Day 7: Rest Day (Waynesboro)

Today was a bit of an unplanned rest day. The bike shop took a bit longer to respoke A.K.'s wheel than we had hoped. We called the shop at 11AM to see if they were done yet; it turns out they had not started yet. At that point it had been raining all night and continued to rain. It wasn't exactly prime cycling weather.

We took a look at the maps and noticed that no matter what we would be camping out once we pulled out of Waynesboro. Leaving late (after the wheel gets finished), cycling in the rain and arriving late to camp in the rain wasn't the most motivating idea. So, we called the shop and told them to just finish the wheel by closing and we booked ourselves another night in the hotel. In the end, this was a great idea; it is really cold out there right now.

We walked in the rain to a local market to buy food for the day (we have a fridge and a microwave in our room). The walk there was so cold and wet that we actually asked for extra bags to wear on our heads on the way back. It looked funny, but I was a lot warmer with that bag on my head.

We spent the day relaxing, running errands and writing thank you notes to our donors. We have also been speaking with many hikers of the Appalachian Trail which intersects our route for the next several miles. Most of these hikers take at least 4 months to complete the trail from Maine to Georgia! I'm very happy to be on my bike.

Tomorrow we are going to get up early and blast some miles! In an effort to make up lost time, we are going to try to make it 70 miles down the road (on the Blue Ridge Parkway) to a campsite. There will be a lot of climbing and one very famous steep descent (13% grade) for 3.5 miles!

Ok, off to eat microwaved food! Hopefully we will get some good weather tomorrow. By the way, A.K.'s wheel looks good to go, it should be solid now. Keep your fingers crossed for strong spokes and good weather!

Jeff