Last night, my sleep was interrupted by a magnificent thunderstorm. Around 12:30 AM, I woke up to flashes of lighting and rolling thunder. Each flash lit my red tent, and soon it was raining very hard. Most of the lightning and thunder were separated by at least a half-second, but a couple were nearly simultaneous, and extremely loud. I considered calling my wife to let her know that, if I died in a lightning strike, I was at least enjoying the spectacle. I am not sure how long it lasted, but I did fall asleep again. When I woke up around 5:00 AM, the roads were dry. My tent, of course, was really wet, but stayed mostly dry inside. It was noticeably heavier when I packed it!
The ride to Charlottesville is gorgeous rolling hills lined with fertile small farms. I noticed wire fences are extremely rare. Most farms aren’t fenced at all, and there are dense rows of trees between fields.
I saw two more turtles crossing the road today, and rescued both of them. I was too embarrassed to take a picture of the second one, because there was a farmer watching me rescue it, and I was certain he was already laughing at me!
The next campground on the ACA map was still 12 miles farther down the road, but it looked like rain, so I decided not to push my luck, and to stay in a hotel. Google Maps again sent me on a crazy route, and I finally gave up and used automobile routing and just rode on the sidewalk of a busy street. When I reached the hotel, the staff were really friendly, and very patient while I vented about the crazy Google Maps route.
Finally, my hotel is RIGHT NEXT to Bodo’s Bagels, so I got a couple bagels for breakfast — literally 1 minute before they closed!
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