On the Road - Charlottesville, VA

On Friday our group headed out from Williamsburg and rode 56 miles to Glenview with some easy rolling hills.  Our overnight was at the Willis United Methodist Church where we were able to use the kitchen and with the threat of rain overnight most of us chose to sleep on the floor in a small building on the church grounds. Hard floor but dry. Saturday found us riding a short 37 miles to Ashland, but with some errors on our maps some folks did a few (up to 20) extra miles, not me. the KOA campground was really nice except for the location next to I 295 with heavy truck traffic all night.  Can't win the all but we had a great meal cooked by a couple of our riders.  Sunday the 8th found us riding 61 miles to Hale Farm.  William Hale has done some touring with ACA and opens his home to ACA tours.  This farm is in the boonies and about a mile up a dirt road.  The location is really nice and the home is about 100 years old  and very unique.  Almost as unique as its owner, William.  William is a farmer who mostly grows his own food and also has a good sized compost operation going that is making money for him. the weather was perfect for riding and eating dinner outdoors and listening to stories by William and some of our group.  This farm has a big well since all 16 of us took showers, cooked and used the bathroom all night and in the morning.  A big thanks to William.  Monday found us finally getting into some hills when we rode to Charlottesville.  We climbed a little over 3,000 ft in 50 miles.  Not a lot of climbing for some of the group but last night the ice packs were on a few knees.  What will these folks do when we get into serious climbing in the next week.  Time will tell.
On the way into Charlottesville we stopped at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.  We toured the visitors center and purchased tickets to tour the home itself for 9AM on Tuesday (rest day on Tuesday).
In Charlottesville we are staying at a Budget Inn. Small rooms but CLEAN. 
This morning (it is Tuesday the 10th of May) Sjef and I rode up to Monticello and took the tour. Sjef is from Holland and we have been riding the last couple of days togehter. Jefferson we really a great person, he held far too many positions in our government to mention here and he wanted to be remembered as the author of the Declaration of Independence.  He built a beautiful home and with the help of 130 slaves he grew mostly wheat and had a very large vegetable garden and many fruit trees.  After eating lunch and walking around town I am now back doing wash and this blog. 
Tomorrow we head for the Blue Ridge Mts and while we have couple of short days, there is a lot of climbing and after the short days the rubber really hits the road with some days with over 8 thousand feet of climbing. Looking forward to it the scenery is great.
Life is good     Bobo