Grahams Forge to Daleville. 84 Miles

7/27/11

We considered having this guy for supper.

Camp Ground near Grahams Forge

In camp ground in Grahams Forge

Do you know how dark it is at 5:30AM in a camp ground.  Very dark.  We have packed up our camp about 25 times in this tour and can pretty much do it by feel.  We had already decided that Micky D would prepare our breakfast, so we only had to pack the tents in the car and take off.  Micky did a good job and the riders were on the road by 6:30AM.
Again the temps were in the 70s, and the humidity was low.  Dave said he feels like this was the best day ride he had on the tour.  There were many rolling hills, and he was either peddling up or coasting down.  He could work up a momentum on the down side to get most of the way up the next hill.  The net effect was very little sweat.  Dave is enthusiastic about how beautiful this area is.  We see the Blue Ridge range ahead of us, and we have been warned that there are some challenging climbs ahead.
 Pete had another animal attack - a dog this time.  The dog got the worst of it.  Pete has a 12 inch long special dog defense. The toe on his biking shoe was planted firmly into the dog's shoulder which gave the dog pause.
It started to come back for another shot, when its owner called him off.

We could not locate any campsites in Daleville, so it's another motel night.

Phil