May 13, 2023
Today we were expecting rain until 10:00, but instead we woke to bright sunshine coming through our hotel window at 6:00 am.
We were up early and headed down to the breakfast bar and got our money's worth.
After breakfast, Spike noticed a nail in my back tire! Yikes, I had a puncture.
We pulled the nail out and set about repairing the hole. I have two types of repair kits because I am like that. I used the Dyna Repair System and it worked perfectly! I pumped the tire and it held pressure. We got packed up and I checked the pressure again and it was still good.
We got on the road at around 10:00 and it was already 25° in Prestonsburg!
This was the first time that I have ever had a puncture in all the years that I have been riding. I am sure that we did a good job with the repair but knowing that I was running on a patched tire induced some anxiety. I was happy to be following a slow car as we reached the first set of twisties.
Our ride today alternated between great mountain roads and valleys that were dotted with coal mines and coal mining towns, all of which were fascinating and gave this beautiful area its charm.
This bridge is symbolic of my experience in West Virginia. It seems to me that the world has passed over WV and the mountains, the traditional industry and the people have been left behind and forgotten. It is bittersweet because the natural beauty of this area will benefit from less industry and fewer polluters but the old towns and their people are struggling.
I called this trip The Tail of the Dragon Tour. I should have called it the Tour of all of the Roads that I liked even more than the Tail of the Dragon even though I liked that road a lot!
I cannot overstate how great the roads are in this part of WV. You can ride unbelievably beautiful roads, full of twisties, with no traffic and no one trying to sell you an overpriced T-Shirt to commemorate your ride.
We rode all day on amazing roads. We had lunch in Bradshaw, West Virginia. Originally we had stopped at the local restaurant but one of the customers told us that the regular cook is off and the guy filling in does an awful job. So, he directed us to the Subway at the gas station. This is an example of the friendliness of these small towns. People were super happy to see visitors and were very interested in speaking to a couple of Canadian bikers. Our bikes were as big an attraction as our license plates because the vast majority of the bikes that we have seen have been Harley-Davidson’s.
West Virginia is beautiful and the roads are as amazing as those anywhere in the Appalachian Mountains, but I was most fascinated by the many small towns in the valleys. They were often squeezed between the road and a river or railway and sometimes bookended by a coal mine. Some were nice but most were just shells of their past lives.
We continued eastward until we passed through Bluefield, VA and found a great campsite at the Stony Fork National Forest.
We had just set up our tents and hung the tarp over the picnic table when the skies opened up and soaked everything. We are expecting rain all night and into tomorrow morning.
I love you all.
Good night from Virginia.
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