Is there some way to take a safe overnight trip and not contribute to the pandemic problem?
Also, it is too hot to bicycle most places close to home during early July. I even thought of driving up into Pennsylvania or Ohio to bicycle but temperatures there were also predicted to be in the nineties.
At elevation in the North Carolina/Virginia mountains there is cooler summer weather. The major problem with bicycle touring on the Blue Ridge Parkway is that it is devoid of services. Even drinking water is not always available. The Parkway was specifically built to give automobile passengers an experience of being outside of commercial culture. While it is not a problem for a car traveler that most motels and restaurants are several miles off the parkway, usually down a long hill, that can be challenging on a bicycle, especially when you have already been pedaling up and down hills all day.
I did find one small inn just north of the Virginia line that was near the Parkway and I booked a room for one night over the phone. There would be no restaurant or grocery stores so I had to bring my own food. On a recent morning I drove three hours up from Chapel Hill NC and parked at the Smart View Recreation Area on the Blue Ridge Parkway, elevation about 2500 feet. It was not near any town but the closest ones are Floyd VA, Hillsville VA and Meadows of Dan VA. It would be a forty mile bicycle ride south on the Parkway to my inn. I brought a change of clothes, two water bottles, lunch, dinner, and breakfast, and my ukulele.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a delight to bicycle. In this section there were stretches of ten or fifteen minutes between seeing a car. Sometimes it felt like a giant bike path. About half of the vehicles passing me were motorcycles. The Parkway was built at a time when going for a car ride could be a liberating experience. Who thinks like that now? On a bicycle the weather was cool and the scenery lovely.
I stopped for lunch at the Rocky Knob picnic area. I think it used to be a campground. The Blue Ridge Parkway is funded and maintained by the National Park Service. The picnic tables were totally falling apart.
If we are the richest country in the world why do we have to beg for donations?
I had said there were no stores on the Parkway but at the Meadows of Dan interchange within sight of the Parkway was this touristy store with real coffee. I sat on the porch in a rocking chair and had my usual mid-afternoon cup of joe.
It had been a long but nourishing bike ride when I pulled into my motel at about 5:00 PM.
I was their only guest, but she said they were going to be full the following night. The Inn portion was like a suburban house divided into about eight rooms. Sixty-nine dollars including tax is a good deal. The very welcoming proprietress apologized for the room decor which she said was too feminine. She said she had a masculine-themed room that was not available. (!)
There is a great YouTube video of some guy with an English accent who cooks a chicken dinner in a motel room, using the coffee maker, iron, and hair dryer as heating units. Here I had more tools than that. This motel room had a microwave plus dishes and utensils, but no stove or pots and pans. I have almost no experience in cooking solely with a microwave. Can you boil pasta in a microwave, using a large coffee cup? Apparently you can.
These were my groceries before leaving home in Chapel Hill, stuff I already had in my pantry. I packed it all onto the back of my bicycle. 1/4 of a bag of Pisgsah Crunch mixed nuts trail mix, 1/4 of a box of pasta, the most expensive sardines I could find, one peanut butter sandwich for lunch, one piece of local Eco Farms squash, one unshucked ear of corn, 1/2 cup of plain raw oatmeal for breakfast, one chunk cheddar cheese, 1/4 of a box of local cherry tomatoes, Tupperware containers of olive oil and salt. One lime.
Despite my lack of experience cooking in a microwave with no pots and pans it really worked! I had corn on the cob as an appetizer course, then the main course of noodles with cheddar cheese and tomatoes with sardines on the side. I have recently learned that good sardines are really delicious. (Kudos to Bob from Tampa on his recent email to me about finding quality canned Spanish and Portuguese seafood.)
After finishing the pasta I sliced up the squash on the plate and added olive oil, salt, and lime juice and then microwaved it. I had opened the window to the motel room, it was nice to have fresh air without the noise of an air conditioner. Nevertheless eating in the room was too hot. I took everything outside onto the porch. There was a lovely view in the cool evening air.
It is really quiet out here, I could relax with the window open at night and listen to the silence. I woke up the next morning, watched Morning Joe on TV, then prepared my oatmeal in the microwave. Next to the coffee maker there were sugar packets; I added a packet on top of my oatmeal.
The woman who runs this place has interesting yard art.
On the bicycle I headed back out the way I had come the day before. The Parkway was again lovely.
Stopping at the one gift shop/restroom building that I passed there were not a lot of masks or social distancing going on, although this was outdoors.
My car was still there and I made it home to Chapel Hill in time for dinner.
