urban bicycle journeys

It’s only a two and a half hour drive in our Ford Escape Hybrid up from Chapel Hill NC to Lynchburg VA, population 79,000. Lynchburg claims its nickname is “Hill City” and on steep streets in older areas there is block after block of affordably priced nineteenth century houses. This one is $230,000.00

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1020-Harrison-St_Lynchburg_VA_24504_M57968-12378

The downtown sits high on a bluff above the James River.

Other parts of Virginia and North Carolina have boomed over the past fifty years but Lynchburg until recently has seemed stuck in time; somewhere “out there.” About every year or two, for at least twenty years, I have been driving up to Lynchburg for the day, by myself, just to bicycle around. The downtown has been slowing coming to life. Lynchburg has always had a couple of small colleges but its new growth industry is Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, which is putting up new buildings at a rapid pace out at its suburban campus. Even downtown seems to benefit from it. I saw a lot of out-of-state license plates.

Down the hill along the James River there are miles of paved trails through the floodplain. I parked our car downtown but had to carry the bicycle down stairs to reach the bike path.

It was a beautiful fall day. I cycled five or six miles east on the bike path. It starts at a riverside park, then heads downriver.

When it stops, it stops.

I cycled back to downtown’s riverfront, then cycled the other direction, upriver and west.

Lynchburg’s history and wealth came largely from being a rail hub at the base of the Appalachian Mountains. West of downtown the bike path on a former rail line adheres closely to the river but is surrounded by cliffs. There is a tunnel a few hundred yards long.

I cycled all over the paved trails in this area, as far as they would go, including passing the Amtrak station. Lynchburg luckily has three trains a day for the four hours north to Washington DC and then on to New York City.

Along the river back in downtown in a brick former warehouse I stopped at Waterstone Pizza. There were two other old guys also eating alone at the bar. We didn’t talk, but their presence was comforting and we all stared at dumb sports television. I also read my book a little; Christian Wolmar’s history of railroads in America.

After lunch I cycled through the city.

I do not know anywhere in North Carolina that has nineteenth century brick row houses like this.

There definitely are hills. This monument mostly to World War One cascades down the slope.

Steps up the sidewalk.

They still have their Confederate monument, although it honors the ordinary soldier, not the leadership or the cause.

Newly constructed downtown apartments and a brewery.

I loaded the bike in the car and started driving back to Chapel Hill. Twenty minutes into the journey, I stopped at a suburban Starbucks full of presumably Liberty University undergrads. Oat milk latte, hot, with one pack sugar, to go.