Day 3 - April 23

After the mid-afternoon break at the Christiansburg library, I headed west toward the town of Radford.  It was late afternoon by the time I reached Radford, and I found it fitting that the local grocery was called Wade's Foods.  I was stocked up on food - meaning that I had 2 dehydrated camp meals and a romen noodle.  However, I was missing an important staple of the journey....beer.  And then I realized it was Sunday evening.  For those of you living outside of the bible belt, you may not realize the significance of my dilemma.  However, seeing as how I spent a few years in these parts I knew from experience that some counties below the Mason-Dixon don't sell alcohol on Sunday.  Not enough Catholics down here I guess.  Not to worry though.  Here in the hills of Virginia they must think that its OK to have a cool beer on Sunday.  Good folks.  So, with my cool beer riding shotgun in the Burley Nomad, I headed on for Claytor Lake State Park.  Claytor Lake State Park is a very nice campground.  In fact, there was an official sign at the entrance declaring that Virginia ranks #1 in the nation in state parks.  Well, true enough, but they missed the part about it being "the most expensive state parks in the country".  $19 for a tent site and a hot shower.  I paid up - even though it was on the honor system - cause I didn't want any trouble with a hillbilly park ranger toting a pistol.  First night of the trip in a tent.  Delightful.  After finishing my top romen and cool beer, I slipped into the tent and sleeping bag and drifted off to dreamland as I was entertained by the fire flies, frogs and crickets.  Having ridden 70 miles today, sleep came easy.....but I was awakened at 3:30am to rain on my face - and remembered that I had chosen not to put the tent fly on.  So, I got out and put the tent fly on - in the dark and rain.  Of course, once I did this it stopped raining but what can you do.  By the way, I'm taking plenty of pictures but most of the public library computers have outlawed me from uploading pictures.  So, until I find an alternative outlet, we may be without pictures for a while. 

Romen noodle and cool beer