Day 11: Short hop to Roanoke - NZ lad riding coast-to-coast in the US - CycleBlaze

May 23, 2023

Day 11: Short hop to Roanoke

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Just a very short ride into Roanoke for us today, so we can take a long train ride to Cincinnati, OH, the closest stop to Lexington, KY that allows us to take bikes.

We woke up on Troutville City Park slowly and peacefully and got to work having our most relaxed camping morning. I read some of my book and we made some porridge like every other morning.

We didn't end up leaving the park until 11am, since Roanoke was only an hour away. The road into Roanoke was fast moving but downhill almost all the way and the roads were quiet in the middle of the day. We got to explore some of the beautiful town centre and relax at a city park for an hour before checking in to our accommodation.

Natalie stayed behind to relax in the room while I did a bit more walking around and had a dip at a pool at one of the city gyms. We planned to meet again at Market Square in the city centre.

I got there a bit early and ended up taking a few pictures for about 50 cyclists going out for some kind of group ride. Looked like a work event or something similar but the person trying to take the photos was appreciative of being able to get in them.

Natalie arrived and we headed out for our first Mexican food in the US and it blows what we have in NZ out of the water. I think I'll be eating a lot of it over the next few months.

I'm going to be eating good Mexican food the rest of this trip
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After that we spent the rest of the evening at Starcade, an arcade game museum that allows you to play any of the games once you have entry. The arcade games of the 80s stack up better than a lot of the games at places like Timezone back home. They're a little old but well made and not just designed to take your money. My favourite exhibit/game was a mechanical Pong table. 

A low light blurry shot of me about to score a point against Natalie in mechanical Pong
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After the arcade museum we considered going out for drinks after someone from our hotel invited us but we have to catch our train at 6am and we'll be travelling until 1am the next day so we need all the rest we can get. We went back to our hotel just as the sun was coming down. I liked Roanoke, it wasn't very big but it had a good feel to it, I'm glad we stopped in for the day.

On our way out of downtown Roanoke back to the hotel.
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Today's ride: 20 km (12 miles)
Total: 608 km (378 miles)

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Susan JamesYou will get better Mexican food the farther West you go!
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9 months ago