Budget Inn Motel Christiansburg 05.15 Sunday 21^st March (Day 7)

Breakfast was in the hotel surrounded by summer camp kids and parents. Fortunately they disappear quickly so we can attack the buffet with no pretence of restraint. I find some oat meal and help myself to a large bowl only to find it is that sausage gravy gunk from the other night. How can they eat that stuff for breakfast (or at all0? We stuff ourselves with bran flakes and waffles and head out of town at 08.00. Not as cold as the previous day but crisp enough.

Most of our route today (about 30 miles of it) is along the Catawba Road. Mike says this sounds like a Red Indian word and then counsels me against using this term. I suggest “people of scalps” but he thinks this is not a good idea .

The guide book warns us that the first eight to ten miles will be difficult because of traffic around the cement works but luckily it was Saturday and so the road was very quiet. (Of course, on a Saturday morning most sensible people would be at home with a pot of tea, a bacon sandwich and the Guardian crossword.)

The morning cycle is very pleasant and we make good progress but I’m still finding the hills hard work. The ACA map takes us on the scenic route. This is all very well but if you are going up-hill ,it’s all you can do to keep your head down, pushing one foot in front of the other to keep the pedals turning. Downhill and you’ve got your hand squeezed on the brakes and are desperately looking out for pot-holes in the road ahead. That leaves the flat. Which is about 100 yards, every 5 miles or so in Virginia. Then you can look at the scenery:

A brief guide to scenery:

Mountains; large inanimate objects of irregular shape. If they are getting larger they are in front of you,. You will have to climb them and will hate them. If they are getting smaller you have already climbed them and will hate them.

Fields; irregular rectangles of land varying in colour from brown to green to yellow, Best seen from an aeroplane window.

Lakes rivers and the sea. Water of some sort or other. Best avoided on a bicycle.

Trees. Generally harmless. But we have these in London anyway.

That’s scenery. There’s quite a lot of it in Virginia.

We have picnic lunch at a pretty spot called Millers Creek. The road flattens out a lot after this and there is a very pleasant spell in the afternoon before the inevitable killer hill just outside town.

Christiansburg is a smallish town in Montgomery county. We get lucky (actually no, it was very good map reading on Mike’s part) and get a motel that is both reasonably central and handy for today’s exit.

The afternoon routine is now fixed. Unpack, do a bit of washing, check e-mails and stuff, then out for dinner.

We wander around the small town centre for a bit. Eerily quiet. Nothing much there bit a few antique shops. I’m keen to find a bar but Mike is not hopeful. Eventually some locals guide us to Macados, a TGI Fridays sort of place with a bar area. Five tellies, all showing different sport. One with the sound up, the others have the commentary on subtitles. There is also music coming from somewhere. Some people are playing computer blackjack at the counter. I ask what beer they have. A long list of names all ending in “Lite” apart from “Newcastle... That a sort of brown beer from England”. We each have a couple of pints of that while we plan today’s route. It’s not really Newcastle but it’s cold, brown and alcoholic ( put your own punch line in here).

Dinner is at “Famous Anthony’s” close to the motel and recommended by the motel owner. I had hopes of a friendly trattoria with gingham tables but it’s another large white room, much like the Lexington A huge menu from which we order the seafood bucket and the pasta platter (or something like that) . Oh, and cheesy nachos. I ask if they sell wine but they only do beer. Two Coronas. Everything arrives at once along with quarts of iced water and we slowly wade through it.

I am fixated on getting a glass of wine so we head back to Macados. I have two glass of “cabernet” and Mike two Pinot Grigio. By now I m feeling no pain. There is wrestling , baseball, 24 hour car racing, and basketball on the TVs. Kirsty McColl on the music system. It's very noisy..

Mike is watching car adverts.

“I wouldn’t mind a knee trembler” he says, thoughtfully.

“What!”

“I said I wouldn’t mind a new Jaguar”

It’s time for bed.