Tuesday 7/31/18

Charlottesville to Palmyra

Charlottesville is a large college town and stays awake at night. I slept OK under the park shelter building but lots of vehicle noise all night. I bet Columbia near to Campus is similar. Waking, the sky was heavy overcast and it had rained during the night. I did not have water or toilet at the park, so packed the bike pronto!

I decided to go back to the Kroger store. Use their bathroom to clean up  and buy another loaf of their their stone ground whole wheat bread. It has substantial texture where the Sara Lee whole wheat commonly available is like fluff. I would have decent peanut butter sandwiches the next couple days.

Next the plan was to stop at a convenience store before leaving town and have oatmeal and coffee. Before I made it that far, the drizzle started. I stopped at McDonald's for coffee and sat under a nearby canopy while eating a couple peanut butter sandwiches.

The light rain continued till 1PM and stopped. Highway 53 we are routed out of Charlottesville on, I was warned, was narrow and no shoulder. So I wanted to avoid low visibility and commuters.

It took a bit to figure the route out of town but I finally was out of Charlottesville and the weather mostly cooperated. I pedaled by the estates of Jefferson and Madison. It was supposed to start raining again later so I continued on. These could be a whole vacation later with Joyce.

I made Palmyra about 4:30 with huge clouds building up. The Palmyra Methodist Church has a cyclist hostel. I called the # and Cindy told me how to get in. She also called Fred, a 92 year old gentleman who lives next door. Fred was soon over to help me and told me to bring wet clothes over to his house. I took it as an invitation to visit.

After making and eating my supper of produce from the local farmers market, I went over with my rinsed out cycling cloths to visit Fred.

While the cloths dried Fred gave me a tour of his workshop. He and his wife Margaret had a TV sales and repair business. This is when TV’s still used tubes and were repaired, usually in your home. Fred still had his repairman's suitcase. Now he does woodworking in the shop. Margaret passed away about 3 years ago and Fred talked about missing her. There is a large void in Freds life and visits with the touring cyclist are a distraction from dwelling on the loss. Fred also writes short verses which I included one.

Fred also introduced me to his neighbor Lia Keyes, an author. Never know who you will meet,  cycle touring thru rural towns.

Running back to the church in a light rain, I had had another unique day. Not a lot of miles, but good and I slept well.

Days miles about 25.