Category: Ramona

If you move away from the towns, gas stations and highways, you can take the much calmer single lane roads. The roads go up and down, turn from asphalt to gravel. They will take you into a deep, dark, mystical forest.

The forest is humid and warm. There is water vapour in the air. It mixes with the sweat on your skin and makes it shine. You can almost always hear some type of water around you – a stream gurgling down the slope or water dripping from the rock wall by the road. Every once in a while there is a waterfall. The river that flows through the forest is brown, almost sand coloured. You hear birds and see yellow butterflies and maybe even a deer or two. Everything is green. The leaves create a tunnel around you. Even the road is turning green. The moss and some crawling plants are slowly taking over the road.

These single lane roads weave together a couple of houses, little settlements almost. There always seems to be a stream or a river running by them. The people living here keep chickens and grow corn in their backyards. They are kind. They ride quadricycles, wear tattoos and keep (mostly caged) territorial dogs. The kids ride quadricycles too and the dogs really don’t like cyclists.

If you go through the fairy forest, expect to get some rain, if not from the skies, then from the trees above you. But it is a calm and weirdly soothing place.

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We were going through the fairy forest, when we stopped by a little church, and that is when the plot thickened.

So, the situation. Our plan was this.

And, while they seemed unsure about how to get to Sizerock, they did know that one of the roads was a dead end and the other one, which they had taken themselves, was flooded. Now, this was not good news. I could not figure out exactly what had flooded, but it was probably something in the area in the map marked with purple blobs and question marks. The water that had been all around the road in the morning, was now taking over the road. After some more talking, they advised we take the Hell for Certain Rd to get to Sizerock.

And, with the arrival at Hell for Certain, we had made it out of the forest.

We ate lunch, Charles climbed a tractor, we biked some more, did a fun stop at Dollar General.

Then we got thunderstormed on and arrived at our home for the night during golden hour.

There we were greeted by a very friendly cat 🙂

And that is it! Thanks for reading and I promise we are trying to get back on schedule for the blogs!

Radford, VA to Tazewell, VA – 68.24 mi, 4,380 ft

It’s Ramona again and welcome to day 9. The day started with some awesome power oatmeal that Sharon made for us. It had all kinds of amazing nutritious additions, so we we’re well equipped to start the day. I left Sharon’s and Keith’s home with some hesitation. We had had a great evening with smores and fire (read more (probably?) on Charles’ account on day 8), but I knew we had to hit the road. On paper, the day seemed chill enough – 68.2 miles and 4319ft of elevation (according to ridewithgps, our navigation devices thought it was more like 6000ft, but i think they are wrong). So we headed out from Radford! These were the views – some mountains in the background here and there, some trees, a little bit of ups and downs and cloudy skies.

We had a nice little break at a park, where Greta and Charles unleashed their inner childs.

… but after the first 10 to 20 miles, everything started to feel ~ slower ~

I am not even sure why, we had plenty of rest stops to refuel and get water, but the fourth cycling day in a row hit me harder mentally than any of the previous ones. I know I wasn’t alone in that. Charles was hurting, Joseph had (very wisely) decided to take a rest day and Ishaq was complaining that his butt aches. The miles, with little variation in hills, seemed to go on forever. I was watching my navigation and I swear the miles left were just frozen sometimes.

Battling my own mind, I put on some music, but in the heat, and the occasional cars overtaking us, it just overwhelmed me. So I suffered for a while, until I remembered a great invention – podcasts! I put on some Origin Story (an episode on the Doctor Who) and everything got so much better. Dorian Lynskey even brought out some laughs in me. My dad actually recommended this podcast, so I was waiting to pull this card out in exactly this kind of a situation. So, from this experience, I rate listening to podcasts a 10/10 strategy, especially suited for when no good thinking thoughts seem to be floating in your mind, so you are left with battling boredom and frustration.

I had taken a break at some point, when Charles passed me. I did catch him afterwards, and remembered that perhaps an 11/10 strategy is yapping, even for a little bit. By the time the next rest stop rolled around (with a huge hornets nest, allegedly (ask Joseph or Sarah, I did not see any hornets)) I was feeling better. I left Charles with the hornets and started on the last 10 miles of the ride.

Soon after entering Tazewell I noticed a sign for ice cream and contemplated stopping, BUT THEN I noticed the some Spokies at the ice cream spot! Telepathy! Of course, I pulled over and got two cold, sweet and glorious scoops of ice cream (pictured below).

The spot was actually very cool! First, the ice cream hit the spot! And I’m pretty sure the girl at the shop only charged me for one scoop, so it was an incredible deal. Second, they also did floats, which Charles was very happy about. And third, through the same door, there is also an Italian food spot. (It might or might not be the same establishment, I am not sure). And Joseph noticed, it had a creative logo.

With that we arrived at our destination. Theresa at the Main Street United Methodist Church is kindly letting us stay. I am glad tomorrow is not a cycling day, since we are teaching! So, last item on the agenda is dinner. Lead by Ishaq, the Spokes cook crew is making turkey meatball spaghetti right as I am writing this. I better go and help them. Tune in tomorrow (or whenever Sarah will finish tomorrow’s blog 🙂 )