Virginia Creeper
Last year, we completed the Virginia Creeper cycle trail and loved it. This year, we decided it was one of the few things that we would return to and enjoy again. We booked the same hotel, a cheap and cheerful place located nearby the trail and arrived on Friday evening. With a great Mexican restaurant next to the hotel, we were able to just walk and enjoy dinner.
The next morning we headed to Abingdon to pick up the minibus that would take us to the starting point of the ride. The weather was kind to us and kept dry. The trail itself was just as we remembered - the first 15 miles downhill through great scenery ending in Damascus - a cool small town with great cafes and cute shops and the second 15 miles fairly flat ending in Abingdon.
It was a great day and a cycle ride that we would recommend to anyone.
On the way home, we stopped off at Mount Airy, somewhere I had heard about but didn't know anything about it. It turns out it's a very quintessential American town believed to be the inspiration for the fictional town of Mayberry in the Andy Griffith show - not that we know anything about the show.
It was a quirky town with a main street, a mix of old fashioned shops and a few restaurants - not to mention the odd lama!
We were disappointed to find no open coffee shops. We wandered down the main street, taking note of the typically American scenes and then headed off.