Another Day in Appalachia

Day 28 - Grundy, VA to Tazewell, VA (50 miles and 3,500 feet of climbing)

Last night, we avoided getting our dinner at Walmart and found a pizza restaurant that was open until 5pm. It seemed like that was the only restaurant open in the small town. However, we did find a Dairy Queen where we all enjoyed Blizzards. It was a nice ending to a tough day. It was another early bed time as we all getting progressively weary.

Today, we were pleasantly surprised to see the sun because the weather forecast was predicting scattered showers with potential strong storms in the late afternoon and evening. In fact, I just received a tornado watch on my phone as I sit in the hotel. We had a short day, but we wanted to finish early and avoid any bad weather.

Robin and I started the ride and had 21 miles of climbing. We took it easy and enjoyed the scenery as we went up hill. Appalachia is very green with English Ivy all over the place. We passed many small towns that all looked like they were passed their prime. This area lost a lot of jobs when the coal industry declined. Robin rode strong and, before we knew it, we were descending on the other side of the hill. Near the bottom, we met Shannon and Maude after 27 miles of riding.

After a quick snack, Shannon and I set off. The clouds were growing, so we packed our rain jackets just in case the storm started early. Luckily, it was sunny most of the way, but we noticed how the weather can change quickly in the mountains. Our ride consisted of rolling hills, and we climbed almost exactly the same amount as Robin. Near the end, we saw what must have been a blind ground hog standing up on its back feet. We passed within 1 foot of him and he did not move at all.

We are staying in another small town, but we think there may be a small downtown. We will do some exploring this afternoon if it does not rain much.