All I Know

Day 2: Lake Lure to Shelby

Before you get carried away with the romance of the thing, be sure to factor in that there will be days like today.  It rained all the way from Lake Lure to Shelby, 57 miles, about 4 hours.

The real live truth is, I enjoyed it.  You might even say I loved it.  It was an adventure, and a fun ride, and a challenge, and all that.

What I didn’t enjoy at all was the uncertainty about what lay ahead.

Last night the rain started at about 1 am. It was pretty light. Around 3, it was raining hard, and my poor tent with a pancho on top was not up to the challenge.  The water would go down the outside of the tent okay, but when it reached the floor seam, it came inside. to the waterproof floor, where of course it stayed.  The goal then was to get my stuff of the floor (by putting the duffle bags on shoes), and swab up the water in the low spots.  A couple of tee shirts had already gotten wet, so I used those. The big problem was that the foot area of the sleeping bag got wet.  Thankfully it was not cold, only in the 60s, I expect.

It was still raining at break-camp time, so that was take down the tent and pack in the rain.  Everything, tent, sleeping bag, and all, has to go into two duffles. Think that through, and you’ll see what a mess doing it in the rain is. Anyway I had enough plastic bags of different sorts to segregate the wet from the dry.  But what to do for the coming night bugged me all day long.

If it was nice in Shelby, then, more or less no problem:  pitch the tent, let it dry, dry the other stuff, life goes on.

Turns out that was a big if.  It was and is still rainy in Shelby.

So that gets us back to the race vs. ride aspect of the trip.  It dawned on me that I would be in fine position to snap up indoor camping space, no matter how scarce it is, if I showed up early in Shelby like I did in Lake Lure.

So that was no problem. Not far after the first rest stop, it seemed to me that there wasn’t anyone left in front of me.  Pretty soon a nice guy came around, and rode more or less together to Rutherfordton, where we missed the 2nd rest stop.  We both came to a stop because some well-meaning but under-informed volunteers sent us the wrong way, and we had to noodle out how to recover.  We picked up two other guys while we were talking.  The four of us rode a little ways together a ways, but they disappeared in my mirror after a ways, including the guy that had come around me before (!).  Pretty near the third rest stop, Doug from yesterday caught up with me, and we rode into and out of the 3rd rest stop together.  After that he was *gone*.  Pretty near Shelby a different guy rode up to me and we rode in together.

So I figgered I would have my choice of spots in the indoor camping.  Turns about there were at least 30 places already taken (but only about 3 people present.  Remind me to write a memo about that).  I was astonished, until one of the people there said “Did you do the ride?”  I said, “Yes.  Did you *not*?”)  She said, “No, we chickened out.”  So I don’t know exactly how they got over from Lake Lure, BUT, there was still a prime spot with an electrical outlet beside it. I laid my wet raincoat and helmet out and ran to get my various electrical plugs.  I didn’t want any body taking those babies.

The only problem was that the luggage was tossed out literally a quarter-mile from the gym. We are on a big community center compound here, complete with choo choo train, merry-go-round, and so on.  The luggage was at the far end of the parking lot.  My cords were in the larger duffle of course, so, imagine a person in bike gear, soaked like a wet dog, in biking cleats, trying to hurry with a 3-foot, 40 pound duffle, trying to hurry through mud.

I made it.  I have a primo spot, with power, and folks are filing in.  I already grabbed my shower and laid out my various wet stuff to dry.  All my various devices are charging.  There is steady wi-fi through my phone.  There is a guy next to me that brought his classical guitar on the trip (??!?) and is playing first-rate stuff.

All I need now is lunch and dinner.  Have to figure that out.

No pictures today.  All that stuff was bundled up in plastic bags, and there was little to shoot anyway.

Later…

They usually have a shuttle bus or two from wherever the camping is to wherever the commerce is, so in the later afternoon, I hopped the shuttle to downtown Shelby and grabbed some local barbecue at a tablecloth joint, and over to a local coffee place for a little warmer.  Have a look at the signs– several from downtown Shelby have that sort of art-deco style.  It is hold-over, not retro, in my opinion.

 

The sign in the middle was in most of the downtown windows. It says, “Welcome, cyclists!” or similar. It’s a big deal for 1,100 spenders to come to a smaller town.

 

3 thoughts on “Day 2: Lake Lure to Shelby

  1. Debbie Holoman

    Wow, what an adventure. So glad you got a primo spot indoors for the night. Last night in the rainy tent did not sound fun to me in any way! :)

  2. Chris

    Thanks for the blog!! Really interested to follow your progress. Stay safe!

    There’s a similar ride across NY on the Erie Canal–maybe we can do that together some year. (But give me plenty of notice!)

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