Day 5 on the Tour

We've had a great four days. Some ups, some downs (especially through Shenandoah NP).

We made it to Front Royal our first day and appreciated the ride out with Kristin's mom, Carol, and Kurtis and John. It got hot and hilly after they left us, but we made it in ok.

The next day we climbed into Shenandoah up to Hogback Mountain. It took us about four hours to get to the first campground in the park (above 3,000 ft). After that we descended a little, but climbed above 3,000 feet 2 more times. We ended the day early with some thunderstorms. We set up camp after they finished but then got more rain through the night.

Day three was easy compared to the day before and we ended in Rockfish Gap. We stayed at a motel and cleaned/dried out our tent with another 3,000 ft + mountain ahead of us. We named it Mt. Vesuvius for the little town of Vesuvius on the other side.

We didn't have a lot of problems climbing up the Blue Ridge but the descent was a bit hairy. We stopped for our first BBQ of the trip at Gertie's in Vesuvius. We then rode to the KOA outside of Natural Bridge, VA. We think Jason Harding should open up a KOA Kampground in the practice fields behind his house.

Right now we're in Buchanan, VA hoping to make it to Christiansburg.

Our Count (of anything and everything):

0--Flats
248ish--Miles thus far
1--Thunderstorms/Rain
6--Bears - including 1 mom and 2 cubs that crossed in front of us on a hill (there was no one else around)
Lots--Deer with fuzzy antlers and fawns with spots
2--Near trip-ending disasters
3--Weird tourist attractions: "Foamhenge", wax museum and wax factory - to see "history in the making", and an safari park with a picture option with a baby tiger.

We will try to post pictures later this week.