Day 82, Dublin to Troutville, VA

Miles – 58

Miles From Start/To Finish – 3,904/327

Ave Riding Speed – 3-27 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 6.5

Weather – Mostly Cloudy and 81

Kim and I were up at 5:30am. Kim made a coffee run down to the breakfast nook and made an ice run for our water bottles. Breakfast wasn’t until 7am, so we showered and packed our gear before breakfast. We ate lite. Kim had a toasted bagel and I had scrambled eggs with gravy. We hit the road at 7:30am

The forecast for today was rain so we packed our rain gear on top of our bags. Because it was supposed to rain, we were pretty much on a mission to get to our destination as soon as possible. Thankfully, we only had a few sprinkles earlier in the ride. We lucked out, again. It was a great ride today and we felt rested and strong. There were a few climbs we had to walk, but for the most part we were able to just ride.

We hoped on Hwy 11 heading northeast for 18 miles, around the north end of Radford and into Christiansburg, where we crossed the TransAmerica Trail and skirted the it to the south and ran parallel and continued east on Hwy 11 on our way through Salem, where we stopped to a bathroom break at the Burger King and couldn’t resist getting a Whooper Jr for me and a cheeseburger for Kim. Kim took a little spill getting up on the curb to lean her bike against the building, but she’s all good. From Roanoke we continued on to the west side of Troutville and our destination, the Holiday Inn.

We checked in and Kim immediately went poolside to unwind and touch base with a few peeps back home, while I showered and got into writing a blog. Kim came back to our room after getting into the water and showered up.

We headed for Cracker Barrel across the highway, since it’s the only place within walking distance and the food has been pretty tasty. I had the hamburger steak with turnip greens, which was a first for me and they were great and Kim went with the cheeseburger and side salad. We had a couple glasses of wine and toasted to our daughter Hayley’s new job as an ELL teacher in Cologne MN. and Colton’s new job, back in Minnesota, with a Minnesota based resorts company. Amanda’s in-laws from Florida will be making their annual trek to Mpls to see their grandkids. One thing we’ve learned during our 3-month adventure away from home is that our children and their families can take care of themselves and they are growing and living a life for themselves. Kim and I are very proud of that. That said, we can’t wait to be back near them all and more a part of their daily lives.

Tomorrow is a rest day and we’ll be planning the remainder of our adventure. Theoretically, if all goes well, we have about 6-days of riding to go until we reach the Atlantic Ocean in Yorktown, Virginia!!

The picture is of a house we passed on Hwy 11 today. The shingled roof design must have been pretty thought out and inspired by someone figuring they’d step outside the box.