Woke up to an alarm this AM after another no heater night to make my 9:00AM PT appointment.

I entered the street address of the clinic and there are 2 Oakdale roads / streets & gps choose road. PT is on street. Wonderful cell phone, called Kim and she navigated me in.

Interesting PT. Kim is more osteopath in using subtle movement. She said my pelvis was not aligned which contributes to knee and ankle. She gave me 2 small stretches I did not know. Insurance pays 100%: I will return.

Visited The Hub for chat & phone numbers. Today on rest day i am working on bike and planning. I called Liberty in Asheville for grease zerks for the 1 I popped out of frame. Had them and I drove to town. Hung in the shop talking w/ several people. A wrench, Joe Gallwitz, told me about his riding the 50 states. He was working on a travel job that enabled him to ride most of the states on company dime. Took him 4 years. Me? less than a year for just 48 and on my own savings. He did more riding than I did in some of the states.

Bought new issue of Mountain Bike. I was skimming it while waiting out road construction bottleneck. What do you know? A feature blurb was on Asheville and the Liberty Bike shop.

I let a junior hi activity bus in front of me in the construction zone. The boys in the back of the bus were freaking kids out about the mojos on my dashboard. Then some of them started making faces thru the weird mirror on the back door. While they had a good eye on me I toffed my cap and pointed at my head. I lip read 1 boy’s comment: He’s bald. Eyes front.

Back in Brevard I parked behind the strip mall and washed the mud off my bike and perform some maintanence. Several men stopped to talk to me about my rig and my adventures. listenening to accents.

Drove to PO to pick up my mail.

Shopped at the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) in my continuing search for Moonshine. Chatted w/ the clerks about moonshine & had fun. Picked Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon 100% neutral grain spirits, 40%. Crystal clear. Not much taste but seems to pack a good punch. Finding the correct keys on the keyboard is challenging.

Scott called and he was on the road from Indy. Meeting tomorrow for same ride we did last week.

Learned from Kim that there is a genuine Cajon restaurant in town, 2 cousins. She lived in  New Orleans.

Bought diesel: $2.41/gal. Bought a SPARK drink, the 7% alcohol caffine, ginseng, herbs, Plus. People in Harisonburg were drinking it. No, prefer the beer as beer.

Friday night blues on XM. Whooowho moonshine.

Slept late. Today I was going to rest, do laundry, and other chores.

I stopped at the Visitor center to visit w/ Fred. As i left the bldg I spied a rig w/ 2 bikes on it and the riders looked to be about my age. So, I ask what they are going to ride and got a good feeling. What happened to rest? They had a big route planned but it had to be truncated because of land closure by USFS to protect public from a possible booby trapped campsite. The ride we did was a good enough 1.

The riders: Steve, a little fly weight of 100lbs, and Kenny more my size. All of us in our 50s. Steve hardly compresses his bike’s suspension but he can climb beyond description. He would challenge Kellie. They are from Asheville. Their bikes looked like they just left show room but they rode way beyond a credibility issue. We enjoyed our company.

We parked at the horse stable up past where I have been camping. Rode back down road to Bennett Gap trail and rode it up, intersected gravel rd, continued to Club Gap, and joined Black Mtn trail end to end. Software crunches different data; I picked the data point I have been using: 15.92 miles, 3393′ climb, 3 hrs ride time, total time 5 1/2 hours total. Calorie burn: 2607. Black Mtn end to end. Finished @ 5:00. Big day. Trail in places muddy & slippery. Wet roots. Heads up riding. I cut a right switchback too close and spilled, slow roller fall. Wore shorts w/ knee warmers just in case but short sleeve jersey & gloves.

Vista:

What was somewhat rideable:

Short beer end ride conversation and I dashed into laundromat for shower & laundry. Didn’t eat “dinner” until 8:00 hanging @ Dollies’ gravel parking lot like usual.

Have PT appointment tomorrow @ 9:00. priority is left knee. I know nothing about this PT, she was on insurance list. I called and she returned my call.

Spokane received 20″ snow in record time.

Received an invite to ride next week from the MTBR.com forum. The ride idea is about as demanding as what we did today plus extra.

I will stay down here till maybe Christmas before moving on. I have not planned where. Lesser from Big mag emailed me a bushel of ride ideas & contacts to follow up on.