Summers (ville) Touring

Love this road.

Day 31  -  Charleston, WV to Summersville, WV  -  62 Miles

Full of rest and a hearty breakfast, we flew down the steepest hill east of the Mississippi, which Jerry and Jan live atop, and crossed over into downtown Charleston for one last look.  

Leaving our hosts, Jerry & Jan, after a delicious breakfast.

State capitols. Gotta love them.

Rolling along beautiful rolling hills, with a river beside us, we came upon a curvy mountain road that had curious and gorgeous surroundings.

Ancient West Virginia ruins have been covered in ivy for hundreds of years.  

This, however, is a picture of a clump of trees, covered in ivy.

A tree canopy protected us from the sun for most of our ride

Ivy, Ivy, Ivy.

Why does Aaron wield his weapon? The following video will disclose all...

*no animals we injured or intended to be injured during the making of this video*

Who is loving this ride?  "I am!"

Caution: Fallen Tree.  Fallen Tree?!  Good thing that tree canopy was protecting us.

So, we rode and rode.  Got a little tired, ate some food, got a little hungry, rested a bit, got a little delusional, rode our bikes some more.  Eventually, we ended up at Summersville.  We slammed down some fast food and biked up the street to find wifi.  That is when we stumbled upon a McDonald's that had more American Flags than Washington D.C. (Or so we think.  We'll be in the District of Columbia this Friday with our dear friend Paul Switz.   Really, hanging out with Paul this weekend is the primary thing we are looking forward to, besides New York.)

Guess where we are. Not the White House, McDonald's. No kidding. It was wildly patriotic.

Aaron listened to music and sharpened his mind, because they were playing country music.

After a substantial rest, we biked back to a church and laid out our sleeping bags, with every intent of sleeping under the stars.  After a few minutes, however, we noticed that the humidity was rising and our sleeping bags were beginning to get quite damp with condensation.  It was time to put up the tent.  Orion will have to wait for another night.  

Just before bed, two guys drove up in a red car and then drove away.  We thought it a little suspicious, but we decided our cooking pot would make a good 'whack-em-over-the-head' tool, if it came to that.  It did not.  The pair returned, looking rather inquisitive and asked, "Are you guys missionaries?"  We just looked at each other for a moment and said, "of sorts," referring to the universal commission that all followers are Christ are called to take forth into the world.  They accepted our explanation and offered us a creme soda (we accepted, but later lost it -- bummer).  We fell asleep, got a little condensation throughout the night, and enjoyed a great conversation about being relevant and effective as a lover and minister to mankind.

Our tent fit snugly in that grassy corner.  Best of all - no sprinklers.