Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Day 9: 11/14/23: Lexington to Harrisonburg, VA

Today's the finale.  I will be meeting Lisa in Harrisonburg, spending the night there, and then driving with her to PA.

Another great night's sleep inside last night with no need to mess with a wet tent this morning.  Dave and Tasha cooked a tasty breakfast of scrambled eggs with veggies mixed in and sourdough bread.  We said our goodbyes and I left there with a full tank.

Today's ride was not as hilly as some of the days have been, but there were still plenty of hills.  Pic of some scenery below.  This is beautiful country to bike in, but the terrain is very challenging.

About 12 miles from my final destination today, my rear tire got spongy.  I stopped and felt the tire, slow leak.  I really didn't want to pull everything off the bike this close to the end, so I just put more air in the tire.  It got spongy again about 2 miles from the hotel, but I made it to the hotel on the tire.  

I made it to Harrisonburg at about 5:00 p.m. and the traffic was horrible.  Over the past several days, I have been on roads that I pretty much had to myself.  In Harrisonburg, I had to quickly acclimate back to constant vigilance because there were cars coming from every direction with many passing within a foot of me.  It was so bad I resorted to riding on the sidewalk beside some of the roads.  That creates an entirely different kind of stress, turning vehicles, cracks in the sidewalk, etc.  It all ended well as I made it to the hotel and checked in.

I called Lisa and she was caught in Interstate traffic as there had been an accident.  She made it to the hotel about an hour after me 

Bicycle touring this time of year can be stressful, especially longer, multi-day trips.  The number of riding hours in the day is greatly reduced.  Even with shortening the miles each day, I barely made it to my destination each evening before dark.  Also, the colder weather makes it more difficult to get up earlier for needed early departure times to arrive before dark.  Or maybe it's not either that makes it tougher, maybe I'm just getting older :) This was another good, challenging trip.

Total miles today: 65.2
Total miles this trip: 697

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