Foothills are Hills Too
Day 30 - Radford, VA to Altavista, VA (93 miles and 5,000 feet of climbing)
The mountains may be behind us, but there were a lot of foothills that made for an up and down ride all day. Luckily, the weather was perfect. It was partly sunny, the temperature never went above 84 degrees, and we had a cross/tail wind all day. Perfect conditions to take on all the hills.
Yesterday, we tried to go out to a nice restaurant with a patio assuming dogs would be allowed. Unfortunately, they said no to dogs, so we went to Chipotle and ate at the hotel. I think Maude took it personally because this morning she had an ‘accident’ in the hotel hallway. I suspect it was retribution. She looks cute, but don’t cross her!
Today, Shannon and I started at 9am knowing that we would be able to ride all day. We passed through Christianburg, Salem, and Roanoke. They all provided ample sights and sounds to distract us from the riding. Shannon commented that the ride today was ‘all downhill’, which was generally correct for her part of the ride. We had more downs than ups during the first half of the ride. We made good progress and met Robin at a Bojangles parking lot at mile 45 to switch riders.
After a bio break, Robin and I set out into the country for the part of the ride that had a lot more ups than downs. We rode on some beautiful country roads with little traffic and took all the hills in stride. At one point two dogs chased us, but they seemed to be more interested in playing with us than biting us. We stopped after 25 miles to get more water and finished at 4pm, which is relatively late for us.
The forecast for tomorrow is rain, so we are taking our last rest day and preparing for the final 4 rides to get us to the Outer Banks. We are all looking forward to taking a dip in the Atlantic Ocean.
