Day 8, 54 miles, Tuesday June 2, 2009
Lexington to Roanoke
(my odometer: 56.6 miles, 13.6 avg. mph, 4h 9m 6s)
Max speed: 38.2 mph
Up at 5:30; 6:00 continental breakfast at hotel, scrambled eggs, sausage patties, Danish, orange juice; 6:45 RAP; 7:15 on the road. Forecast for today is mostly sunny and temperature by mid after noon 90F.
Last night's RAP was rescheduled to this morning. Months ago, ABB (which is considered a "commercial cycling company") applied to the state of Virginia for a permit to be allowed to run their support vehicles on the Blue Ridge Parkway. They found out too late that their request was denied and too late to cancel the ride as many cyclists had made plans that could not be changed on short notice. Therefore, the parkway part of the ride has had to be modified. We will not be riding for 3 days on the parkway, but doing a short (on your own) day trip up and back tomorrow and maybe a similar (on your own) trip as part of the ride from Waynesboro to Charlottesville. Mike only found out about the Blue Ridge problem late yesterday, so this morning's RAP was devoted to that problem and the "on your own" ride tomorrow.
Today was another very nice cycling day, again with some rolling hills, some quite steep. I rode most of the day with Jeff, Sondra and my roommate, Paul. We arrived at our hotel at noon. We helped unload luggage, then Paul and I went to lunch at Applebee's, where we met up with three other cyclists. Then I came back to hotel and I did some laundry and worked on my website journal. Then it was time to go to dinner at the Golden Corral. There is no elevation graph for today's ride because Mike just created the route yesterday!
The forecast for tomorrow is for a sunny morning and then mid-afternoon thunderstorms. We should be back from our ride by noon. Hopefully!
Gene stretching, Joe watching
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Route RAP
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Only hummingbirds live on this street
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Mary Jo, Sondra
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Mary Jo, (...?...) , Sondra, David, Jerri
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David Rainey
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At the SAG
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Scenic view
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Scenic view
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Scenic view
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Unloading luggage
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Unloading the last bag
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Our room
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