What an absolutely beautiful day to be riding the last part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The bit of fog quickly burned off and it was sunny and beautiful.

We had a bit of climbing before we knew we could enjoy lots of downhills.

We ran into Jean, a French cyclist who rode from San Francisco on a bike he purchased on Craigs list. He was headed to New York where he would resell the bike before heading home.

He carried his gear mainly in an ikea Frakta bag strapped to his back luggage rack. So funny all the thinking we do about our gear and this young guy just jumps on a bike and goes!

Getting off the Parkway was quite the adventure. Straight downhill on a narrow road, poorly paved and dark. I pulled over often letting my brakepads cool, as even alternating brakes on the way down wasn’t enough. We had heard stories of Transamerica bike riders ending their tours early crashing on this downhill.

Our scenery changed almost immediatly on this side of the parkway. Gone were the estates and grand houses and plantations. This was looking a little more like Appalachian Country we read about. Small houses and trailers, poor roads and barking dogs.

We started to hear thunder in the distance, that always hurries us along. We rode miles following a stream on a very rural road, met up with Max and together we beat the rain as we rode into Lexington and found a room at a cheap motel.