DAY 9 CHRISTIANSBURG TO WYTHEVILLE, VA 60 MILES

 Wow, it was difficult getting out of bed today…but once I got on the road, things opened up and away we went.  60 miles today, but we got a break from the heat, so the riding was pretty nice today.  Still lots of up and down hilly roads with fun, tricky navigating through city parks and rural country roads ans along some very nice rivers and streams.

I’m still pretty new on the blog scene, so I can’t put more than sixty photos onto the blog site.  So the impossible task is to recount the day with photos and text that gives a true feeling for the ride and route.  Let’s just do this….since this is Memorial Day, I’ll post some photos of the local decorations that I saw along the route today.

The last photo of the flag and barn is of the Wytheville Poorhouse Farm.

It was built in 1858 to house and shelter the poor, and disabled of Wytheville County, and served in that role until 1958.  Now the house is on the National Historical Registry.   One last story…Three of us went to Wal-Mart to get some miscellaneous items…I locked Greg’s and my bike together with my lock onto a pole, and Simon (our man from London) locked his bike to my bike using Monica‘s combination lock.  After our Mal-Mart foray, we went out to get our bikes and Simon could not remember the combination to Monica’s lock…I guess it was too hard to write the down the combination!  We laughed for ten minutes while Simon called Monica to get her combo.

Our lodging tonight is the Presbyterian Church in Wytheville.   One last bad note….We lost a rider today…Mike crashed and broke his collar bone and has a concussion…he’s out of the tour.   I know first hand how terribly disappointed he must feel!  He has been looking forward to this ride for the last 30 years since he rode the Virginia portion of the ride in original Bi-Centennial ride of 1976!  Whew, after tomorrow's ride, we have a rest day!!!!