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Thursday, September 11, 2008, Long's Campground, 5 miles north of Lexington, Virginia
Well, quite a bit of interesting things happened today. After our usual morning routine of eating, packing, Bible reading, and prayer, we headed out of White Sulfer Springs, West Virginia, toward the Virginia border only a few miles away on Hwy. 60, at around 9:30 am. After only a mile or two, Hwy. 60 merged with Interstate 64. Not wanting to deviate from Hwy. 60 and not seeing any signs prohibiting bicycles, I continued on. The shoulder was nice and wide and the grade was smooth with only gradual climbs, a nice road to bike on. Right before the Virginia border, a West Virginia patrolman pulled us over and said we couldn't be on the interstate. I told him the two roads merged and that we had no choice. After going back and forth like this a little, he let us go, saying that in a mile we would be out of his jurisdiction. We continued for about 5 miles, gradually going uphill; then we began a long, gradual decent for about 5 miles until another patrolman, this time from Virginia, pulled us over and said the same thing. This time, however, he wouldn't let us continue, and after making a phone call said he would escort us to the next exit and explain how we could catch Hwy. 60 outside of following I-64. It was a blessing; the road was good and the directions easy, plus we saw some interesting things along the way. The best was the Island Ford Cave. As we were pedaling along, we suddenly noticed a wide opening on the left side of the road, a cave. It went in about 150 feet, so far you couldn't see the far end without a flashlight. We had plenty of those for the bikes, so we went in and marveled and took pictures. It was fun. Right before we were ready to leave, Paul came up and said, "Dad, I found another opening!" It was a narrow passage on the right side, low to the ground, but big enough to fit through if you tried. So Willie, Paul, Adriana, and I went in. The space opened up once we were in and had a narrow but passable passageway that wound its way through the mountain. The walls and ground were slick and muddy, and there was a creek winding beneath us also. We kept going. It was unlikely we would get lost because the passage led in only one direction, as far as we could tell. We went in about 100 yards before turning back because we didn't want Gloria to worry too much; we had already gone so far that we couldn't hear her voice any more. What a thrill following a cave to unknown places and adventure! I had never explored a cave either so it was just as fun for me as it was for the kids. At one point, we turned off our flashlights and experienced total blackness. After we left, we continued riding and shortly came upon fresh water springing from a pipe sticking out of the mountain. Delicious and refreshing, the best water! We filled our water bottles up and continued riding. We made a stop at Hardee's for food and drink. By the time we arrived in Lexington, it was getting late with only about an hour left of daylight riding, so we continued on to the campground 5 miles away and made it right before it got dark. 68 miles.