Yay, Grandma got to babysit tonight! Here’s Avery playing outside, but it’s also a little tour of Thais and Lenin’s latest improvement to their backyard. Landscaping and some kind of overhead cover is next. Stay tuned.

5:00 am drop-off for Justin and Johnny. For the next week, they will drive 2100 miles and go to sprint car races in Ohio and Pennsylvania and one NASCAR truck race on dirt plus do a lot of sight-seeing. Fans of the sport I’d say.

A long day of flying with long layovers in Charlotte NC and Dallas TX. Tired, but happy to be home.

We got up a 5 am, met Donna, loaded all the bikes onto one vehicle and drove 90 miles
to Prospect to ride the High Bridge Trail.




2400 feet in length, 60-125 feet high, and built on 21 concrete piers.




On the way back we stopped for lunch in Farmville.

Large numbered brick warehouses house businesses selling high-quality furniture and mattresses.

Heading back to Prospect.

Miles = 31.

Today Donna met us at the usual starting point. We went a bit farther – 23 miles – around the airport
ending up at Cups, of course. JoRee was there!

Off to finish the ride, but it was hot and humid (to me, anyway), so Billie and I took a short cut back to the car while Donna and JoRee rode on.

Later that evening, we had to most-delicious ravioli.

Only a short drive to the starting point for today.
Our 18-mile route took us past Black Dog Salvage. This picture is for Thais who would LOVE this store. Bring money!

Bike rack near the natural food coop

and across the street from a great coffee shop, Cups.

Talking bicycling with Katie behind the counter.

In the afternoon, we made homemade ravioli with a sausage-mushroom filling.

This was the hardest-to-knead dough ever!


We had cappuccino every afternoon – I will miss this daily tradition.

Billie is a gourmet cook! Tonight swordfish and southern succotash. Yum!

I am a lucky girl.

This is where Dirty Dancing was filmed in 1987.

We had a really good lunch inside the lodge.

View from the lodge.

The spring-fed lake has shrunk quite a bit.

From a lookout about halfway down the mountain.

Billie taught me how to do a thorough bike cleaning and re-greasing.

Grandson Ricky came over to mow the lawn.

JD came over to help me pack up my bike to ship back to California.

Another exhausting day riding through frequent and sometimes long patches of puddles and mud. What I’ve learned:
Slow down, going too fast sends more mud farther. Whatever you do, don’t stop pedaling, even if you begin to fishtail. When in doubt about the best path, go straight through the middle and hope for the best. Talking and swearing your way through the most challenging patches helps. You (knees down for sure, smaller glops elsewhere) and your bike will be thickly coated regardless, get over it.

Today was awful, every 25-50 feet, a new patch. The worst patches were 25-30 feet long. There was a long stretch of trail right along the Potomac where the canal could not be constructed and boats traveled the Big Slackwater.


McMahon’s Mill.

New in the last year, an intermittently paved path along the Potomac to avoid a long detour through Maryland farmland.

In Shepherdstown, a post-lunch stick-cleaning.


The end of the trail for us. We had to carry our bicycles up a long flight of stairs (yikes, that was hard),

and walk them across the bridge.

This is the convergence of Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia where the Shenandoah River flows into the Potomac.

Harper’s Ferry WV. Miles = 41.

JD met us, we loaded up our bikes, and Billie drove 4 hours back to Roanoke – to find Billie’s crape myrtles in full bloom!

The best B&B breakfast this morning: eggs benedict, cheesy hash brown casserole, baked oatmeal (like an oatmeal cookie!), pancakes, fresh fruit, Alabama tomato pie, juices and coffee. Wow!

Donna and Dave sat down for a chat as we finished.

A peek into a couple of the rooms:


Even in the morning fog, the pink bicycle outside was beautiful.

The best tip ever from Dave: ride the PAVED Western Maryland Rail Trail for 20 miles,

instead of the muddy dirt C&O on the other side of the canal.

Lunch in Hancock where we managed to avoid yet another rainstorm.

Except that later, we got completely dumped on and soaked. It would have been so much worse if we’d been riding the C&O. One more look at the beautiful paved trail,

before we go back to packed dirt and mud.

Built in the 1860s to divert water into the canal, dam 5.

We ended today’s ride in Williamsport. Miles = 38.