5/8/01
I got a bit of a late start again today. I didn't get on the road until about 9:30. It takes me about an hour to get everything packed into my panniers, break my tent, and strap everything onto the bike. I rolled out of Christiansburg and climbed into the small town of Radford. I noticed on my map that there was a bike shop close to my route, so I called ahead and talked to the owner, who agreed to true my wheels as soon as I came in.
In truing my wheels, he found a broken spoke on my rear wheel, which was causing my brakes to wear unevenly. I had been checking my spokes and hadn't noticed the broken one, but luckily the problem hadn't screwed up my wheel so much that I couldn't ride. In fact, I now suspect that the spoke broke before I crossed the Blue Ridge, and the uneven rear wheel was causing some of my climbing troubles.
Once back on the road, the weather turned ugly, but not before I snapped a shot of some purple flowers that lined much of my route:
I continued cycling along the New River, which is actually the second-oldest river in the world. I have no idea how they know this, but in any event, the river looked pretty much like you would expect a river to look.
Shortly after I snapped that shot, the rain began. I stopped and spent a few minutes hunting through my saddlebags to find my rain suit (Guess where it was packed?) I didn't mind cycling through the rain, which continued throughout the afternoon, since the weather kept the day's temperatures fairly comfortable. Unfortunately, my late start and the delay for my bike repair left me short of my destination as night fell. Rather than risk riding at dusk on rainy, truck-filled streets, I opted to check into a small hotel and stay warm and dry.