Day 7: Planks on Plank

Sunday, June 9th, 2024

Lexington, VA -> Roanoke, VA

58.6 mi, 2972 ft elevation

We woke up this morning at around 6:30 to glorious smells emanating from our host’s kitchen and had a delicious breakfast of waffles, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and fruit. After getting some helpful bike fitting advice from Dirk, we set out for a (relatively) chill day of biking. 

Before making it out of the town of Lexington, we were all startled by a car honking at us, which turned out to just be our driver Sophia. We made a quick water stop on Plank Road and celebrated the occasion by doing planks!

We ate lunch in a nice picnic area in Buchanan, which had porta-potties that Rebecca described as “gorgeous”. I can’t say I’ve ever heard a porta-potty described that way before, although they were remarkably clean! After lunch we didn’t make it far before running into a dreaded road closed sign on the bike path. As we contemplated biking around the gate and continuing on the road, we determined that the closure was for maintenance on a cliff to prevent falling rocks. Given all the misfortunes that have befallen us so far, we decided not to take our chances!

As we cycled down the highway for the next 20 miles the group split up a bit. After arriving in Roanoke, Cleo and I got distracted by ice cream and iced lattes before accidentally biking to the opposite side of the town from our host due to some navigation issues. On our way across town we encountered yet another closed road, this time due to a bridge being demolished. After a slight detour we finally made it to our destination!

As mentioned in my bio, I have an unhealthy obsession with key lime yogurt. Words cannot describe the joy I felt when our amazing hosts Howard and Lynn told me that they had read our website and bought some for me! For me one of the best parts of Spokes so far has been the kindness of all the hosts and even strangers who have helped us along the way, from random people asking if we need water to bike shops offering us free repairs.