Getting home on a wet day
Mark Boyd
Well, it looks like my first 2021 tour has ended. I'm 90 miles fr0m home and about 50 miles from where my wife normally picks me up in Hot Springs, NC. The road between Asheville and Hot Springs is now too dangerous for me to be willing to ride it. The routes from here to Hot Springs are fine, but today there is a lot of rain and a hazardous weather warning for this area so I've asked my wife to drive an extra hundred miles, round trip, to avoid wet roads and the slight possibility of my having to ride in the very strong straight line winds that may be associated with the storms. The original idea was we'd meet up on the roadway , but that road is pretty wet today so just having her pick me up from the Budget Inn means that we won't have to deal with having to load a wet/dirty bicycle in my wife's car.
It has been a challenging short tour, because of my age, the time since my last tour, the CF bike, and, COVID-19 resurgence. As soon as I get home I'll be calling MAHEC - my health care providers - to set up yet another - my third - COVID test and to deal with some saddle related issues due to the new kind of seat on the CF bike.
This tour was successful in its primary objective. It got me back on the road after a two year absence and, although it was harder and took longer than I expected,it got my mind/body working in bicycling machine mode on the CF bike. It also got me back in touch with people I've known for years through earlier bicycle tours and introduced me to new friends . Waiting for my wife to come pick me up also provided more time for visiting with my host here. My host was, of course, the owner of the Budget Inn, but our relationship has definitely become more host/guess than owner/customer.
One of the most striking things about this tour was that I did not see ANY other bike tourists on the road and saw hardly any other adult bicyclists. I had hoped that, with the well documented new demand for bicycles, I'd see some evidence of more bicycling. I didn't.
I now hope/plan to ride this route, probably with minor mods like the different road to London, again in the fall. Now that I am more comfortable touring on my CF bike, I should be OK with doing the really steep climbing between Nashville IN and Bloomington IN. The fact that the weather would be a lot cooler will also make that more pleasant.
Now, being back in Asheville after a roughly 100 mile drive from Bean Station, feels like being in a totally different world. It is actually comfortable both inside and out with low humdity and Temperatures in the 70's. This morning at the cafe in Bean Station at 7 AM it was warmer and MUCH more humid than it is now, almost 13 hours later in Asheville.
On the other hand. I do really miss the people I met and got to know, or know better, while on this tour!