Day 4

Mileage: 87
Total: 292

(Posted from a rest stop in Buchanan)

Today I woke up nicely refreshed after a wonderful night's sleep on Katy's couch. I left late enough that I got to see my friends in the administration office and research lab before I hit the road.

Dr. Canterbury specifically had some advice. He recommended wearing more sunscreen so I wouldn't get skin cancer, recommended I buy some sunglasses so I wouldn't get cataracts and recommended eating some Werthers caramels on my climb today (of which he provided a handful), presumably just because he's a nice guy, no medical benefit intended.

Which reminds me that today was the day of the big climb! To get a sense of what today was like compared to the previous couple, check out the picture I attached of my elevation map. I'm going right to left.

Today was also a trip down memory lane. My route took me into Whitehall where I signed the bike log at a small convenience store and filled up my bottles. While I was fiddling with the tension on my pedals, I got to talk with Theresa, who was running the store for the day. She reminded me that today is supposed to be the hardest day of the ride and then spent the next 15 minutes telling me all about her nephews, who she said I reminded her of. Then I hit some familiar patches of road. I got to go past Crozet (Adam and Margaret, we've ridden that route before) and stopped at Chiles peach orchard for some water. A circuitous route brought me onto the 250 right by blue mountain brewery and I resisted the urge to stop for a nice cold beer and lunch. From there, it's a steep uphill slog into Afton (seriously, check the map! ) where I got to see the cookie lady's old house.

For the unfamiliar, the cookie lady hosted hundreds of cross country cyclists at her house in Afton since the creation of this trail. Her house was always open and free and she always had fresh baked cookies waiting. In 2012 she passed away, but they've left the vestibule to her house mostly unchanged. If you stand in it, you're surrounded by hundreds of pieces of memorabilia from all the cyclists who've stopped there across the decades. It was quite touching and even a little emotional to see the evidence of how many lives she touched.

From Afton I climbed to Rockfish gap and had lunch from a snack cart with a couple visiting from Arizona, then it was on to the parkway! The Blue Ridge Parkway is absolutely breathtaking, and the hills are manageable if you gear down far enough. It's also quite popular with motorcyclists.

At the visitors center before humpback rocks, I met Ed who was fulfilling a family tradition. After each of his grandchildren's 13th birthday, he takes them out for a 10 day, 2000 mile motorcycle ride across the east coast, including the whole parkway. This time it was Gabriel's turn, number 7 with only one kid left to go.

Further up the parkway, at the end of my first big climb, I met Robert Quinn who was taking video footage from a drone of the valley below. He's driving around the country, practicing his drone photography and hopefully putting together some shots for local parks to use for advertising. He took a portrait of me from the air and mentioned he'd send it along at some point, I'm excited to see how it turns out.

After 27 odd miles on the parkway, I got to descend into the town of Vesuvius. That 4 mile descent was wicked fast! I had to keep riding my brakes so I wouldn't be taking the corners over 40mph. 20 miles of smooth riding later, I was in Lexington for the night.

I've got to figure out a system for staying in bigger cities. In small ones, you can get a free shower and often bed at the firehouse or visitors center. I inquired here with no luck, so I ended up taking a quick swim in the Maury river and crashing at a park for the night. I've got to hit the bike shop at 9 tomorrow before I leave to replace a screw that came out of my cycling cleat, so I may get to see a little bit of the town.

For now, I'm in a well hidden corner of a park, far away from the road. It's technically closed after dark and the police patrol pretty regularly, but they always stay on the road, so I think I should be safe. G'night!