Jeremiah Watt

You know as any cyclist on a trip such a s this will tell you, you just never know whom or what you are going to meet on any given day. I never set about to make this trip in a given amount of time, jsut ride it, enjoy it, and record it. This day saw me packing up camp on the side of a holler above a fast flowing river, fog had moved in over the night and had thus far impeded my travels till about 8am. I set about my ride that day intent on getting to the route 460 between the rush hour traffic times.............I didn't really know what to expect for traffic to be honest.

I rode along in the still fairly dense fog, with all my clothes on and stopped to visit and take pics of two fellows out feeding there Jersey heifers. We got to visit and talk about the Virginia Dairy business, the lack of subsidies for farmers and tthe low price being payed for milk. We got to visit about the cost of replacement hiefers and how long a good producing Jersey will milk versus a good Holstien.........I didn't realize there was such a difference. I was utterly amazed at how much more productive a Jersey was compared to a Holstien ( Those are the Black and White spotted ones).

Any ways it was good to smell the silage and step in the remnants of yesterdays silage before I hit the road once again. I didn't ride more than a mile or so, and as I rounded a cornere and came down a road lined with planted Pine trees I met a pickup with two fellas in it and the driver had rolled his window down and was flagging me to a stop. Yes, I said flagging me...........now this is different I thought.!

The driver introduced himself as one Bob Coffey, and begged me to turn around and ride back to his house just back up the hill a wee ways, I relented since he also informed me that he to was a cyclist...............the silent fraternity of cyclists is small and tight, and to maintain my status amongst my brotheren I must comply. I ride back the shart ways to Bobs very comfortable little farm, as he actually raises cattle on his 60 acre farm. Bob, on this day was with a hired man named Ernie and they were just about to start some fence work on the top of the hill when they mat me. Bob told me that he and Ernie were going to celebrate that afternoon when the work was done, and they were going to gather as they burned Ernies 1962 version of a Walmart work shirt. I told ernie it would be a small fire, since there weas only 3 threads and one button left to burn.

BOb and his wife Mary are indeed avid cyclists having done almost all of two different cross USA trips. Mary, as Bob confesses is a stronger rider than he, his still plus 6 foot frame requires a lot more energy to take on the hills. Bob, a retired Virginia Tech Enginneer whom specialized in Plastics, now farms and cycle's. But just recently there have been a feqw health issues that have kept Bob close to home and off the bike......................but those will all be taken care of by mid spring Bob assures me and then its back on the bikes which they have quite a few of hanging in thier garage as well. And so it is that I spent over two hours sitting in their home enjoying a couple of great cups of coffee, and a great round of "spoked adventures" and friendship with two PERFECT strangers.

Dowen the road, with renenwed energy and out over the New River Bridge, up and down the many hills that dot the landscape between myself and the meeting of highway #460 running east to Blacksburg. I stopped at a quick stop as I hit the highway, they had a small sign advertizing homemade frie-pies.................just had to do a comparison. WOW.............I am hooked>>>>>>>>>>poochie Maggie these are good. I had the Pumpkin and would love to trade this lady my NOODLE recipe for her Frie Pie recipe.

I visted with 3 fellows from Mexico, all came across to work in the forestry industry which is thriving by the way in Virginia. They tell me that jobs are very easy to get, pays very good, and not one of them had any forestry expierience before coming up here. So it was that Geraldo, Pepe and Fernando wished me well as I headed out on to 460 and Blacksburg.

The day is cool, the boken clouds have fellen pery to solid cloud cover and the temp on my bike is falling steadily. There are four good hills to pull in getting to Blacksburg which is the home of Virgina State Technical School. It is a very busy town as I head right into the heart of it to work on the computers at the Library. It is a frystrating hassle, working with very suspicious Library crews, as in this case they had aTech student who overseen what was going on in the computer lab.

Even with his help, and being moved over onto the latest and most efficient Computer within the Library it proved to be a fruitless effort. So I spent from 1:45 till 4:50 that afternoon and couldn't take anymore of it. I headed out into a steady rain, and no groceries on borad yet. I found out that the only grocerie store was way back up hill from the direction that I need to to be going, and so made a mad dash back to get something to eat. Once I had some groceries, I was determined to get out and away from the city limits to set up camp.

At this stage I am riding in full rain gear, into a cooling evening and a setting sun, my initial portion of the ride was downhill into the beautiful Catawba Valley, and even with the heavy cloud cover and rain it was still a pretty sight. But I was riding and not taking pictures at this point. I was Praying for a nice covered Pavilliion behind a Church to once again offer me sanctuary from the weather..................the Lord, well he had other ideas.

For instance lets see what Jeremiah thinks if I dont give him the perfect shelter........will he still be pleased with me and continue to Pray and say thanks..............or is he one of those fair-weather believers...............lets just see. I rode across a narrow bridge and off on my left side there was a Church that say on a small hill. It was late enough that I thought it may also be my last hope of a place to put up foir the night.

The Church was not the perfect sanctuary that I had hoped for............."what gives I thought, I Prayed for full cover"?? I looked around at the camp situation, and came to this conclusion. There was no ideal Pavillion, there was no picnic area period..........but there was a narrow roofed stairwell, and tyhat would just have to suffice in the current situation. The bottom of the stairwell was full of leaves and debris, so I took my old license plate I carried with me to burn on and used it as a scoop for the leaves etc.

AS I cleaned I realized I had quite an assortment of multi-legged crawling bugs with hard shells................and those Centepede's with 2 million legs and about 3-4 inches long.....................ah, well, like yah, a bunch of the rascals. So I done my best inpression of a cowboy going primordial nativist..................I done my best impression of an Irish Jig for several minutes till I could see a drastic drop in numbers. Once again the license plate came in handy for the ............you know the slimy insi......well the guts that abound after such an event.

I didn't bother with a tent, just threw the tent down first and my matt and that was follwoed with the bag of sleep. Dinner was sort of a covert operation since there were many houses that faced this direction, I didn't want to alarm folks with a blazing fire. I did have a bout 5 deer come to join me...........till they heard I was having Venison and Noodles.

I bedded down by about 8 with 2 hot cups of Earl Grey Tea. So after all that I had done that day to get some miles behind me, I made it only 28 miles doen the road.................but I did have new friends to show and share for all of it.

Good Night and God Bless