End of 2007 Ride; Day in Damascus; Breakfast with Pirate and Lone Wolf

October 30, 2007: Day 11.

We awakened early to heavy frost. I slept the night in the Van in the parking lot of The Place the hostel owned by the Damascus Methodist Church. I didn’t bring my sleeping pad so I couldn’t sleep on the wooden bunk beds in the hostel. Actually the bunk beds are quite good, but a pad is needed. Cimarron the Trail Boss was psyched to sleep in a hostel, which brings back good memories of his days on the Appalachian Trail. He completed the whole trail over two years in 2003 and 2004 when he was 82 and 83 years old and loves reviewing the old memories. He mostly slept in hostels and shelters along the trail, and unlike Millie and me, shunned the tent as much as possible. We on the other hand shunned the shelters and hostels, preferring our own dirt and noise!

The hostel is unheated but he says he was very comfortable in his zero degree sleeping bag and enjoyed the night. Probably it was being away from my snoring that he really enjoyed as he had a room to himself as only Tumbler was in the hostel and a different room. I was very comfortable in the van but had to get out three times for urination. It was below freezing and when I stepped on the grass it crunched. The night was clear and the stars beautiful and the moon near full. The wind almost blew my hat off each time I stepped away from the van. I wore my long johns top and bottom and also slept in my zero degree down sleeping bag. I was real comfortable although my head and shoulders got a little sweaty once. I wore my fleece watch cap most of the night, and not having a pillow I used rolled up clothing in my sleeping bag stuff sack. It worked nicely, but all night I knew I wouldn’t go out riding until the temperature got near fifty.

Last week when we were in the heart of Kentucky hill country the Trail Boss got news that his Grandson will probably need heart valve surgery again in the next several months. This was very disturbing to him and also to me. The little guy is now thriving in Kindergarten and has grown greatly since his first surgery last year. When he was a baby the grandson lived in Cimarron’s home for several months and there is an understandable extra special attachment.

This morning we met Pirate and Lone Wolf for breakfast at Cowboy’s Gas Station and restaurant. But first we took all the towels from the dirty laundry at The Place to the Laundromat. The sign on the wall plainly says, wash your towels, but it’s obvious no one did. The laundry is conveniently located across the road from Cowboy’s so we ate and did laundry simultaneously.

At the restaurant we had a nice visit with our old Trail Cronies. Both said winter had reached the mountains and the nightly temperatures were to be below freezing the next week or so. They advised that the temperatures would not be up into the 40’s or 50’s until eleven Am or so. Then we reviewed the logistics of lodging for the next 100 miles and things don’t look good. The next 20 miles of pedaling out of Damascus is uphill along the Creeper trail so I’ll go slowly and then we’ll need to drive to a room.

So we called it quits for 2007. We made it 266.5 miles in 11 days on the trail (nine days cycling, one day of auto repairs, and this eleventh day of starting home), and had covered some of the toughest 266 miles of the entire Trans-America Bike Trail at an average of 30 miles per day. We had planned to be out 10-14 days. We will be left with a section here in the east from Damascus to Rock Fish Gap, near Afton, VA. Damascus is such a wonderful finishing area that perhaps we’ll do the rest of the section from east to west and end again at Damascus.

Thanks to all of you who followed along again on this trip. I hope you know it has been fun for me, in my own way, and the fact that someone might read about our adventure makes it more worthwhile.

I now have finished 1333.1 miles out of a total of 4267 miles in this cross-country bike ride. We did 6% of the entire trail this time. I am 31% finished in my bike ride across America.