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Day 3 Richmond-Mineral
Lousy weather, but the show must go on. Constant rain all day, with a fair bit of wind. Passed home of Patrick Henry, few minutes after closing. More backroads.
Nice housing developments, huge homes starting at $400K. Put new raincoats to good use. Pulled into Mineral at 7:55pm. Free camping behind volunteer fire station. Across the street was good BBQ joint, just about ready to close. Day 4 Mineral - WhiteHall, via Charlottesville, Virginia White Hall is our stop. Behind a community center on the grass. Price is right and used by many cross country cyclers. 2nd night without a shower, laundramat, running water. Retired school teacher who lowered the flag stopped by for a visit as we setup camp. A gentleman orchardist. Day 5 Mineral-Vesuvius, Virginia via Blue Ridge Mountains Parkway The Cookie Lady We've heard about the famous Cookie Lady, June/86 yrs, in all the books, blogs, guide maps. She's near top of hill in Afton serving 14,000 cyclists in 30 years. We'd hoped to stay in her hostel ... free with donation ... but Rod called ahead. June has arthritic back that has her bedridden.
So we just stopped by to take a pic. Sharon kept moving up the hill. June tapped on the window to motion us in. She's a talker. Gave us key to the bikers' hostel. 5-6 rooms just crammed with cycling memorabilia, postcards, jerseys, etc. and a kitchen stocked with food for her cycling friends.
We thought the major climbing would be done when we got there. Were we wrong. Up, up, up...a little down...then up, up, up some more. We were on the Blue Ridge Parkway for 27 mostly up miles ... looking north into the Shenendoah Valley. About 1900 feet below. Not big views by western standards, but a big deal out here. Water was scarce. Food nonexistent. We hadn't expected the grueling climbs.
Sharon was past hitting the wall, so making our target destination tonight out of the question. We found Gerties Deli in Vesuvius, at bottom of extreme hill to offer free camping in spacious back yard, with lush grass and a port-a-potty. The Deli was closed, but the owner's daughter lived next door.
They say that will be one of the toughest days we face. Glad it's past. Day 6, May 21. Vesuvius via Lexington, en route to Troutdale. I send this dispatch as Rod and Sharon are enjoying our first laundramat we've stopped at. With still 20 miles before the end of our day. We had to stop. Still haven't had a shower for 3 sweaty days. Handi-wipes don't cut thru this gunk.
Lexington is a charming historic city, home to VMI (Virginia Military institute and Washington and Lee College. All brick buildings. Stop at a bike shop for replacement brake pads and anti-dog repellant for the canine welcome committees known to rule the roads a bit further west. EVERY cycler MUST carry a can. We finished the day in Troutville, VA and extraordinary hospitality. We were arriving a few minutes after sunset on a rural road. A driver pulls alongside, asking if we were planning to stay in the community park. Didn't think we could as guidebook said closed Monday. "Not a problem, I'll meet you at the field," said Cecil the ass't mayor and head of the parks. He had been called by two different parties alerting him of our arrival. He met us at the beautiful little city park that he and his wife take such pride in. We arrived without food. Nothing open. He insisted we get in his car, he took us to an all you can eat buffet just before closing, then came back to pick us up. I guess we showed a little curiousity about the great star of Roanoke, The Star of the South. 100 ft tall on a large hill overlooking Roanoke. We went sightseeing at late night to the very top of the hill so we could get a better view. Then he dropped us back off at the campground. Refused any $$ for his taxi, use of park facilities. Only lets cross country bikers and Appalachian hikers camp there. No one else. And no cats ... we can't have children playing in the shavings with cat poo. Cecil...you are the best. He then told us where to stay in Radford and a fine breakfast stop along the way.
Day 7 Troutville - Radford, VA 66 miles ... 400 miles accumulated An early start and breakfast at a country store/deli. A nice chance to chat with the local boys contemplating the day on the porch.
Very nice, easy rolling (mostly) countryside. Roads here are rural, little traffic, not even center stripes.
Rod talking now. Chose to go off route a little and visit Virginia Tech in Blacksburg following the 4/16/07 shootings. Had a very steep 2-mile winding climb to the city.
We went to the student union building to see the posters-condolences sent by other schools to the people of VT. The first poster inside the building was from Western Washington Univ. of Bellingham, WA where our sons Ryan and Colin go to school. It also had an article from the student paper displayed. Although the school was starting to take down the posters, hundreds were still displayed throughout the building. They had a gym full of tables where volunteers were trying to sort out the thousands of posters that had been received.
Posters from Western Washington ... Mathes Hall
In the hallway, a lady and man were working on preparing another poster for archiving. Can you guess where it was from? Another one from WWU. They were amazed as we were with the "coincidence". I called Ryan to tell him and wish him happy birthday. It was all a little too much for me and I had to fight to keep from being emotional (I am getting weak in my old age).
We took a quick tour of campus -- it was absolutely beautiful. All stone buildings of the same architecture surrounding a very large oval field of grass. We headed down the Huckleberry bike trail to Christenburg and fought rush hour traffic to rejoin our route. Craig hustled ahead to try and attend a rotary meeting (he could not find). We are staying with an extremely generous family -- Thadius, Sarah, and Sam Lee. They open there house to bicyclists and have been doing so for 10+ years. I think we clogged their shower drains with five days of road grit. We had a great evening of conversation, food, and relaxation (and computer time). I don't know how they do it but we sure appreciated the hospitality. OBSERVATIONS OF VIRGINIA Large lawns. Not much landscaping, but lots of grass. OBSERVATIONS OF CYCLE MATES Craig is an early to bed-rise. Sharon packs quick. Craig in-betwen. Rod's an early fusser. Sharon doesn't like riders behind her. Craig doesn't want to lose sight of her in his rear view mirror, but bows mostly to her wishes. We're concerned that if she gets in trouble, we won't know for awhile. Craig mistakenly calls folks on his PDA contacts list in the middle of the night because apparently he hasn't figured out how to shut it off, lock it, whatever. He sends his apologies to those whose sleep has been interrupted.
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She anticipated our hunger and promised to be right back to open up and serve us huge deli sandwiches and the best lemonade (bottled) I've had. 
A side trip to Natural Bridge was ruled an unnecessary waste of time and $12 each to see an interesting rock formation. Was a highlight attraction in Colonial days. Surveyed by Washington and owned by Jefferson.
Trouteville Park director, Cecil
Another poster from Western.