Sour Notes

We left Jeff's house and headed out through downtown Charlottesville and the University of Virginia campus. Just outside of town we encountered some mild hills and the pace started to slow again. Charlie's knee was hurting him pretty badly. He's had major surgery on it in the past and described a grinding feeling because of his lack of cartilage. We pulled into a parking lot and had a conference about how to move forward. We all agreed that we wouldn't be able to make it to Lexington at the current pace, or to stops in the future. Charlie decided he wanted to seek medical advice so we turned back toward the city. Adam's knee was also bothering him and he stated his desire to see a doctor as well.

We saw a sign for the UVA Medical Center and at first there was some confusion about whether it was some small campus clinic – but we showed up and it was a full scale hospital. Charlie and Adam signed in at the emergency room while I got the wifi password from a very pleasant woman at reception. People are pretty nice in Virginia.

Then the waiting began. The absurdly long wait. The torturous wait. It was actually punctuated by some pretty interesting stuff. Jordan, Jeremy, and I talked to a group of motorcycle riders, and then to a family, and then there was a really inquisitive little kid who liked Jordan's helmet, and the helicopter would take off and land, and Jeremy sketched. The designated smoking area was very popular, especially with people who dragged out their tethered IV's to light up a cig. Disgusting. The most outrageous entertainment was this enormous, and I do mean enormous, woman, who rode a tiny 50cc motorcycle. This guy pulled up on it with a half shell helmet, took it off, gave it to her, and then she straddled the thing before putt-putting off. She had a tremendously large butt and it was miraculous the bike didn't scrape the ground. She was skilled.

Sometime after about five hours of waiting, Charlie and Adam emerged. Charlie got a pretty somber diagnosis- that he shouldn't ride more than 10 miles a day. Adam's was better, it seemed like he could manage any discomfort with medication or resting. Everybody was starving at this point and we took a suggestion and went to some ridiculously overpriced snob factory of a restaurant. Thankfully we only checked the menu. We were leaving and then took the much better suggestion to go to a place called Saigon Cafe. It was delicious, cheap, had excellent service, and I felt like I was in Clairemont Mesa. Everyone gorged.

The end of the meal was a bit more serious as Charlie talked about making arrangements to leave the bicycle tour. We went back to Jeff's, who was incredibly nice to have us at his house another evening. Sorted out supplies from Charlie's gear and prepared for the next day.

Front of Jeff's house.

Climbing wall inside Jeff's house.

Green roof and back cottage.

One of the more stylish rides outside the emergency room.

Jordan keeps his spirits high.

We found this on a park on the way to Saigon Cafe.

Charlie is a good-natured fellow.