Ride to Roanoke, 10 June 2011

I'm sure you know that I hardly slept at all last night, too much excitement in the air.  By 0545 I finally got up, brewed some coffee, and started to get ready for a 0700 roll-out.  Turn on Spot..check..take some photos..check, do a final walk around on the bike...check.  Tally-Ho!   Off at 0715 and 79F.  I expected to start to roast within the hour.  To my surprise this was one of the most pleasant rides I can remember, at least for the first three or four hours.  US 40 is a two lane road going west across Virginia.  It connects lots of very small towns, each with history going back to Colonial days, and cuts through both beautiful forests and farm fields.  Suffice to say that I really enjoyed the ride at a sedate pace of about 60mph (5 over the limit, my usual).  At one point US 40 goes through the middle of a large Army base so I got to cross a bunch of 'tank crossings', no big deal, just unique.  I had a very late breakfast in Blackstone at the Farmer's Cafe.  It was exactly as the name implies, catering to the local farmers as well as soldiers at Ft. Pickett.  For $6.50 it was a feast.  From Blackstone it started to get warm, then hot.  As long as I'm moving it's not too bad.  I suck lots of water from my Camelback but then have to stop to pee about once an hour.  That's a small price to pay for the cooling I'm getting from all that sweat.  I finally pulled into Mark's driveway at about 2:15 and immediately stripped off the riding gear (mesh jacket and riding overpants with armor).  Looks like we will spend the night here and get off to an early start tomorrow.  Mark has a keg cooling so I am rewarding myself for this, the first day of my adventure.  Oh, I checked the Spot tracker and it seems to be doing a great job of putting my bread crumbs on the map.  Time for another beer!