Say Hello To My Little Friend: Day 7: Last day on the BRP

One thing that is especially nice every day is to put on a clean jersey and shorts. I end every day by washing up, then cleaning my ONE and only jersey and ONE and only pair of cycling shorts, then hanging them to dry overnight. Remember that storm last night? Guess where my clothes were? I slipped into my wet didies at 6 and slopped out of the mudfest. The rain had basically stopped by then and I had no reason to sitck around. I wanted to get to a hotel tonight.

Otter Creek campground is mile 65 on the Parkway. Matthew and Vanessa had warned me about today. It's the desert. Only one place to stop for water and nothing else until I get to milepost 0 at Rockfish Gap and the city of Waynesboro. I saw basically nothing of interest and no one until I got the the one water stop at Whetstone Ridge Picnic Area at milepost 29.

Then I bumped into Jim Vreeland. I was sitting at a picnic table finishing off my "lunch" when an animal with thighs that would make Arnold jealous rolled in on a racing bike. I figured he was out for a day ride and asked him where he had started. he told me Peaks of Otter (where I had lunch the day before) milepost 80. "Good ride" I said, "turning around here?" Nope. he was headed for Rockfish Gap. Turns out Jim was riding the entire BRP. He had started in Cherokee, NC at the other end on Monday, the day after I had left from Ashville, and was about to pass me, after giving me a 90 mile head start. On that first day, he climbed Mt. Pisgah, the highest point on the Parkway, then passed Ashville and climbed Mt. Mitchell, north of Ashville, the highest mountain east of the Mississippi! It put things in a new perspective for me. If he could do 80 miles a day average, I could do 60.

Jim was the kind of guy I like meeting on tour. Great guy, you could tell he just wanted to have a great time. He and I played cat and mouse for the last 30 miles....well, he played it. There's no way I could keep up with him. I think he let me catch up a few times just to boost my ego. when we got to Milepost 0 (well, he had been there a while waiting for his wife) he took a photo of me in front of the signpost to mark the end of that part of my ride and graciously offered to drive me back up from town the next morning, as he was staying in Waynesboro tonight also.

I was going to need that ride the next morning. My hotel was 6 miles DOWN from the Parkway. I hit the showers, then the CVS across the street. I needed food and Flex-all for my aching knees. I had checked Google in advance and chose this hotel because it was walking distance from St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, and this was my only chance to go to mass. Now, understand this; I packed light for this trip. Really light. One of everything I needed and nothing I didn't need. I had one pair of cycling sandals, which I was wearing. I had one clean polo shirt which I was wearing. I had one pair of clean shorts. I had no belt, my shorts were kept up with about 11 inches of nylon twine. This isn't exactly the way I normally dress for church. I had planned on skulking in and hiding in the back row, hopefully unnoticed. I got to church about 25 minutes early...and the place was mostly full already. By 4:45 the place was packed and mass didn't start for 15 minutes. By 5, it was standing room only and I was shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of properly dressed catholics. so much for hiding. They probably thought I was a homeless person.

After about an hour riding, I had climbed 1700 feet. BTW, the locals pronounce it Byoona Vista. No place to get off here to eat. It would add about 10 miles to the trip to do so.

YAAAY! My first turtle rescue of the trip. This is a badge of honor to cycle tourists, to save a turtle crossing the road from turning into a pizza.

Look at his eyes. you've seen that look before. Remember the hyenas in "The Lion King?" Half crazed predators. That's Jim. It takes a madman to crank out the kind of ride he's doing. Oh sure, he has a wife and kids, but don't kid yourself.

While toying with me, Jim took this shot of my backside (one of the few times he was behind me).

I'm abut 5 miles from Rockfish Gap and I'm still 3000 feet up. it's either going to be another screaming descent to milepost 0, or I'm gonna have a heck of a ride down to town.

390 miles down, 105 to go.

From Jim's Facebook page: "DONE!! Just about 500 miles and a tad over 50,000 feet of climbing in 6 days. Epic trip, highly recommend it."
Look at his front chainrings. Looks like a medium deep dish from Godfather's.