Distance: 58 miles Charlottesville, VA to Mineral, VA
Riding Time: 4:44
Average Speed: 11.1 mph
Maximum Speed: 33 mph
Altitude Gain: 3352 feet
Average Temperature: 95
As we were breaking camp this morning, we noticed that the ground hog was moving a little. We were amazed and thought that maybe the lady with the dog knew more about the ground hog condition than we had originally thought.
While I was getting ready to go, I noticed that I didn’t have my helmet, sun glasses and rear view mirror. It didn’t take too long for me to remember where I had left the helmet. We went back to the mall parking lot. The helmet wasn’t within sight. We asked mall security if it might have been turned in to “lost and found.” While he was looking, I decided to drive around the mall where we had been the night before. While driving down the road, I saw the shell of my helmet. Parts of the foam had been scattered over the road. I stopped and recovered the helmet, my glass frames with no lenses in them and no ear pieces and just the mirror, not the mirror frame. I happened to have brought with me a spare helmet and my mountain bike sunglasses. I didn’t have a spare mirror and going through some cities in the near future without a mirror was not an idea I wanted to try. I decided that since Charlottesville had a good bike shop I would take my Specialized bike in to see if they could repair my shifting problem. The problem was they didn’t open until 10:00. We drove downtown and found a place to park within a few blocks of the Downtown Mall that I had become familiar with the night before. Kathie could look around as I went to the bike shop.
I went to the bike shop and got there just as they were opening up. They made me wear a mask and they brought everything outside because they didn’t want to do business indoors. They had a mirror but after looking at the bike, they said the whole rear wheel would probably have to be replaced. They didn’t have the new parts. I bought the mirror but returned from the bike shop understanding that my days with the Specialized would have to wait until I got home.
We ate our lunch in a town called Palmyra.
We decided that we didn’t have a better place to stay than Mineral, VA. We found a campground by the lake and drove down to campground. By the time we got there and had our camp set up, along came the thunderstorms that lasted most of the night.
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