Woke up this morning, but barely.
The night provided some delicious thunderstorms that began as Andy finished up his yoga practice. They lit up the tent, and unfortunately for Andy, we had gotten a few holes in our rain fly, so he progressively scooted closer and closer to my side of the tent over the course of the evening. We had quite a puddle at the foot of the tent by the end of the night. But nature is pretty nifty, and we were energized by the storm, at least to by tent patch tape.
What a day it turned out to be. We didn't get out of our campsite until 7:30 which was a bit later than we were hoping. We had set ourselves a good challenge of getting to Smith Mountain Lake S.P. by the end of the evening, estimating about 75 miles, but what an underestimation.
Fortunately the weather was very good to us and the countryside was gorgeous, wish you were here stuff. The headwinds kept us fairly cool, but they could be fierce, especially when they hit about half way up a steep incline that you were really already panting on.
We went through so many spaces and ultimately, I am totally amazed at what our bodies could and would do when asked. I look down at my legs with a renewed sense of gratitude. My legs, back, hands, feet, heart, lungs, were all totally pooped by the end of today's journey. By the end of the day, I felt like someone had given me too hard a smack on the back.
We saved 2 turtles from near death today (1 yesterday). It is so sad to see them squished. They are so cool, but they really like to cross the road and not quickly enough apparently.
The night provided some delicious thunderstorms that began as Andy finished up his yoga practice. They lit up the tent, and unfortunately for Andy, we had gotten a few holes in our rain fly, so he progressively scooted closer and closer to my side of the tent over the course of the evening. We had quite a puddle at the foot of the tent by the end of the night. But nature is pretty nifty, and we were energized by the storm, at least to by tent patch tape.
What a day it turned out to be. We didn't get out of our campsite until 7:30 which was a bit later than we were hoping. We had set ourselves a good challenge of getting to Smith Mountain Lake S.P. by the end of the evening, estimating about 75 miles, but what an underestimation.
Fortunately the weather was very good to us and the countryside was gorgeous, wish you were here stuff. The headwinds kept us fairly cool, but they could be fierce, especially when they hit about half way up a steep incline that you were really already panting on.
We went through so many spaces and ultimately, I am totally amazed at what our bodies could and would do when asked. I look down at my legs with a renewed sense of gratitude. My legs, back, hands, feet, heart, lungs, were all totally pooped by the end of today's journey. By the end of the day, I felt like someone had given me too hard a smack on the back.
We saved 2 turtles from near death today (1 yesterday). It is so sad to see them squished. They are so cool, but they really like to cross the road and not quickly enough apparently.
This is exhausted me at what we labeled "Hay Henge". The bales have a lot of personality. This was MY 4th flat right before we doglegging onto Rt. 626 (Andy is still at 0.). The road behind us looks gorgeous, but its gravel and incline had a lot of bite!
I feel like we can't even remember the day in great detail, because we didn't dismount our bikes at the camp until almost 7:30 pm. (Although we did stop before quite often, lastly at the White House Market for some SALAD! Yay veggies! and apples! WOO HOO!) Stopping was not as easy as we urbanites were used to however, and it was pretty sad to see most of the few shops along our route, especially on 626 were closed and out of business. We really started wondering what these folks were doing for a living and how they were getting along. The thriving community was around the lake where, aside from the state park, there is a lot (dare I say too much?) commercial development. The lake is enormous and has a ton of shoreline because it winds in and out, so there is much real estate available to those who didn't grow up Appalachia style.
We were able to get a campfire going and have some tea at the campsite, shower, check for ticks, and hit the hay. We are not really expecting to be mobile tomorrow. We haven't really seen the lake except for a few glimpses, and have a shorter day tomorrow to Salem, so we are trying to listen to ourselves and take it a bit easy. Now sweet sweet sleep.
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