Sleep Inn Wytheville

... The first thing we noticed was that everybody drinks Bud-Lite and the TV’s are tuned to Monster Trucks, football and NASCAR. We sat up at the bar and struck up a conversation with Beau & Bubba, two regulars who filled us in on the local gossip about town. Beau told us that there would be a good band in the bar at 10:00 PM and I told him that I’m usually thinking about going to bed ...

... The first thing we noticed was that everybody drinks Bud-Lite and the TV’s are tuned to Monster Trucks, football and NASCAR. We sat up at the bar and struck up a conversation with Beau & Bubba, two regulars who filled us in on the local gossip about town. Beau told us that there would be a good band in the bar at 10:00 PM and I told him that I’m usually thinking about going to bed ...

... that we went through. We had breakfast in downtown Bellefonte at a little diner and it was delicious. We have found on this trip that the best food (other than the lobster! ha) has been at the little diners in small downtowns.

When we left PA yesterday it was raining. It rained most all the way through Maryland, West Virginia, and into Virginia, but when we got here it was no longer raining. We traveled a ...

... were right. The winds were fierce. We had to park a few hundred feet below the summit and hike up through the woods. The sound of the wind slamming against the swinging bridge at the summit was erie. When we reached the top we were amazed by how intense the winds were. Parents were holding on their kids for dear life - seriously - if not they would have blown off the mountain. Rusty and I bravely walked across the ...

I slept at a truck stop in Abingdon last night, and started walking US Highway 11 (North) this morning. I caught not one ride and have walked the whole way here to Marion. I'm exhausted and very hungry. I'ts already after three, and someone here said that they're expecting an ice storm here tonight. I'm too tired to continue walking anymore today, so I guess I'm here for the night and its nasty weather.

Going out to breakfast in the Super 8 lobby this morning I had a look at the bike and its cover and thought, "Hmm, couldn't have rained... what's that spotty stuff?" Dang, upon closer inspection I saw what I didn't want to see. Little crystals. Yes, it is cold. I can't wait for the sun to melt the things and get on the road again. The last 1000 miles will be the longest, I guess. It was about 10:30 when I packed up & was successful at coaxing BB into waking up. He was not that happy ...

... in slobber) and we also got to feed the goats, mules, and baby guinea pigs (who make the strangest sound!). The kids started screaming around 7pm, with one hour to go to Wytheville under a severe thunderstorm warning, and we finally made it to our first day's destination at 8:15pm, 15 minutes after the campground office closed. The registration information was outside, but Rebecca missed it somehow and called the number provided, which made the manager ...

... go out to dinner as a change from our standard rations of milky soup but first we had to wait for Tom who had not yet recovered to return from hospital. It turned out to be a 5 hour stint in the hospital courtesy of the nurse who seemed intent on redecorating her room with Tom's blood. Eventually a pale Tom and Mother Olly returned to find four desperately hungry individuals staring out of ...

... and Civil War graves. I stayed in the Travel Lite Motel, rented a car and hit the hills. The Blue Ridge Mountains are very pretty. As part of the Appalachians they are among the oldest mountains in America, and are no longer as spectacular as they have once been (their heyday was around 200 million years ago - I guess I just arrived a bit too late). Two days hiking about and eating hotdogs with the natives was enough for me. Time to keep going...

... the Commonwealth. Follow the Civil War Trails signs to these locations..." On this occasion, as it was the first "good day" in a while, I opted to drive around the area. Over and around winding roads and "rounded trees", hills, little farmhouses, I got completely lost; however, found my way back to the main road before I ran out of gas and then back to town for dinner at Applebee's. Not a bad restaurant but they always feed me too much.