started off pretty well. I didn't have breakfast, but it was a pretty quick ride to get to Kingsport, TN. I stopped on the edge of town to fuel up a little, then rolled north through town towards Virginia. The day was going quite well. Then I got to Virginia. I wasn't more than 2 miles across the border when I got a flat tire. That happens. I stopped on the side of the road, found some shade, and got things rolling again. Just a couple of miles later, as I was pulling in to Gate City, VA, I got another. At this point I was getting a little bit irritated. There was glass everywhere. I pulled off on their main street, just a half block from a bike shop. I walked over there to get an extra tube (I'd eventually need another, and this saved me from digging for one of my spares in my bag). Now, I try not to let this taint my view of a bike shop, but the guy had never heard of a Surly. I expect most people won't recognize the brand, but this was a bike shop. The guy in the store was polite enough and I got my tube and headed back over to get things going again. When I did, I decided to alter my route a little to avoid some hard climbing in the afternoon. As it turns out, both directions had plenty of climbing; I chose the direction that had less shade. I was one good climb away from my destination for the day, Big Stone Gap, VA, when I heard hissing coming from my rear tire. Again. Three flat tires in one day. These tires had survived the mess that are the Louisiana roadways, but I got THREE flats since entering Virginia. This time it was a small piece of wire (steel belting from a shredded car/truck tire). I dug through my bag to find an extra tube and got myself going again.

I pulled into Big Stone Gap, VA, and set up camp for the night at Jessie Lea RV Park. The owner and several of the guests were quite friendly, and the camp site was great. There was a nice little river that I pitched the tent by and walked around in when I would get hot while setting up camp. They told me where I could get a cheap breakfast in the morning, so I took their advice. If you had a member card for their grocery store (the owner of the RV park gave me his old one), you can get 2 eggs, a biscuit with gravy, sausage, and coffee for $1.99. I don't know how they can make money on that.

I started the day off with a full stomach, which was good, because the first thing I was doing right out of Big Stone Gap, VA, was climbing a mountain. It was a pretty awful climb. I got to the top and took a break at a scenic overlook. A family had stopped there as well, and I struck up conversation with the husband while my legs rested and the rest of the family wandered around. They were on their way to a family reunion and had come from Asheville. They had a German woman with them (I'm assuming a foreign exchange student) that took my picture. She said she was going to put it in her scrapbook. We parted ways and I continued pedaling. I cruised along the top of the ridge I had just climbed for a while, then headed back down on the other side. The descent went FAST.  I don't know what the grade was on this downhill, but it was long and straight, so I just tucked and rode it all the way down. I don't know if it was on this descent or the next one, but my new speed record is 49mph. I was keeping up with traffic pretty well. When I'm coming down like that, I don't even try to stay on the side of the road. It wouldn't be safe. All the crap that can give me a flat tire is over there, and a flat doing 49mph sounds like a bad idea.

My next big climb came all too soon. It was at the Virginia/Kentucky line. When I got to the top, I looked at the warning sign they put at the top to let trucks know they need to use a lower gear. Sometimes they say what percent grade the slope is. 8%. Not fun. It took a long time, and I stopped to rest a couple of times, but I made it to the top to take my picture by the Kentucky sign. Just on the other side of the ridge, before descending, there was a place to pull off. I thought I'd take a rest before speeding down the ridiculous slope into Kentucky. There was a car there with two people looking at maps near the back of it. I stopped and asked where they were headed. That part of the conversation didn't stick in my memory. What did was that when I said I was riding for Mennonite Disaster Service, the woman gave me a high-five (I think she didn't know what else to do, because I was a dripping sweaty mess). Her name was Barb Sheats, and she said that MDS had helped her ex-husband out a while back when they had some big hospital bills. She also said that he had worked with MDS after one of the hurricanes (can't remember which one she said) and they were impressed at the efficiency and organization of MDS compared to everyone else. Needless to say, an amazing interaction like this helps to encourage me when I'm pedaling up an awful climb like the one I had just come up.  Honestly, the majority of people I come across generally respond to me with, "Mennonite...you mean with the black hats and beards?" occasionally followed with, "So, the bike is ok, but no car?"  If I've got time, I will occasionally give a brief Anabaptist history lesson and explain why some Mennonites don't wear the plain coat or a head covering, but most times I just smile and nod.

From my interaction atop the Virginia/Kentucky line, I kept pedaling until I got to Breaks Interstate Park. It's not along an interstate highway, it's a state park that lies in two states. It was an unpleasant climb to end the day with, especially with 94 degree temperatures. I was again disappointed when I entered the park and it was a couple more miles to my camp ground. I ended up camping on the Virginia side of the border, so Kentucky is the first state thus far that I have ridden in but not slept in. The locals told me that was a good idea. No offense, Kentucky. I got to the campground, paid for site number 88 (very close to the restrooms), but when I got there to set up camp, people were already setting up their camp. I wasn't a big fan of this. I told them that I had just paid for that site, but they said that the woman at the counter had told them to go pick a site and to come back to let her know which one. It was unfortunate that they had picked number 88. Rather than stand and argue, I just went and picked another one. The rest of the sites were not nearly as nice. It was kind of busy since it was a weekend. I found a spot, and just as I was about to set up camp, it started to rain. There was a 20% chance of that. I hurried to get my tent set up, put the rain fly on, and get my gear inside. I liked the cool rain, so I stayed outside for a bit and eventually went to the bath house for a shower. I kept refuge in my tent after that until it quit raining, but nothing was going to dry my tent before morning when I had to pack it up.

The next morning I packed up my wet tent, threw the gear together, and hopped on my wet bike to get moving for the day. It wasn't a long descent out of the park before I started my first big climb for the day. It was a big climb. It wasn't that I got that terribly high, but it was just straight up. This was a small enough road that they didn't have signs posted saying what grade it was. This road hardly made the cut on my map (it was one of those light gray ones that doesn't have a label). Looking back at the topographical memory of my GPS, it looks like about 600 feet of climb in just over a mile. That's pushing close to 10% grade. That's disgusting. Pictured here you can see what I was about to descend on the other side. It was equally steep and had similar switchbacks. You can see a road on the left side of the image, and another one way down on the right. That's the same road. I think there is only one road in this county. I could smell my brake pads. If it weren't for all those switchbacks, I think I'd have a new speed record.  Below is a picture of how my entire hand, fingertips included, has pruned up because of all the sweat running down my arms that has saturated my gloves and proceeds to drip from my fingers.  It's hot.

After that climb, things weren't too bad. There were two longer and slower ascents later in the day, but they weren't nearly so painful. Now I've got a cheap hotel room in Claypool Hill, VA, for the night. I just did my laundry in the sink, so it's out on the balcony drying at the moment. Passing traffic gawked a bit at my clothes out on the railing. Whatever. The closest laundromat was about 5 miles back, and I'm done riding for the day. Tomorrow I should make it to West Virginia where I may spend the night, unless I get ambitious and want to make it back in to Virginia.