Day 11
Wythville VA, 58 miles
Lying in bed, thinking about getting up, there’s a certain amount of excitement that comes from the idea of sleeping a little bit longer. That said, once you get up and start packing your gear, there’s a certain amount of excitement that comes from the idea of hitting the road for another day. One of those types of excitement has a tendency to deflect you from you ultimate goal. No doubt you know which one I’m referring to.
I stopped at a Kroger two miles from my start. I bought something to fill my water bottles and a fruit bowl. I chatted briefly with the man, he told me to be safe, that rain was on the way in. It sure didn’t look like that to me (more on that to come).
I have figured out the hills in Virginia, by-the-way, while it’s true that Virginia is for lovers (you see that slogan everywhere) it’s also for people that love hills. There are the up hills that are preceded immediately by down hills. Those aren’t too bad. Then there the up hills that are preceded by flats, those are the ones to be avoided, except that you can’t avoid them and get where you wanna go…
The day progressed wonderfully, sun actually breaking through at times, I had to get the sun screen out at one point. Early afternoon I stopped in at the Spinning Jenny Winery. The couple that runs the winery and tasting room waved at me from the road, so I dropped in. It turns out they are also Warm Showers Hosts. I asked them how they got into wine making and they said they wanted to do something with their land besides grow hay. Well, the grapes are good, the glass of Merlot was excellent with a nice dry finish. I thanked them a headed back out onto the road, it was time to put my head down and get to my destination.
I was planning to camp in the Wythville City Park but about 2 hours outside town it started to rain. (The man from Kroger was absolutely right.) By the time I pulled into town I was pretty wet and decided to get a room. After cleaning up I headed down to the Seven Sisters Brewery. Turns out to be the place in town to go for a beer. It’s Saturday and they had live music. It was good, and so was the beer. I had a Hazy IPA that reminded me of the one brewed back home in Redmond Oregon!
I was chatting with a fellow and I mentioned that I lost my hat today on the road somewhere. (I’m sick about it, it was my favorite hat.) He told me to hang on a second and he went out to his car and got me a replacement. I’ll be wearing it the rest of the trip. He runs the Wythville Stationary Store, and the hat rocks his store’s name. He said he didn’t blame me for checking in to the motel, but he also said the park is beautiful and I should not hesitate to stay there if I pass this way again. If you are reading this and headed to Wythville, be sure and stop and stay at the Elizabeth Brown Park! Thank you Shane for the great hat!
The roads can get a bit narrow, but I haven’t had a single issue.