Jeremiah Watt

I spent the better part of this day just riding, I didn’t make any effort to find a Library. I did work with my new camera and some pic’s, I just hope that the photo thing all works out because it is not a very good camera as I had to start. It’s 25 degrees on the bike at 7am, and I can’t stop the tears from filling my eyes as I ride in this cold morning air.


My fingers and toes are trying to quit, and I pull over at the first quick-stop I hit that morning after an hour or so of riding. I have a great biscuit and sausage, and a couple cups of coffee. I made attempts to fire up a conversation with different folks but nothing really came about…………….they seem fairly suspicious of a grown man in LYCRA???? I did watch one very interesting customer.

idth="640" height="421" />

The fellow was a huge round built man, not that tall but of equal girth to height. He sat and nearly flattened a chair in doing so, and lit his first cigarette……..he seemed somewhat fidgety and careful about things like placement of the ashtray etc and it was fun to watch the antics that he went thru, with the pointing of his cigarette and the moving of either ashtray or lighter being a constant habit.



He now sat in front of me, oblivious that I was even in the room, and he lit a second cigarette before the first was even out, he seemed puzzled by which to set down. There came a point in which he was served his biscuits and gravy, and he at that point sat eating the meal before him, with a cigarette going in each hand. He sat and ate without ever setting his two different length cigarettes going with one in each hand………taking alternate puffs on each cigarette as he shoveled in the meal from the Styro tray. That may have been the highlight of quick stop choreography for my trip.



I am warm enough and start riding again, I am taking roads on what is known as Lee’s Retreat. This is the path that Lee & his Troops took while trying to get away from the Union Army. I rode on past a small barn being built and saw two fellows out working, one that caught my eye was peeling some logs. So I pulled in to visit with Dave and Tommy Nelson, they were in the midst of building a country style green house for a lady friend.



Both had grown up as Air Force brats, and traveled the country from base to base with their parents. Then they each done a stint in the Air Force and headed into civilian life. They liked the sense of accomplishment that they felt while being a part of the Service, they both thought that having given over a part of their own lives to service had been good for them both. Now however they found themselves having to hussle to make a living in any manner that they could, and log peeling and carpentry was what paid the bills.


I pedal on to the Nottaway Courthouse, another in a string of places and occasions that Lee visited with his Generals etc to decide the conclusion of the Civil War. The Nottoway Couthouse, was one such occasion in which Lee joined his Generals and received information from Union spies as to activities on the other side, the news was bad, the trap was about to close about them all. The road leads on then to Pamplin City, the scene of the best known Clay Pipe making center, and how important the pipes where to soldiers of both sides in this War.


The remains of the Kiln are now an historic site and thus preserved. Then on down the narrow back roads to Blackstone, which used to be a garment and textile district but now secures it’s lively hood from the Army & National Guard Bases that surround it. The evidence of what used to be a busy manufacturing district are abundant, now they stand idle and folks remain unemployed, but clothes are cheap at Wal-Mart etc so no one is too upset.

I eat at a real Restaurant today, the Farmers Café in downtown Blackstone. I have a Chicken Fried Steak, and a piece of pie that does not measure up to what I had a Frannies. The afternoon turned out sunny but very cool. The last few nights had been very cool, and so I took to Walmart as my savior and buy a couple of heavy weight work socks and a heavy wool scotch cap to wear at night. The whole matter of buying a hat is difficult, because you just have to find a hat that is YOU.

Then on down the road we go, the country is really flattening out now, the sides of the road have more and more standing water. The roads are narrow, the sky growing darker and McKinney is my next town to go thru. There isn’t much there and I just breeze thru, the primary source of income seems to be logging and farming Cotton in the region from Appamatox to here thus far. I need to look for a place to pull over and camp for the night, the ground is so wet in thru here that I would really like to find a high spot or a table to sleep on to help stay dry.

Not long after the Town of McKinney, I pass a private hunt club on the side of the road, they have a lodge or meeting building and many out buildings some look to be used for horses while others must surely be for dogs, and some of the others for storage. I considered sleeping under the roof of the Pavilion, and am about to do so when I notice that the door to a small storage room is actually open and not locked at all. Well, this is looking quite inviting with the coming night and how cool it is as well as the fog that I know will shroud the place by morning. So I enter into this building that is used to store such things as shooting targets and miscellaneous electrical and plumbing supplies.

Older chest freezers and tarps, but in amongst it all is something I really don’t like the look of, yes and there are 4 total, they are shed snake skins, large diameter solid black snake skins……………..but Poochie Maggie, take a look at that one………..that must have been a huge snake last year. I pull out the largest snake skin and it comes in two pieces it measures over 9 feet in length, the next skin I could get picked up comes in at just over 5 feet and another that would have been 6 feet. I had to think hard about sleeping here, but reasoned that with all the cool weather they would be denned up someplace by now……………….right…………I mean, surely they would not be out and about with me here tonight. I decided to NOT DISTURB the corners and what lay on the floor of the shed if possible………..no sense waking up unsavory sleeping partners. So I laid out one of the blue tarps underneath of my bag-o-sleep, and then threw my bed down on that. There was power into this room, so I set my useless cell phone to charging as well as my camera batteries. I woke up every few hours and changed my batteries for the camera, the cell phone takes a little longer to get a charge so I only charged 2 batteries for the cell phone over night.
Not such a bad day in all, I had 61 miles in travel, and got to see and meet quite a few folks. A decent supper of Tomato Soup and Noodles, and a dry place to sleep, can it get any better than that?

Good Night and God Bless