Day 71: Oakland, MD to Romney, WV

Today's Mileage: 49
Total Mileage: 3615

The morning was bright and clean on top of Backbone Mountain, and the air was cool. As we headed down, we ran into heavy, blinding fog as we re-entered West Virginia. Luckily, there was a restaurant open just on the other side of the state line, so we breakfasted there while the morning warmed up.

The first climb of the day was our last real big one in the Allegheny range, Mt. Storm. Because it was pretty easy, I wasn't sure if we had actually gotten to the top... but we were rewarded with a fun 5-mile downhill.

The rest of the day was a bunch of ups and downs through some of the prettiest country imaginable. The sun filtered through a leafy canopy over the road and the climbs were short, cutting between the hills instead of over them.

Once in Romney, we sat down for a late, well-deserved lunch at the only place open. The pizza was tasty, and we were exhausted. It was still somewhat early, and we considered riding further, but were discouraged to learn that there were no towns or places to camp for quite some distance East.

We decided to stay in Romney (which was our original plan anyway), and spent a couple hours resting in some grass by the gas station, hoping to meet a friendly local who would let us use their computer.

The computer was not to be, but we did meet Sherri and her dog Toby, who offered us a place to stay in their yurt. None of us had ever been inside a yurt before, so naturally, we accepted. The yurt was awesome - like being in a huge round tent, but homey and comfy like a house. Sherri had all kinds of neat stuff to look at and share with us.