Day 10 Vesuvias to Christiansburg Guest Blogger Ms Ellen Hadley

We rose, pleased to find that it was NOT raining, ate breakfast, and cruised away from the campsite at 8:00am.  Kelly and I entertained ourselves as we rode by composing cycle-touring related haikus... until our attention was drawn away from the poetry and towards Rob, who had stopped riding and was boldly removing his fancy waterproof trousers by the side of the road!  Yes, he had dropped his pants (claiming that they were too hot and uncomfy to ride in), revealing a pair of shiny black Adidas hotpants.  Apart from the haikus and hotpants, other notable happenings today included riding up and down and up and down through some quite challenging but beautiful terrain, sighting several varieties of roadkill, and consuming mass amounts of sugar (in the form of M & Ms, Starburst candies, and two-bite brownies).  Also, while stopped for a coffee break at the "Mama D's" store, Rob met a woman from Harrogate, which seemed like quite a neat coincidence!  Late in the afternoon it DID suddenly start to rain - hard.  At first we kept riding, but it soon became clear that cycling in such a wild downpour would be both really uncomfortable and actually a bit dangerous... so we stopped and sought shelter on the porch of an adandoned house.  When the rain let up a bit we sucked it up and got back on our bikes to ride the final 15 miles to Christiansburg.  Rob's words "we'll be continually refreshed by the rain!" rang in my head as we sloshed through ankle-deep puddles on our way into town.  The day ended with pizza at the church where we're staying, and a warm and tumbly outing to the laundromat, where we ate still more M & Ms and I wrote this blog post as we waited for our clothes to dry.  Forecast for tomorrow: MORE RAIN!!!

Miles today   55
Total             455