Dispatches from the road by Bill Poindexter
4/28 -Grindstone Campground just east of Damascus Virginia. 9:44 PM have the campground to myself laying in my tent how to find dinner of tortillas with tunafish and pinto beans and mustard. And then some peanut butter with some honey also On a tortilla. Heated up some water for some coffee getting cold once the sun starts to set. I think a June bug want to get in my tent. As I was heading here to the campground about a mile down the road I met another Transamerica Cyclist’s heading to the west young woman named Zoe. It was fun to see another cyclist got a feeling I’m gonna be seeing more and more she was supposed to be with somebody but he had a bad knee or something so it looks like she’s on her own now. Then as I was heading to the campground I saw a bear young bear eating on the side of the road and I yelled to him and he bounced cross the street. So makes me a little bit nervous but he was so close to also my campground as well so I’m taking some precautions. But I do love seeing bears in the wilderness this area they’re only black bears. And they’re scared enough of humans. Which is good. The campground I am in is actually when we opened up primitive camping which is the only type of camping I do. We’re having some kind of plumbing issue. Today was good I basically rode my bike from the hostel I slept in last night to Damascus this morning and then had repairs down to the bike I had a new chain and cassette put on and also two new paddles because one of my pedals was failing. Check my brakes they’re good and my back tires holding up now so I feel confident about that but I did grab a spare another patch kit so and I did buy the body tire right before I left Kansas City so they should be fine. Anyway Damascus is really fun town there’s a lot of Appalachian trail through hikers in the town and some good restaurants good coffee I had some ice cream it was a brewery to probably should’ve stayed a sample that but I decided to get some more miles in and I’m glad I did so was 32 miles from the hostel to Damascus and then put another 14 or 15 or so to this campground and with all the hills and mountains but I have to climb on feeling comfortable with my numbers. Although I am a little dehydrated my pee was more yellow than normal so I’m rehydrating quite a bit. So so I’m doing some hydration therapy. I love sleeping in patch of dirt in the woods where I’m at right now having nobody else around except a bear are you somewhere out there not too far from me. Tomorrow I’m heading out fairly early. This country is really amazingly beautiful actually in the Jefferson national forest right now and the Mount Rogers recreation area I believe as well so I’m glad to be here Mount Rogers is 5700 feet and it’s just behind me somewhere. So this is a really beautiful part of the country I would like to encourage all of you to come visit. Many thanks to the bike shop which I can’t remember their name. It was fun to talk with a bunch of through hikers today interesting characters so I’m like to talk some didn’t I found that when I met up with CDT hikers in Colorado as well and when I was doing the great divide mountain bike route some of these people like to talk some down so you just have to respect their privacy. I understand I’m getting kind of tired of people asking me questions about where I’m headed and where I came from and where do I sleep etc. etc. etc. but at the same time is it’s fun to share. Still feeling kind of lonely I wish I had a traveling companion I like everybody I’m meeting who is Cycling but they’re all going in the wrong direction or maybe I’m going in the wrong direction maybe I should just turn around maybe go around the world a couple times. OK you can tell I’m tired I’m starting to ramble. Now it’s 10 o’clock I have crap now I need to go out and P it’s what I get for rehydrating. Oh well. Until next time peace and love from the road, Bill
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