Day12, Damascus to Council

Start time: 7.50
Start location: Damascus
Start State: Virginia
Start weather: dry
Total millage so far: 605.04

Finish time: 12.27
Finish location: Council
Finish State: Virginia
Finish weather: Sunny
Miles today: 51.46
Total millage so far: 656.50
Today's top speed: 44.1
Today's average speed: 13.4

Music played:
Blur – Parklife
Bomb The Bass - Beat Dis (The Very Best Of Bomb The Bass)
Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary
Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded
Bruce Springsteen - Greatest Hits

Blog for this day:

Wow, ok we made it to Council in one piece. We left Damascus early with a nagging feeling Buster isn’t well. It was a cold start and I had to wear my arm warmers and jacket, the temperatures dropped further when we entered the woods. The ride was pretty sad in places due to a lot of the towns not having any money. There were lots more empty houses on route, or owned by the bank now, rusting cars in the driveways and shops which have either closed, or were closing down with sales on. It’s not too nice to see, I don’t think America is doing too well at the moment. People seem to be struggling. Maybe part of it is their own doing, taking on too much credit and debts as they strive for the American dream; living way outside their means and budget, and when job losses come, they are screwed. You see it a lot in the UK too. One of the towns which really brought it home was Honaker. Honaker is a typical frontier style town, (well, this is how I see it), built on and around the railroad. It’s famous for Redbud whatever that is. Sad to see.

Lawn mowing seems to be big business too over here, at the moment every is having their huge lawns done. Either they own the mowers or there are lots of companies to choose from who come and do it. People seem to be making money from it. So, the route, dam it was hard today. More hills and mountains, real long steep climbs with multiple switchbacks. Still, they don’t seem as bad as Ditching Beacon on the Brighton run. They are about 10times as long, but they don’t seem to have that nasty feeling to it. Not sure why. Lovely scenery though. And of course, what goes up, must come down and boy, did those roads go down! Amazing rides, very scary due to the quality of the roads and the loose grit on them, I had to use my breaks a lot, and the corners were pretty sharp too. Not sure which one it was, but when you came out of the wood, the view was amazing, it was like something from Switzerland or Austria, fantastic.

Lots more caterpillars and butterfly's, lots of smelly road kills and a car crash. No, I didn’t see it happen, but hopefully got some nice footage of the cop cars. The last hill out of Honaker was pretty dangerous, not due to the increasingly bad driving and lumber trucks, but to two little shit dogs! Earlier in the day some wild thing waiting on the other side of the road in the shadows, leaped out and started barking and chasing, but as it was downhill, we were ok. The last one happened up hill, and it was a steep nasty one too. A medium sized white dog started barking as I went past and kinda following me up the hill, I told him to “jog on” in less friendly terms lol. Then he called his mate, dam he was a powerful c*nt! He chased me down and I had to put my foot really down hard and fast as he was catching me fast. If anyone wants to donate a Glock, I will be more than grateful!

Now we are in Council, a small town of “mountain folk”! I think that is polite for redneck crazies! Dam they are rough up here. Fat, hairy, skinny, tattooed and rough lol. Had some crazy women with her twenty kids, probably all on crystal meth or something push in front of me, but as we had free access, I just said this to the girl and I got in before them, much to the obvious disgust to her lol. The spot though, is lovely. A pool and lawns in a valley, fantastic. Good day, but want sleep now