May 26, 2001.
Charlottesville to Rockfish Gap, Virginia. (32 mi.) Mile 290
Granny
gears to The Cookie Lady
Today it was our turn to visit the
Bikecentennial Trail's legendary Cookie Lady, but first, a ritual early morning trip to the
closest bike shop, thanks to Northwest Airline's handling of our bikes. We hope
all the bugs are now out of the bent chain rings.
Breakfast outside
Performance Bike Shop, Charlottesville
Our weather has remained unstable with intermittent sun and showers. Much of
this part of Virginia
reminds us of home in the Pacific Northwest due to the high annual
rainfall, except that there are hardwood forests instead of evergreens, the
bird sounds are different, and when you get to a rural crossroads in the
middle of nowhere, there isn't an Espresso stand.
Virginia is the most challenging
state on the route for elevation gain (over 31,000 feet of climbing) and we
ground away at it some more today. At the top of one tough climb, we met our first exhausted
eastbound TransAm cycle tourer, slumped in the shade eating an energy bar. Normally we would not expect to be passing
eastbounders until later
in the summer, but he had been doing a small section each year, and was just
finishing with Virginia. We all lamented the hills.
"You'll like Kansas!," he said.
Wet weather, lush vegetation,
..... and one of countless small general stores along the route
The Cookie Lady, June Curry, lives
near the top of a particularly challenging hill. Twenty-six years ago, she
told us, she and her father offered water to a tired cyclist, enjoyed the
visit, and decided to put out a sign "Water for bicyclists" for
others who followed. Today The Cookie Lady, now 80, has offered over 11,000
bicycle tourists water, refreshment, and a place to stay.
.
We were moved by the generosity of
this humble woman as we arrived at her place hot and thirsty. She showed us
her "bike house", a bit like a combined hostel, museum, and shrine
dedicated to TransAmerican cycle tourists. The rooms are filled with hundreds
of postcards and letters from previous guests, newspaper articles, scrapbooks
and memorabilia accumulated over the last quarter century. She has traveled
vicariously through her guests, seen her generosity returned many times, and
become somewhat of a celebrity, yet lives quietly by herself and describes
herself as "just an old woman who lives up on this mountain".
Outside at the Cookie Lady's
Bike House - the original "Water for Bicyclists" greeting, and....
Inside at the Cookie Lady's Bike
House - memorabilia, news articles, and postcards make up a shrine to TransAm
bicycle tourers.
It was visiting The Cookie
Lady that it finally sunk in that we are on a much bigger trip
than we have ever been on before, in more than one way. The Cookie Lady took our picture
and urged us to stay, but we decided to push on. We only made it a few more
uphill miles though, before deciding to call it quits and check into the Afton Inn for the night. Here we had a steak dinner and met a group of cyclists from Toronto
and Washington DC who were preparing to spend 5 days riding the Blue Ridge Parkway. They invited us to join them for a
beer, so we spent a lively time with them discussing motorists vs bicycles, and
Canadian vs US politics.
