Day 80, Gate City to Atkins, VA

Miles – 76

Miles From Start/To Finish – 3,796/549

Ave Riding Speed – 3-33 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 9.25

Weather – Sunny and 88

We had a great sleep last night after going to bed at 7:45pm in our rustic Victorian double bed in our room at the top of the wood finished steps at the Estillville Bed & Breakfast. I made a coffee run to the kitchen Keurig machine and went to work changing the flat tire again on Kim’s bike. Sure enough, when I pulled the piece of wire out through the outside of the tire yesterday it must have broken off and I didn’t get what was inside. Had I run my finger around the inside of the tire I would have found it and not wasted a tube.

After fixing the tire Mark showed up, as he and Camron live in Kingsport, TN, about 15-minutes away. He insisted on preparing omelets and bacon. We showered, packed and sat down in the dining room for breakfast. It was very nice and the combination is a favorite of mine.

After we finished breakfast, we met Ronnie and Rosemary. They were in town spending some time with their kids and grandkids on the hiking trail today. They live in Chesterfield, VA about 10 minutes from my buddy, Scott. Small world, they asked lots of questions about our trip and they were fun to chat with Ronnie asked if we could do a quick prayer and he led a beautiful prayer for our safety during the trip. We’d could have spent much more time getting to know them as they were very interesting and easy to talk to, but we needed to get on the road.

Rosemary and another guest of the B&B snapped a few pictures of us in the front of the B&B and headed east through town to hook up with Hwy23/58 heading southeast 9-miles into Tennessee to hook up with Bloomingdale Rd heading east to eventually pickup Hwy 11 into Bristol. We did get a picture of the Tennessee welcome sign. Bristol is in Tennessee and Virginia and divided by State Street. After 24 miles or riding we were back in Virginia and no welcome sign in sight. Bummer.

For the remainder of the 50-miles we rode Hwy 11/Lee Hwy heading northeast. For much of it we felt like we were riding through a major rode through a big city. Traffic was heavy but most vehicles gave us room. Like Don said back in Pennington Gap yesterday, most people can see that you’re on a mission with all that gear and are going to give you room.

Good thing we got a lot of rest last night as I was dragging. Kim seemed to be holding up pretty good. No matter how far we ride every day, the last 10-15 miles seem to mentally take the longest.

We arrived at the Comfort Inn hotel at 5:15pm. Kim asked Mark, the front desk manager, if anyone delivers food to the hotel. He said Pizza-Perfect was excellent. We got to our room and Kim got on the phone and ordered. She had the chicken and broccoli alfredo and I had a small pizza. We shared a salad and bruschetta. While we were waiting for the delivery, I walked to the convenience store across the parking lot for 4 bottles of Gatorade. We showered, dinner showed up and now we’re having some down time.

Plan is for 50-mies tomorrow, so we may sleep a bit longer in the morning.