Author Archives: Deb

Ok, I am going to get brutally honest here. This is really hard riding through the central appalachian region. The poverty is just difficult to fathom, we take few pictures out of respect for those who can’t find a way out. Not only is the poverty hard to comprehend, the obvious meth problem is unbelievable.Continue reading “June 7 Hindman”

Down the mountain first thing this morning, that’s how to start the day! Four miles in and we crossed the state line. It is hard to express the change in feeling, scenery, food, culture..(everything) we have found when crossing state lines sometimes. We felt that when we rode into Montana from Idaho, and this wasContinue reading “June 6 Lookout KY”

Great weather as we headed out of Damascus today. More narrow curvy roads going up up up. We had planned on breakfast at the first town we came to. Meadowview, but it was closed on Monday so on we went. We found the oldest grocery store I have ever seen (open since 1933, same family,Continue reading “June 4 Rosedale”

We are riding in more desolate areas now, fewer convenience stores and restaurants and fewer hotels. More Appalachia country as we are in Southeast VA and will be in eastern Kentucky tomorrow. The landscape is definitely changing but still hardwood forests and mountains to climb. The houses and towns we do come across seem moreContinue reading “June 5 Breaks Interstate Park”

Damascus turns out to be a little vortex that is pretty difficult to get out of, if you aren’t on a tight schedule Dancing Bear B & B Our B & B was full of hikers and cyclists and we had such fun talking on the front porch, sharing experiences and laughing, most of usContinue reading “June 3 Damascus”

So so excited to wake up knowing we were heading to the (in)famous trail town of Damascus. The crossroads of the Transamerica Trail, The Appalachian Trail, and the Virginia Creeper Trail. Mike and I have read so many hiking books and we feel we have an inkling of an idea of what this town mustContinue reading “June 2, Damascus”

After catching up on wash and errands in Wytheville we rode out on a very windy morning. We kept checking the map to assure ourselves we would be having the wind to our backs soon but no such luck. We can’t complain about the weather, it is just weather, but the conditions can certainly changeContinue reading “June 1 Troutdale”

We headed out climbing again after a quick oatmeal in our hotel room. Just ten miles into the day we came to a most unusual old house turned into a coffee shop and restaurant. What a gift! It wasn’t in a town (that we could tell) but our bikes just swerved automatically into the parkingContinue reading “May 30 Whytheville”

I wished we had thought to take a picture of the Ginko trees that lined the downtown streets of Blacksburg, they were so pretty as we made our way out of town on a very well kept and well used bike trail. The trail took us through the Virginia Tech campus, all the way toContinue reading “May 29 Newbern”

Once again a wrong turn out of the hotel in the morning, which turned out to be an omen for the day. Our route took us zigzagging all through the country roads and before long we were two tracking it far away from civilization. After getting ourselves straightened out we had a pleasant ride againContinue reading “May 28 Blacksburg”