We woke early to a dewy morning in the Recreation grounds. It was nice to look out at the swimming pool, lawn, play equipment adn picnic area all still and peaceful, knowing in a few hours there would be splashing and shouts all over. The tent was still damp when we packed it away, and soon hit the road into low cloud; a nice cool start to what would no doubt become a hot day.
Like yesterday, the days' ride started with a very civilised downhill, rolling us through Birchleaf on to Haysi. We had hoped for some internet there but found a very quiet town- imagining most people were at church or in bed. Luckily Dollar General was there to sell us bagels and juice. We enjoyed these in the shade, while we dragged out our tent to dry in the sun. Sustained, we were able to tackle the climbs up to Breaks Interstate park, and thereafter the border of Kentucky. The State slogan promises 'Unbridled Spirit', sounds good to us. A lookout point offered dramatic views of the river surrounded by heat-hazy mountains.
We rolled down more winding roads to our first Kentucky convenience store, for cold beverages. While Matt was in the store, a guy sat behind the wheel of the car parked beside us asked me where were were headed. I didn't catch the chaps' name, but I would best describe him as John Goodmans' excellent portrayal of Walter in the Big Lebowski; so I'll refer to him as such. Walt was wearing mirror aviators, had a broad southern drawl and the kind of hoarse voice you'd get from smoking and screaming at people alot (he did say he was a 'Horse Man' so maybe it was from training horses.) Basically, Walt couldn't understand why we would be cycling across the States. He asked me if we were travelling with a gun, for protection. At this point Matt emerged from the store, so I shot him a 'get a load of this' look and repeated 'the gentleman was wondering if we had a gun?' - Smiling, we told Walt that we didn't have a gun; we came from England, where not even all the police carry a firearm. Walt spat (tobacco?)-into a cup he was carrying for that purpose. He went on 'So you don't have much crime in England?' Glancing at Matt for courage, I suggested a corelation to his former question: 'There's not as much gun crime because its' difficult to come by guns'. Walt smirked, because he had a rebuttal for this one: 'What about drugs - sadly, in the US we have a big drug problem... Did you hear about what just happened in Colorado? There's crazy people out there...' Walt was referring to a recent attrocity where a guy opened fire in a movie theatre. Does this mean we should be taking a gun to the movies? It was fairly obvious that we weren't about to see eye-to-eye on this issue. We cheerily told Walt that we would be awfully careful and try to avoid crazy people. He shrugged and wished us a safe journey. A few miles down the road, his car passed us with much honking and waving and we waved back. A bit of culture shock but still a friendly conclusion!
As the afternoon temperature rose, so did we (up more hills). These rises are shorter but steeper. The agriculture of Virginia is replaced by coal mining, which supplies much of Americas' power (if billboards can be believed!) When we arrived in Lookout, we had to decide to stay here after just 46 miles of riding- or continue to the next accomodation option, a further 50 miles on our route. Our map advised a phonecall to the Lookout Baptist Center, for cyclist-only lodging. We let the outcome of the phonecall decide our fate. Luckily, we were quickly welcomed by Alice into a spacious, air conditioned sports hall. She showed us the decadent facilities- hot showers, equipped kitchen, sleeping mats and a stocked fridge. Once again, the kindness of these small communities has us in awe. After shooting some hoops and reading the appreciative notes of previous cyclists in the visitors' book, we showered up and sat down to plan tommorows' route. At this point, Alices' son, Greg knocked at the sports' hall door. We introduced ourselves and chatted a bit, before he told us that his mother and Rita- a kind lady from the community- would be over shortly with dinner for us. They had some left over food from the church function and hoped that we could enjoy them.
If this unbelievable hospitality continues (lavish family bbq last night; Sunday dinner with dessert today)- we will never get around to opening the canned burrito-kit we bought for dinner two days ago! The food is amazing but not as memorable as the people. With too-full bellies, will sleep on our gym-mats in airconditioned bliss. We're not sure Kentucky can keep up with Virginia, but its' been a fabulous cool welcome to a second friendly State!
No comments:
Post a Comment