Day 7: 10/5/2022: Troutville to Afton, VA

 Today I knew was going to be a "gut check" day for me because of the distance and amount of climbing.  Because of that, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and was on my bike riding by 5:30 a.m.

I stopped at a local cafe in Buchanan for breakfast.  I couldn't let a trip go by without posting a pic of least 1 breakfast.

Pic below of the James River at Buchanan.

Pics below of a portion of downtown Lexington and Stonewall Jackson's gravesite at Lexington.

I ran across the 4 guys pictured below outside Lexington.  They are biking from Vienna, VA, to Asheville NC.  They have been on the road a few days and said today was their first nice day to ride.  They had rain from Hurricane Ian.  They are sleeping in motels along the way.

The road below led to my hardest climb yet this trip.  It began in Vesuvius and was about a 2.5 mile steep climb to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I made it to the Blue Ridge Parkway and rode on it for about 30 miles.  Blue Ridge Parkway riding consists of long slow uphills followed by long fast exciting downhills to the next gap, etc, etc.  Below are some pics along the parkway.

Tonight I am staying in Afton at the former home of June Curry.  She was well known by cyclists biking USBR 76 because she allowed many cyclists to stay at her home and she provided many with cookies.  She was affectionately known in the biking community as The Cookie Lady.  She died in 2012, but her home is still the Afton Bike House, a hostel for cyclists. The walls inside the home are decorated with lots of  post cards cyclists sent her in the past. Some pics around the house below.

Total miles today:  90.6