Sunday, July 5, 2015

Glorius Skyline Drive

Sunday, July 5   Day 1    Front Royal to Waynesboro, VA    112 miles,  10,856' of climbing

Here's the group getting ready to depart this morning at 7:30. Left to right: Mark, Suzette, Chuck (behind Suzette), Terry in front, Jill, Carol in front, Alvin at back, me, Jeff, Bryan. It's a great group of cyclists!

We needed to ride only a half mile to the park entrance:
The morning was nice except for the fog. I kept having to wipe my glasses because they got misted so quickly, and this went on for about the first hour. The fog also meant there was nothing to see at the many scenic viewpoint turnouts. But through the mist, Alvin and I saw a bear running across the road. Luckily, Alvin pointed it out to me, because I was not looking that far ahead.
This is the only picture I took during the first 25 miles. Most of the road was continuously uphill. Our first SAG stop was at 24 miles, after which the rest of the day was up and down, sometimes long hills, sometimes short. But the roadway was always beautiful.
Alvin took this photo of me AFTER the fog began to lift, but as you can see, it was still hazy (until the afternoon). By the way, Alvin is an exceptionally fast cyclist - a racer too. This is his 8th time he's done the Skyline Drive/Blue Ridge Parkway ride.
We had lunch at Mile 51 (there is a mileage post next to the road for every single mile), at a visitor center called Big Meadow. This photo shows how it got its name.
Lunch was super - Suzette and Carol put out all sorts of goodies for us to make sandwiches and snack and drink. Bryan is eating mid left, then there's Jill, Suzette, with Jeff eating in the foreground, and Alvin's shoulder to the right.

During the afternoon, the ride was more scenic, and still very hilly. I will just post pictures; they say a thousand words:
 

 Bryan and Chuck.
 Hazy, I know, but this was as good as it got today. Better than the thick fog we had in the morning.
 Here come Jeff and Chuck up one of the many ascents.
And here they are up close as they pass me.
This is the marker used for the Appalachian Trail. It crossed Skyline Drive numerous times today, and in each case they had this post with the AT symbol. The Trail will be crossing our path many more times during the rest of our tour on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

After the final rest stop at Mile 79.5, I told the others that I had to hurry on to try to get to the motel by about 5:30 to meet Bob Riggs and his friend Kevyn for dinner at 6:00. I did speed off, but Alvin left much later and still caught and passed me, and then waited six minutes for me at the end of the Park. Wow, he is fast!

Once I descended the hill and reached our motel in Waynesboro, I quickly showered and barely was ready by 6:00. It was wonderful to see my long-time friend Bob, who lives in nearby Charlottesville, and to share dinnertime with him and Kevyn. My riding time for the day was 7:40, and my total time for the ride from motel to motel was 10 hours. A long day out there, but it was a super ride. Temperatures were fine, and only a little humid -- but humid enough to have me perspiring more than on any ride so far this year.
I even autographed his copy of my book, Head Over Wheels, sitting there on the table.

Tomorrow's ride will be the first 85 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP), with about 9600 feet of climbing. Just the hill back up to the start of the BRP is pretty long and steep. Bob Brown and I did it when I last rode the BRP in 2008, and I remember. We will be staying at a special Park-run hotel right on the Parkway called Peaks of Otter. We stayed there in 2008 also.

SPECIAL NOTE: Suzette and I discovered today that we know each other from back in our food-industry days!  She worked for P&G and used to serve on some of the same scientific trade association committees as I did. What a small world!




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