In the morning, I made a quick trip to the Tennessee border, which was just a few miles away, so that I could say that I visited an extra state. Once across the border, I took my own picture with the self-timer, and headed back.
A heavy mist filled the air, even as late as 1:30 in the afternoon. I climbed a bona fide hill in the morning. The mist was so dense, my goggles kept fogging. In that world of half-reality, I was feeling more than seeing. A voice in the back of my head whispered ghostily, “Luke… use the force…”
At Sugar Grove, I stopped for lunch. I put a quarter in the jukebox, and selected “Do You Love Me?” by the Contours, and “Shake, Sherry, Shake” (the flip side), just to see what it was. The latter tune was such a DOG! Everybody in the cafe turned around to see the idiot who had selected it. I was so embarrassed!
Although I could have ridden further, I stopped at Johnson’s Motel for the night. It meant a longer ride the next day, but I especially wanted to avoid the KOA down the road.
August was drawing to a close, and suddenly, it was time to start thinking about the end of the trip. I resolved to get my return flight ticket, as well as get a haircut, in Radford, the next city of decent size.
For dinner, I went to Durham’s Restaurant. The prices were only typical by SF Bay Area standards, but must have been exorbitant for the locals. They had two kinds of ham– country and city– and I had never had country ham. I ordered the country ham, despite the waitress’s warning that it was not recommended for those who didn’t already know what it was.
Country ham turned out to be like Canadian bacon that had been left out in the sun to dry. It was salty, very salty. I learned that in the old days, people would just hang a country ham in their kitchen without refrigeration, cutting off pieces as needed. The taste reminded me of Chinese salt fish. I was thinking that it would have gone well with a big bowl of steaming hot rice.
My journal didn’t record what town I stayed in, but Durham’s Restaurant nailed it down as Wytheville.