Day 8: Afton, VA to a campground somewhere between Vesuvius and Buena Vista, VA., or "Just Keep Spinning", Finding Nemo style.

Sorry about the late post, guys. No service at the campground. Believe me, I looked... for a while.

Miles today: 44 laborious miles.

Let me just say that I CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN RANGE TODAY, and I'm feeling pretty victorious about it. Got up early and Saz and I made pancakes, oatmeal, bacon and tea for everyone at the Bike House, then said a sad goodbye to the Cookie Lady and all headed up the mountain to the dreaded Blue Ridge Parkway. The climbing was pretty tough, and it was hard to even enjoy the downhills because you'd just worked so hard to get up all those feet and would have to be earning them all over again. Even though the ride was really demanding, I felt really good all day. I'm realizing that the difficulty (and your enjoyment) of this sort of travel has a lot to do with attitude, and having other people riding with us was so valuable for motivation and keeping our spirits up. We all took a side hike up a mountain to Humpback Rock, a rock formation that offered some pretty awesome views of the Shenandoah Valley. The hike up was steep- I don't know if we would have done it if we'd knew what we were in for- but sitting up there looking out onto the valley, I couldn't help but think about how lucky I am.

We continued on and finally made it up the last big climb, then after a frighteningly fast descent we pedaled the last few miles to a campground near a river. The owner, Alan, might as well be Larry the Cable Guy's brother. Kyle had stayed at this campground last year when he made the trip solo, and the two of them cracked a lot of jokes at each other's expense, although I think Kyle got the shorter end of the stick on that one. Alan volunteered (insisted, even) on driving us in his pickup truck to the nearest grocery store, and as a result of his kindness we all enjoyed a filling dinner to end the long day.