May 29, 2001. Buchanan to Catawba, Virginia. (40 mi.) Mile 413
Taking an easy day.
Yesterday we decided we needed to make some changes. Marilyn (that's me) is still nursing
some sore muscles from the push into Charlottesville, so we decided to take
another easy recovery day. We started by completely emptying all of the
panniers, switching things around, redistributing the load, and mailing 4 lbs of
stuff home. The result was better handling bikes and the best day of riding yet.
We took our time, stopped for ice cream, and chatted with a number of other
cyclists.
Typical Virginia country home,
always with porches, often with flags
...and more
scenes from the day
The weather today has been perfect, and to end it, we are now free camping on
the freshly mowed grounds of Home
Place Restaurant, a vintage farmhouse style mansion, where I am typing
this as I sit on the oversized porch. This place is only used 4 days/week as a
fancy restaurant. When not in use, the groundskeeper allows cyclists to camp
behind the house, where there is an outhouse. Cycle touring doesn't get
much better than this, but tomorrow we need to pick up the pace.
Home Place
Restaurant... our camp for the night.
