Day 91-An Old Friend, and Dead Presidents

There were a fair amount of hills today. Nothing majorly long, but enough to make my legs feel it. 

We left the Cookie Lady Bike House just after 7:00. We said, “See you tonight!” to Jim and Kay who also stayed at the house last night. 

This was taken at the church we are staying at tonight. 

It was the usual foggy and cloudy…maybe a bit more overcast than recently. In fact, there was pretty much no sun today. 

Coming out of the mountains, we rode through some orchards. 

Our friend from the AT, Smiley, is in Charlottesville. He had messaged me, so we arranged to meet up with him when we rolled in. 

Rolling past the University of Virginia on our way to meet Smiley. 

The “Geritol Posse” together again!

We had a great time catching up, then Smiley had to get to work. Doug and I grabbed some lunch, then headed out of Charlottesville. We decided to stop at Monticello. Of course one has to purchase a ticket to go to the mountain top where the house is. We just got tickets for the grounds and gardens, not the inside. We still had about 20 miles or so to do. 

Monticello is owned and operated by descendants of Thomas Jefferson. Apparently, some still live in the house. Only the first floor is available to tour. 

We took the shuttle bus to the house. As soon as we got off the bus, it started to rain. We didn’t have our rain gear, and Doug can’t get his hearing aids wet. We did a quick walk around and took the requisite photos. 

Front

What’s on the back of the nickle. 

Pretty flower

The view (not so great today).

Then we got back on the shuttle and went back to the Visitor Center. Of course, it stopped raining…for awhile. 

Not long after leaving Monticello, it started raining again. We donned our rain gear (ah yes…Flap Flap again). I really shouldn’t have bothered as it was so humid, I was just sweating as much as if I was just getting wet from the rain. Eventually, I couldn’t stand it anymore, and it had slowed to a sprinkle, so off came Flap Flap. 

We also rode by “Highland”, the home of James Monroe. We didn’t stop there. There’s only so many dead presidents one can take in in a day. 

Instead, we stopped at this fruit stand place. Better than dead president houses, they had cider donuts and peach crumble pie!

And this cool apple crate/pumpkin sign. 

We finally rolled into Palmyra. We are staying at the Methodist church. They are another church that takes hosting cyclists seriously. Reverend Sung Yoo welcomed us, and showed us all the things they have for cyclists. He said over and over, “Anything you want, take it!” They have rigged up a shower system with a hose that connects to the bathroom sink, then out the door to outside. Okay for guys…not so much for women…

They also have a “laundry system”. It’s a 10 gallon bucket with an agitator plunger. Pretty creative, actually. 

Jim and Kay rolled in about an hour or so after us. We’ve got our bikes in one room, and sleeping in another room, and Jim and Kay have another room. 

The clouds seem to be breaking up. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better weather as we have a long ride. 

T-Minus 3 days!