Today I awoke in a fairly comfortable hotel bed and thought, “What am I doing?” It started raining on the drive yesterday a few hours out of Staunton, which I had expected from the forecast. But it rained all evening, and having brought my road bike with the skinny, treadless tires, I was beginning to doubt my choice. The sky outside was hung low and ragged, with the surrounding hilltops obscured with overcast, but no rain. Depending on which forecast I believed, it was either definitely going to rain again or maybe it was going to rain again.

Yesterday’s travel was unremarkable. I went south for a bit, hit the Ohio Parkway and headed east until that became the Pennsylvania Parkway, and drove east quite a bit more. I spent three minutes and thirty seconds in Maryland, cruised through a short bit of West Virginia, then into Virginia. I actually got here quicker than expected, so I checked into the hotel, and waited for Cynthia to arrive while feeling doubtful about the days ahead.

After she arrived, we found a legit Mexican restaurant and had an excellent dinner and caught up on life since last year’s Shoreline West tour. Then we returned to the hotel and enjoyed a very summer camp-like evening talking, giggling, and showing each other pictures of our pets. “Look how cute!”

After a reasonable wake up time of 8am, and not being able to enter the the camping area until after 9am, we took it easy, then hit up a Starbucks for some breakfast. We arrived at the camp site and parked, sorted our stuff, and dragged it over to the camping field.

Since we will be here until Monday with our vehicles within easy walking distance, we’re afforded the option to keep some stuff in the car. So we left all the bike stuff behind while setting up the tents in preparation for the definitely or maybe impending showers, just hoping to get some riding in before the deluge.

As absolutely no one could have predicted, the sun came out. We’d decided to do the 26-mile (or smile, as the signs say) ride, and after all that worrying, the weather was perfect. The pavement was dry and the sky blue with some lovely white clouds. Couldn’t ask for much better.

The hills I’ve been fearing were totally doable (today). I was on several occasions pretty uncomfortable, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. And like Neil Peart wrote in The Masked Rider, you go up a hill, you get a view. Plus you also get a downhill. So we went up then down and repeated that for 26 miles. The countryside was verdant, and the downtown and surrounding homes were predominantly old and charming.

On the way back we rolled by a “comfort stop” that was actually a brewery, which had some very comforting and delicious IPAs, so we hung out for a couple of hours there, talking for a while with two other women who enjoy bicycle travel together, swapping stories. Then I proved to myself that I can drink 48 ounces of 7% ABV IPAs and still successfully pedal up hills.

We decided to put off showers in favor of dinner upon returning to the campsite, which on this tour is offered by food trucks. I chose a plant-based cheesesteak while Cynthia had some barbecue. We enjoyed our well-earned dinners while listening to a live band, and I felt very satisfied with the day.

They have a shower truck here, which is basically a full size tractor trailer divided with men’s and women’s shower stalls. The hot water was plentiful, and after a sweaty ride it was all I needed. How one’s perspective does change.

So now we’re sitting quietly in our camp chairs, each of us absorbed in our phones. The sun has set, people are relaxing and talking quietly in groups, and guess what… the rain is about to roll in. The sky is dark gray and far away lightning has flashed a time or two. We’ll all probably be retreating into our tents soon.

In the morning we’ll try to get rolling well before nine. The current plan is to choose between the 40 and 50 mile rides. Mid afternoon rain showers are expected.

For now, the thunder is increasing and the light is fading, so I’m calling it a day.

It was good.