A warm welcome

Fri Sep 30, 2011- Yesterday marked my one week anniversary of being out on the road. I celebrated by dragging my bike up a 12% grade gravel road for 3 miles in the rain. I passed the Appalachian Trail on my way to the blue ridge mountain road, the white blazes made me smile and I made a mental note to remember this road crossing for next year when I'm Thru hiking. I got into Culpeper, VA, a town big enough to have picked up metropolitan silliness by having three of the same stores within a 2 mile spur of road, but was generally pleased with it. I stayed with an old friend from Middle school and got to feast on some really good muffins in the morning. Before leaving I cleaned by heavily soiled bike a bit and was on my way.

This morning the temperature forgot to get out of the 40's. I wore 4 layers & was still shivering the first few miles. After it warmed up a bit it was hard to keep cool while climbing and warm when descending. (It would stay like this for the next three days until I got on the Blue Ridge Pkwy)