Robert's Ride 2010, Day 5, Wednesday, August 25, 2010, Salem, VA to Hagerstown, MD

It was still raining when we packed up the car this morning to head back to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it stopped by the time we had fueled up at Starbucks and bought more ice for the ice chests.  It was a slightly chilly morning (64 degrees) with heavy mist hanging over the higher elevations of the Parkway as we drove to the start of today's ride. 

Philip took the first ride today.  He started at mile marker 77 at about 10:30 AM with arm and leg warmers and a vest.  He rode to mile marker 63 at James River, which is a beautiful spot. 

We chatted there with a guy from Illinois who was about Philip's age, I guess, who was also cycling parts of the Parkway but wasn't on his bike today.   He eventually turned the conversation to politics and got an opposing view from Philip.  Philip quickly changed the subject, and they chatted for a few more seconds about wood turning before our new acquaintance announced abruptly that he had to go.  Very strange.

There was also a couple of  young guys at James River whom we had seen earlier cycling very slowly up a steep incline as we drove to Philip's starting point.  We chatted with them for a while.  One was from Ohio and the other from nearby Roanoke.  They were headed to Washington, DC and points beyond, with probably 50 pounds of gear on each of their bike.  They didn't seem to be worried about how long their travels might take.

I drove Philip to mile marker 50.  He wanted to skip the steep climb between the two legs of his ride.  The elevation profiles that he downloaded showed only a few moderate climbs, but, like yesterday, the information wasn't accurate.  He had quite a few challenging climbs.  He reflected on an attempt that he made back in the early 90's to ride 200 miles a day on the Blue Ridge Parkway and complete the length of the Parkway in 3 days.  "I didn't do it then and today to get 50 miles was extremely difficult."

When he arrived at mile marker 20, I was ready to ride.  I was planning to ride to the beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway, for a total of 20 miles.  It was still a bit chilly so I added arm warmers.  Philip rode the first 2.5 miles with me and then turned around so that he could finish with at least 50 miles.  All of the climbs were challenging to me, a flat lander.  There were many climbs; one was at least 2 miles.  I was ever so glad that I asked Philip to change my double crank to a triple before we left home.  Even so, I probably averaged 6 mph on the uphills, which were fewer than the descents.  Today I felt a lot more secure about descending without constantly gripping the brake levers, since the traffic was very light with a 45 mph speed limit, and I didn't have to worry about a narrow shoulder.  I clocked 30 mph at one point.  Things were going pretty good, but I could see ugly rain clouds ahead.  At about 11 miles the sky opened.  The support vehicle was nowhere in sight, and I was going way to fast downhill to stop safely.  It had to ride a couple of miles in heavy rain before the road leveled out so that I could stop.  I took shelter under a large-leafed tree and wondered where the [expletive deleted] was the support vehicle.  I did occur to me that back at mile marker 20 where Philip was probably leisurely eating lunch, it wasnt' raining.  I waited about 10 minutes before he showed up, but by then it was only barely drizzling.  I decided to ride on, but I was soaked and the ride was pretty fast downhill for the next couple of miles and I was cold.  It started to pour rain again.  Philip turned up again immediately, and I decided to throw in the towel.  I had completed 15.6 miles.  And wouldn't you guess...as soon as I had changed into my dry driving clothes the sun came out.  I decided not to get back on the bike, so we headed to tonight accommodation in Hagerstown, MD.  We stopped at Ruby Tuesday for dinner, same as last night.  They have a pretty good salad bar, and free refiles of fresh lemonade or tea with berries.  It is our choice of restaurant for dinner for the time being.

Today we rode 282 miles and cycled 65.6 miles.