Day 12 - Lexington to Roanoke

48 Miles

After two days of working in Lexington it felt good to get back on the road again. I'd been watching weather reports about heavy rain and thunderstorms all week, but the rain held off and the sun even made a couple of brief appearances in the afternoon.

As I was pedaling away from the motel I discovered a broken pedal. A piece of the pedal had broken and was flopping loose. No doubt the result of enduring the powerful strokes of my Lance Armstrong-like leg muscles!

Fortunately I was only minutes from downtown Lexington. I rode past Virginia Military Institute, a rather intimidating looking campus with buildings rising canyon-like on both sides of a narrow road (made narrower by on-street parking).

I found the bike shop easily and the owner replaced my pedals right on the sidewalk in front of the shop. This is a very friendly shop and the repair was very reasonable. The owner said that he had a couple come through recently with a tandem, recumbent, three-wheeler equipped with a trailer, solar panel and battery, a setup that allowed the couple to use the computer while rolling down the road. I like the ingenuity, but not sure that I'd enjoy working on the computer while rollowing through the beautiful Virginia countryside.

And beautiful it was. After replacing my pedals I was quickly out of Lexington and onto the quiet, tree-covered back-roads that ran along streams for most of the day. Almost no traffic, quiet except for the sounds of the streams rushing over rocky beds, and all the wonderful smells of spring. After a while the route paralleled I-81 and the sounds and smells of nature were replaced by the sounds and smells of 18 wheelers!

The last part of the ride got very up and down. Lots of rolling hills that I'd been anticipating (I hear it's this way from here on through a good part of Kentucky) and was well tired of by the end of the day.

And speaking of the end of the day, I'd no more than pulled my bike up under the awning of a motel and stepped into the lobby than the skies opened up and the deluge hit. Nice timing!