127.57 km. 1,411m ascent. 6h02 ride time
Despite a good night’s sleep in the bunkhouse, I wasn’t in good form today. I don’t know why, but I had no power in my legs.
Anyway the ride was generally downhill even though we actually climbed over 1,400m
The first part of the day was beautiful, the second part less so.
We arrived stopped at ‘the omelette shoppe’ for lunch and I have never ever had such a bad omelette! I didn’t think it was possible to make a bad omelette. I was wrong, and at a restaurant that specialised in omelettes! It was more like pancake than an omelette. Anyway, the calories were welcome, and the service was friendly
After lunch we had just 20km to get to Radford pretty much following the New River.
Our overnight was the Super8 hotel, run by Himal Desai, an Indian who had lived for many years in the USA. I asked him we could do some laundry. Our cycling clothes are only wearable for max 2 days because we sweat so much and the salt retained by them makes it just uncomfortable. They didn’t have a laundry at the hotel but he very kindly offered to drive me downtown to the laundrette (about 5km away). He then left me there and came back an hour later to pick me up. Of course I offered to pay for his fuel and time, but he wouldn’t take anything. I really enjoyed talking with him and am very grateful for his kindness.
This hospitality has been shown by so many Americans on our journey, something we Europeans could learn from and copy
