Day 86: Glade Springs, VA

Day 86

August 10, 2015

Miles: 52

Kingsport to Glade Springs

We made it into Virginia!   Wahoo!  We were on the road by 8:30 this morning - rode for 25 miles to Bristol TN/KY and crossed over the state line.  The town of Bristol apparently crosses over both states.  It is also rated the most unhealthy town in TN/KY said a delivery women for the Rite Aid where we stopped for gatorade. When Becky, the delivery woman, saw us she said "I don't believe it. People riding their bikes in Bristol. You don't see that (pause) ever!"  Becky is from Roanoke VA.  She said she used to ride her bike a lot when she was younger, but now she does pole dancing to stay in shape. I'm not making this up!  Becky also invited us to stay with her if we planned to stay in Roanoke.  She is member of Couchsurfing a membership group that puts up cyclists and hikers for the night for free. Similar to Warm Showers, a similar membership group exclusive for cyclists.  We told Becky that we would probably be passing through, but not staying overnight, but Becky gave us her phone number just in case. Becky seemed like a nice lady.

Picture pulled from the internet (sadly we weren't able to get our own shot of the sign)

Every once and a while we go back to read Jen and Ben's Gone Wheeling blog; the blog they wrote when riding cross-country four years ago. Steve discovered that right about now on the route, Jen and Ben bypassed Damascus for a short-cut recommended to them by another cyclist at the time. It got us thinking about our plan to ride to Damascus tomorrow. We checked the maps then called Jen during lunch for a consultation. Jen confirmed that they shaved 50 miles and a steep climb, and then encouraged us to detour if possible. Of course we are traveling in the opposite direction, but we deduced it would be advantageous for us to detour as well. So we decided to ride to Glade Springs instead of Damascus. It was closer to the next destination the following day, Draper VA, which is on the TransAm trail. This change saves us 17 miles of riding and avoids a steep climb up a mountain. A very sleep climb!  Thanks Jen!

This detour positions us to reach Draper, which is 65 miles away.  We will also stay riding on Highway 11, which parallels the interstate; a sure sign that the grades will be gentler compared to the former route. After tomorrow, we will have about 29 miles remaining on map 11 and 368 on map 12, our final two maps.

Reading through the maps we learned that we should expect loose roaming dogs in VA as we experienced in KY and TN. We are not very happy about this, but we now have a secret weapon again the vicious dogs that chase us.  A suggestion my Aunt Lois texted me last week after our first day being chased by dogs - see below!

Secret Weapon

So here is a picture of the route we have travelled and where we are right now.  We are 8 or nine days away from Yorktown VA our end destination!  My sister Toni-Ann and brother-in-law Bruce will be there in Yorktown waiting for us to pick us up. We plan to spend the remainder of that week together in Virginia Beach vacationing!  They have an RV so we will be staying at a campground. Also the RV has a bike rack to transport the bikes home.  We can't wait to see them!

Here is what I look like half sleeping still.  Complimentary breakfast at the Hampton Inn.

This is a shot as we left Kingsport this morning.  We have discovered that there are lots of rivers in Tennessee.

This is a shot taken on highway 11.  This grand guitar was enormous.  It is hard to get perspective, but look at the landscape behind the guitar.

A picture of a new development and the abandoned project behind the sign.

About 16 miles outside of Glade Springs we ate lunch.  We like to ride at least 2/3 of our miles before lunch.  It was about 1:30p here.

Me stealing Steve's pickles

One of the final shots before we rolled into Glade Springs.  

A typical VA landscape.

We are off to Draper tomorrow about 65 miles.