Bike Virginia 2006- Day 1

The air was thick as soup when we departed Park View HS on our first day. We rode through some tobacco fields on our way to Boydton, VA. I had forgotten how beautifully manicured they are. Boydton was a cool old town. The Boydton-Petersburg Plank Road was a very important supply route before the railroads. It remained an important road for troop movements during the Civil War. The Boydton Tavern dates back to 1790 and there are 183 historic buildings there. I would like to go back and explore some more.

From Boydton, we headed south to our lunch stop at the Buggs Island Dam (proper name is John H. Kerr dam, but no one from Virginia calls it Kerr Lake, as the Carolinians do.} A make your own sandwich thing with various salads and sweets. Not bad and free! All the lunches on the ride are free this year. After lunch we rode across the dam. The route monitor was sick of all the dam jokes. "Where's the dam lunch?, Another dam line, enjoy your dam ride, etc."

From the dam we rode east on the old Jerusalem Rd before turning north on Old HWY One to cross the Roanoke River and up to our last rest stop at Smiths Crossroads. This stop had a cool theme. Every stop tries to be special in some way, and this one was home to some Parrotheads. Palm trees, girls in grass skirts, everything but the margaritas. From there a short jaunt back to South Hill. 57 miles total.

When I got back to the truck, I turned on the NOAA weather radio and the forecast convinced me that camping was out for the night. I packed up and headed for the dry, air conditioned comfort of the lake house. What an intense rain, at least an inch per hour, and it rained for two solid hours. There will be some soggy sleeping bags. I glad mine is not one of them.