Today did not start well. The town was socked in with fog and I had a flat tire. I had to wait after 9 to leave but before I could do that I had to fix my flat. It was my first flat in over 3500 miles. I pulled a staple out of my tire. I must have picked that up when I was riding along road construction site outside of Combs. The area of road was covered with all kinds of debris so I assume that is the place where I picked up the staple.
My plan today is to ride to hostel/church in a place called Lookout. However along the way I met a guy from New Zealand going west and he told me that the hostel was closed. There was not backup plan other than to keep on riding. On this day I encountered a shower and a thunderstorm. The shower occurred when I stopped to get something to drink so I stayed while it passed by. The thunderstorm I was not so lucky. I was able to take shelter underneath a small overhang of a deserted commercial building. There is no way that I am going to ride during a thunder and lightning storm. I stayed there for over an hour and once back on the road it was up and over more fills.
In the distance is a town called Elkhorn City, which is right at the Kentucky/Virginia border. It was my only hope for a place to stay. But before getting there I had more hills to climb. Outside of the hamlet of Hellier three corgis came charging down the road toward me with the owner chasing after them. As he got closer he said “be careful, that one bites”. I have no idea which one he was referring to because they all looked the same and then I felt the little dog try to bite my right rear pannier. Once by them I stopped to assess the damage and could feel a small indentation but lots of dog slobber. He did not puncture the bag.
Fortunately for me the last 10 miles between Ashcamp and Elkhorn city were all downhill because the sun was setting. As I got into town I saw a Sheriff speaking with some residents and approached him about a safe place to say. Officer Adam said that I could stay at City Hall and the mayor wants cyclists to stay at City Hall. Officer Adam escorted me to City Hall and unlocked the building for me to get inside. Later the mayor came buy and introduced himself and unlocked his cabinet of goodies. “Help yourself” he said. He had a large stash of pop tarts, raisins, peanut butter cups, crackers, instant rice, apple juice and other sweeter things. I slept on the floor of the Council chambers, which was nothing more than a large room because the town is only 1200 people large.
Today’s stats: total mileage 82.94 miles; average speed 11.7 mph; max speed 49.3 mph; total elevation gain 5020 feet; total elevation loss 5072 feet.