Day 10: Bachanan to Christiansburg (66.5 miles)

July 10th, cloudy in morning, partly cloudy in afternoon, perfect day for cycling

Today marks a milestone on my journey. I finished the first section of TransAmerica Tail (based on twelve maps from Adventure Cycling Association). I have ridden 367.5 miles so far. The average speed is only 36.75 miles per day. Yes I am riding pretty slowly.

However, today is the first time I pedaled more than 60 miles. I am still behind schedule --- not my own 62-day trip schedule, but the standard 77-days schedule. Because it seems that I can handle longer rides now, there is still hope that I can finish he whole TransAmerica Trial.

So let's start the day with a very cute picture of the cat outside the hotel,

together with a couple cool pictures of the sky and landscape. In the lower-right picture, it seems somebody has a telescope in his/her backyard!

Most part of the route had pretty light traffic. And the views were beautiful. Unfortunately, there are places that I needed to pass the "standard" part of America. (The standard Americian highways and gas stations are totally amazing too, if you think about the scale of the system.)

And this is just surreal to me --- some industory located in a beautiful mountain, doesn't it feel like the lab in the movie "The Island"?

Here are more pictures along the ride. There are wild flowers everywhere.

I still don't konw what these buildings are... can anyone tell me?

Later in the evening, I went by some farms and here are some of those.

The following left panel is just a funny tunnel. However, the right panel marks the end of the first (or the eleventh if people start from west) section of the TransAmerica Trail. I know the picture is not elegant, but I was just too lazy to pull out my tirpod for one picture.

The night sky outside budget inn in Christiansburg was ok. I took a couple pictures and then crashed down to the bed.

Day 9: Mallard Duck Campground to Buchanan (38 miles)

June 9th, cloudy in the morning, sunny in afternoon. storm in evening

Alright, so this is a beautiful picture of the droplets after the heavy thunderstorm last night. I am very happy with my Mountain Hardwear tent. It survived the storm very well and I stayed dry when I woke up.

The Mallard Duck Campground is indeed very nice. It is located right next to the Sheep Creek. I wonder why it's not called the "Sheep Campground".

The sun didn't seem to come out. I therefore packed my tent wet. It was a very cool morning. I wear my jacket and had a very enjoyable ride to the historical town Lexington. I met two girls on the way. They were also riding with full gears. I was wondering if they were doing the TransAmerica as well.

In Lexington, I had a light brunch and visit a couple interesting places.

After that, I continued heading west. I saw a couple animals on that day.

The bike route is mostly parallel to interstate 81. It was noisy but the triffic was light. I enjoyed the fun of going up and down...

In late evening, another thunderstorm seemed to come. I was in Buchanan when it started raining. Therefore, I stayed in Buchanan for a night and enjoyed my fancy Germany dinner in the hotel, with Germany beer, of course.

Day 8: Afton to Mallard Duck Campground (42.5 miles)

July 8th, hot and hazy in the day, extremely bad rain at night

Let me first put more pictures about the biker house:

The pictures are not as fancy as the ones I took last night but you can get a better sense of the surrounding. And, this is a picture of the Cookie Lady June Curry. She is one of the most beautiful minded persion I met! Before I took off, she reminded me to bring extra water and food for today's trip because there is nothing on the mountain.

After saying good bye (and returning the key) to the Cookie Lady, I started my ride to one of the highest points that I will pass in Virgina. It is a long ride along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I was unlucky that it was very hazy. I asked couple motorcycle riders. They all said the view is usually much cleaner and better.

After the climb, there was a very long speedy downhill section. I kept holding my brakes. I stopped once to check if Bikexus's brakes were alright. They were all good but the wheel was extremely hot.

My original destination was Lexington. But I guess the uphill part took me too long. The sun had set and the sky became dark. I also heard thundering so I ended up camping in the Mallard Duck Campground. It rained very heavily right after I setup my tent and finished my dinner. And... the rain drops made the best music to put me into sleep.

Day 7: Charlottesville to Afton (30.5 miles)

July 7th, sunny all day, very hot

Keeping myself cool and clean for a day, my eczema was a bit better, at least I didn't have pain anymore. The sun was still burning but I better started again.

I went to the downtown post office to ship my old bike seat and extra gears in the morning. I was so disappointed by google map because it gave me wrong locations and information. The first office I found was actually 60 miles away from Charlottesville but google maps said it's within campus. The second office was closed like three years ago. Come on, Charlottesville is not that small... Google should take care its map better.

Anyway, I realized that I had not taken any picture of the University of Virginia so I spent some time in the campus doing that:

The campus is beautiful, isn't it? I wished it was not as hot so I could enjoy it better.

I took breaks often because of the heat. The temperature was over 100'F. I believe it was the hostest day of the year!

When I was near Greenwood, I stopped by the following farme market. They have lots of cool things there. Their peach ice cream made my day!

I also chatted with an old gentleman for half hour outside the market. He offered me to stay with his family but I decided to move on to Afton --- the Cookie Lady is there! Before I took off, the owner of the market was very nice and fill up my water bottles.

At evening, I climbed a very steep section to Afton. The are couple places that I just got off and walked my bike, Bikexus, up to the mountain.

Afton is a small town, but it has special meaning to many bikers. On the top of the mountain, there is a biker's house. The house is owned by the Cookie Lady. She actually saw me approaching and waited for me at her front door. After a long chat --- she told many great stories --- I got the keys and went into the biker's house.

Isn't it amazing? Many bikers have stopped by this house of warm and love. There are good record of everyone who stayed there, lots of postcard, and some old bikes. Everything in there has their own story. The biker's house is probably one of the best bicycle museum in the world!

Dinner was some can food and snake from the biker's house.

And the night sky was nice. I may dream of other bikers since I'm staying in the biker's house.