Only 30 miles but a much harder day yesterday. The Transam guide talks of "rolling farmlands and horse farms, that gradually change to orchards with fruit stands of apples and peaches in season... A suburban paradise full of Beemers and Volvo station wagons" True enough but they don't mention the bitch of a hill just before you reach Rockfish Gap at the end of the journey.
We had breakfast in a local 24 hr deli. coffee, bacon and scrambled egg wraps and muffins. It is Virginia State law that you must eat bacon with everything. Quite a lot of traffic on the outskirts of Charlottesville but this gives way very quickly to the countryside described above.
It is another beautiful sunny day and we make good progress throughout the morning . About mid-day we lose our way a little and get some conflicting advice from people we ask - all are very friendly and helpful ( one thing you quickly notice is that if someone is walking, they're not going to be well off). We probably add about 4 miles to the day through this. Not a big problem in itself but added to the fact that we can't find a place for lunch and it's now getting very warm means I suddenly feel very tired. Maybe 6 times around Richmond Park wasn't sufficient training after all. Three miles from the Gap I get off and walk for a bit. Mike had bought a couple of bottles of some magic juice in the lunch-time diner yesterday - a sort of super Red Bull Concentrate - and one of these enables me to slowly pedal the last few hundred yards.
At the Rockfish Gap Information Centre there are two old ladies who tell us there is no where to stay around there but plenty of hotels three miles further on in Waynesboro "and it's all down hill" They book one for us and give us lots of advice on where to eat and shop.
Half an hour later we were checked in. When Mike first persuaded me to go on this trip about two years ago, he led me to believe there would be a full back-up support team on hand to provide all the essential creature comforts. I reflected on this as I stood rinsing out the days clothes in the wash basin with a sachet of hotel shampoo.
Late afternoon we went out for a stroll around town to try and get some food for today's trip as the guide book warns us there are no services between here and Lexington. I stop a young woman and ask for help. (Her little boy has a large shamrock stenciled on his face.) in particular we want bananas. She gives detailed instructions to get to the supermarket, Krogers, which is obviously a fair distance away. She says it's open 24 hours so maybe we can drop buy on the way out of town. She's very friendly and asks us where we are staying; I point to the hotel behind us. She obviously can't quite believe that we don't have cars.
Dinner is in a hamburger joint; The Tailgate Inn, just up the Road. fried shrimps, bacon and cheeseburgers and two bottles of beer ( after all, we had had no lunch). Karen our Waitress ; " I LURV that accent. I WANT that accent"
We we walk back to the hotel to pick up the maps before heading out to plan today's route over a beer. A plastic bag is hanging from our room door knob. It is full of bananas. A small note says " I decided to go buy you some. I hope they help. The girl from the pharmacy". I think I'm going to cry.
We find the Oasis bar about half a mile away. A large dark cavern with plastic pine trees. "St. Pat's Night party". Green beer. We get two complimentary bottles of draught Guinness from a local brewery rep. I suggest to Mike that we can work the banana routine on a regular basis. Tell a local what we want and explain that we are on foot. Then just wait for it to turn up. He says it wont work for beer or cash but other food stuffs might be worth a shot.
Back to the hotel for 8.30. Again, we are the only people who seemt to be out walking. Half an hour with the Chris Mullin diary and then oblivion.
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