Day 39 (7/31): Elkhorn City, KY --> Wytheville, VA (118 miles)

Days mileage: 118 miles

I got up at 5am and was pedaling by 615. I wanted to beat some of the potential coal truck traffic that the local yodel had warned me about the previous night. I strapped on the headlamp again and put on my shredded neon-orange vest and started what was the first of a long serious of steep and rolling climbs that took me closer and closer to my home state.

Fog, again, was heavily set in all the knooks and crannies of the mountains. Visibility was sketchy in some spots, but manageable. Traffic was scant and scattered, if present at all....so things were going well.

That's when I looked up while working my way up another climb and saw it...faint at first...I adjusted my headlamp to get a better view....closer and closer...I pedaled a few more times....higher and higher I rose...closer and closer...and then....there....around a bend in the road...was the state sign of Virginia! The last state of my trek was right infront of me. It was about time and it had been a long time since last I stepped foot, or pedal, inside of VA.

I stopped to take some pictures and used the guardrail as a means of gettin some poorly aimed self-shots with the state sign.

I then continued on as a light drizzle meandered down, down, down....The first town I went through was Haysi. Good deal.

Around 930 am the fog was lifted and the surrounding landscape was made a little bit more clear for me to see....Tall and staggering peaks with small mountain streams wandering around as if lost between ranges and struggling to find a way out...luckily I had a road to follow and didn't get too lost in such efforts of escapes from such terrain.

Before I knew it I was out of the region of VA and heading towards Route 11 and I-81. Two very familiar roads for me seeing how my apt in Harrisonburg was right off of Rt 11 and how I-81 ran right thru JMU campus. I was gettin closer and closer to home and decided I'd hop on Rt. 11 and just start heading north up the backbone of Virginia.

I ended the day in Wytheville, VA and stopped in some Mexican restaurant for dinner. That's when a very nice couple (Lynn and Joe) came over and said they had seen me biking up Rt. 11 a "goood ways back". We chatted a bit and asked about where I usually slept during the nights, etc, etc....long story short. Lynn was able to call their local church and arrange for me to sleep in there for the night. It was perfect. A night of not having to sleep in the infamous Virginia humidity....and sleep on a sofa, with a super clean restroom, and AC....a great nights sleep.

Thanks again Lynn and Joe for helping me out there!