{"id":912,"date":"1988-09-03T18:56:00","date_gmt":"1988-09-03T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/?p=912"},"modified":"2026-08-25T16:58:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T16:58:51","slug":"mineral-va","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/mineral-va\/","title":{"rendered":"Mineral, VA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The next day, after saying good-bye to June, I resumed my trek. I was starting to experience the syndrome of “bolting,” that is, taking short cuts and pedaling hard because I was near the end of the route. “Near,” in this case meant a few hundred miles. I made my own modifications to the route to cut down on distance.<\/p>\nI helped blow up a few more balloons, and cleaned up after making breakfast, before leaving.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Narrow twisty road descending from the Blue Ridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I passed a dog on the porch that was so lazy, he barked at me, but didn’t even bother to get up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Charlottesville was off the route, I took a few miles detour. I was hoping that Charlottesville was large enough to have an FTD florist. Because the city was off-route, I didn’t have any idea of its layout. I was becoming accustomed to navigation in unknown cities, however, and stuck to a main street. Soon, I found a phone booth, and looked up “Florists.” There were many, but the street names were unfamiliar, and I had no city map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stopped a couple walking down the sidewalk. They were in their 30’s, and obviously married for a few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Excuse me, do you know if there’s a florist nearby?” I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They paused for a moment, then the woman answered, “Well, Gray’s is a few blocks away.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oh, actually, I need FTD\u2026” I added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yes, they do FTD.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They gave me directions to the place, then we both proceeded on our separate ways. I noticed that they were holding hands. Perhaps I had rekindled a spark of romance in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure enough, Gray’s Florist was about a mile and a half away, up a hill. I sent a small arrangement to Merrianne, so she would feel better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Woodridge, I stopped at the store for lunch. As I sat on the porch eating, two guys drove up in an old Pinto. When they got out of the car, I could see that they had full camouflage gear on – long pants, long sleeve shirts, sunglasses, helmets – even though it was a hot day. As they came closer, I noticed that they were wearing red armbands with Swastikas. “Oh, please,” I thought, “Don’t let there be any trouble with these skinheads.” They went into the store, emerged about 10 minutes later with a six-pack, and left.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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I believe this was the store in Woodridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lewis Nelson and Caroline Richter were going the other way They gave me some recommendations for Williamsburg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The small town of Mineral was my Sabbath stop. I ate at the lone restaurant that night, which was conveniently right next to the lone motel.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The restaurant had these jukebox stations in the booths.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sunday, September 4, 1988<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I attended Mineral Baptist that Sunday, and was invited out to lunch by Doug and Sally Whitlock afterwards.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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One of these girls is Doug and Sally Whitlock’s daughter, Virginia, and the other is a friend. The two girls were as close as sisters, and it was impossible for me to remember later which was the daughter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Family that treated me to lunch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On Sunday night, the restaurant closed. So, I went into the convenience store, and found that they had a full line of steam trays, similar to a cafeteria. Apparently, in Mineral, the store was the place to get food on Saturday night. I bought three or four pieces of chicken, two containers of macaroni and cheese, a container of green beans, a cherry cobbler, and some canned drinks. I finished it all.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The motel restaurant was closed on Sunday night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Wonderful meal from the convenience store. This was years before Boston Market was a thing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was able to speak with Merrianne that evening. She got the flowers, and felt much better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next day, after saying good-bye to June, I resumed my trek. I was starting to experience the syndrome of “bolting,” that is, taking short cuts and pedaling hard because I was near the end of the route. “Near,” in this case meant a few hundred miles. I made my own modifications to the route … Continue reading Mineral, VA<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10,8,17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":939,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions\/939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}