It’s hard to believe that today was really day 27 and we have just three more days of riding. Just a long weekend of about 100 miles per day and we’re done! It has been a wonderful tour, but it really has been a long time away from Holly and home.
The riding in West Virginia has been glorious, even with some extended stretches of riding on major 4-lane highways (not interstates). We were back in climbing territory, with over 6500′ of total ascending, which was nice after all the flat land we have seen. Today we rode about half the time on picturesque country roads through tiny villages and almost no traffic. These roads had lots of shade, good pavement, meandering curves and ups and downs. The rest of the time we rode in the 12 foot shoulder of US routes 50 and 33, I think due to the fact that no other roads took us where we needed to go. The shoulder riding was quite safe and the scenery was quite nice, but the drawbacks were the noise from the passing traffic and the debris that has a tendency to cause flat tires. I had my first flat tire of the entire tour today, from a small wire picked up most likely from the mess on the shoulder, and several other riders also had flats, either for the first time or for the first time in a while. My flat wasn’t an issue and I fixed it quickly, but I was secretly hoping that I would make it all the way across without a flat tire.
Today we had the unique chance to visit the Trans-Allegheny Insane Asylum, also known as the Weston State Hospital, which is where the PAC Tour lunch was set up. The building and grounds dominate the town of Weston and is slowly decaying since closing in 1994. The scale of the place was astounding and our tour only covered a small part of the grand main building. It was both interesting and depressing to see.
More West Virginia hills tomorrow and good weather forecast!
Today’s pictures:
- asylum main building
- lunch on the hospital grounds
- riders on the tour
- Randolph County courthouse, Elkins, WV
Somehow seems appropriate to see a group of PAC Tour riders touring an insane asylum. Good thing it is closed.