Sunday, August 13, 2000

Today we rode the Blue Ridge Parkway. We rode our bicycle from Fairfield, VA to Afton, VA, a distance of 44 miles. We climbed over 4,000 feet during the day. We started the day in bright sunshine and ended the day in a rainstorm. The temperature was cool all day and got cooler when we got caught in the rain.

We left the motel and turned right up Highway 11. After climbing more that 500 feet (a large share in the lowest granny gear) we had our first down hill. We continued on Highway 11 until we reached Steeles Tavern, VA where we turned unto Highway 56. Signs as soon as we got onto highway 56 recommended that trucks with trailers do not use highway 56 because it contains steep grades and sharp curves. This was definitely the case. It was only 4 miles to the Blue Ridge Parkway but we ended up walking almost ½ of the way to the top. When we reached the top and turned unto the Blue Ridge Parkway, we did not need to walk any more grades. The road went up and down and sometimes the grade was steep enough to require using the granny gears but we never had to get off the bicycle and push it up a grade. We stopped at a number of overlooks and took several pictures. The views from the Blue Ridge Parkway are great. You can see for miles, and we met lots of friendly people at all the lookouts. Some we even saw several times.

We stopped at the visitor center and walked along a path that was set up to show how the typical mountain farm family existed before transportation and communication reached into the mountains.

We then continued our ride along the Blue Ridge Parkway and the rain caught up with us as we were going up the last grade. We made it into a motel in Afton wet and happy.