Direct from Wytheville... Day 12

Andy with solar panels and wind stuff along Catawba Valley's Blacksburg Rd., maybe 785?

Just pretty, Catawba Valley.

The New River Lounge.

Not to offend anyone, but skeleton and puddle.

Andy posing with the big house.

Clear water at Claytor Lake...

So when last we left you we were booted off our computer in the lovely Christiansburg Public Library... now at our new library setup in Wythesville the same thing could happen again. Although there are about 50 school children in here being shown reptiles, so no one is really interested in the computers aside from their chaperones.

If you checked the blog yesterday I added a few more pics to those posts.

Yesterday on the route to Christiansburg we were in the Catawba Vallery. This was probably by far the most gorgeous site we had seen thus far. The hills were frequent and sometimes literally breathtaking, but it was a shaded beautiful day, and the valley was just spectacular. I highly recommend this drive, walk, bike to anyone!

At Ellett we popped some vitamin waters and only a few minutes later grabbed our Clif bars, but both of us were starting to feel a bit sick (probably from the excessive beef we had eaten at all three of our meals the day before), but we made it to Christiansburg and sat in the library for a bit, and let our tummies settle a bit.

Then of course we were still hungry, even with unsettled stomachs, so we set off in search of lunch, but before we knew it were out of Christiansburg and on our way to Radford. So no lunch yet.

The hills however were kind to us for a bit. Daylillies were everywhere and cheered us on our hungry ride to Radford. There was a bit more of a suburbia feel here, and less country, but the trip went pretty quickly and we had some fun downhills that made our leg hair stand on end. For this portion at least, I was glad to be going westbound on the trail.

We entered Radford with our eyes on a salad, hoping to find a little college town favorite, all we found was our neighborhood grill and bar, Applebee's. This however turned out to be perfect. It was the dead hour, we sat outsite with our bikes, our legs up, shoes off, and a big salad (and appetizer sampler I must admit), and some pretty friendly waitstaff.

After leaving we immediately crossed the New River (which apparently flows North) and entered Pulaski county. Our route took us along the river which was quite picturesque and apparently lots of drunk college kids think so too. RC cola anyone?

I got off the bike to go relieve myself in the woods (you don't notice some things when you have to go really bad!), only to find myself face to face with this lovely skeletal sight.

We made it to Claytor Lake Park without too much more ado (some DQ on the way though). It's just off 81 before Newbern and we recommend this park. The water was gorgeous and clear. We went for a slightly illegal swim after hours. The sand on the beach felt divine between our toes. Apparently the lake is where the New is dammed up. Showers, campfire, some miso soup, my misplaced wallet which caused some tension, a just less than full moon, and then bed.

Sometime in the night, we were awoken by lots of animal noises that persisted for sometime. They made our nature night outings a bit, scarier? but we were largely unphased and slept it off.

Around 5:30 when we awoke, we discovered that one of our bags of food, which had been sitting atop this lantern hanger thing and happens to be the stuff sack for Andy's sleeping bag, was no longer there. So I set out, shamefully, to look for our missing snacks.

The animal noises were fully explained when we found half devoured and ripped everything, including the stuff sack, a bit further back in the woods. Fortunately no other campers seemed to be up so my embarrassment was limited to our company. All the food had to be thrown out, and the stuff sack is still in sad need of repair, and apparently we need a few more lessons on the ways of Scouting. This raccoon or whatever it was, even liked the Peaceful Planet meal that we had and my current book, Atonement. Andy suggested that it was a section in the book where they were eating. Ah those AMO bars.

Anyway, we recovered and moved onto our bikes, with me dragging my feet and ego a bit. We sat ourselves down at the McGuire campground cafe just a bit up the road and doused ourselves with coffee and nice company, although I am not sure about the nutrition value of the meal. The lady there, Ms. McGuire, told us of the trials of the folks in the area, and how it's just so hard for people to sustain themselves since the furniture and garment industries have moved out.

These comments followed us throughout our morning, with tidbits of political discussion.

Andy got his first flat, and a half really. We played with my brakes on the bike, which are rubbing a bit. Had some snacks and tried to be patient with each other. So far successfully. The rode a lot along and around 81 which wasn't always as pretty as the previous day's ride and the difference in air quality was immediately apparent to us. Getting up to Wytheville was pretty spectacular though and Andy rode down to the shop while I typed this. So we should be on our way. We are hoping to hit Sugar Grove tonight, but it's already later than we imagined so we'll see.

We miss you all and love all your comments. They keep us going.