Luck be an (Irish) lady

Lady Luck was on our side today ( which after yesterday made a pleasant change). The forecast was for  thunderstorms in the afternoon so we made an early start from Staunton. Rather bizarrely the first landmark we passed was Anne Hathaway's cottage (not a cottage as we would know it), the next was Buffalo Gap (see photos). It was a bit of a climb up to the gap, but overall the inclines today were much kinder than yesterday. We stopped for a break and something to eat at that soon to be discovered hot spot of the Dollar General store in Craigsville. Hot on the heels of Zingers and Ho-Hos we were reintroduced to Ding-Dongs - all three plus several others are just variations on a theme of chocolate, vanilla cream, fat and sugar, so what's not to like. Various in-bred characters struck up conversations with us, including the bloke (weighing more than our car back home) who was polishing the video rental machine outside the store with a feather duster!  Passing through 'Nowhere USA' 'Nowhere Much USA' and Nowhere at all USA' we eventually turned on to Maury River Road, a twisty wooded road which followed the river and was virtually traffic free as well as scenic. The day was 54 miles but had less than 3,000ft of ascent so we made great time and had been in our motel room about 5 mins before the torrential rain started - about 5 minutes after that we noticed that my back tyre was completely flat. 

The puncture is now fixed, the laundry is done and the weather has cleared 0% chance of rain tomorrow (allegedly). Taking our lives in our hands we crossed the dual carriageway in front of the hotel to get to Applebee's, for what proved to be one of the best meals of the trip so far - although frankly the competition is negligible. Currently debating what to do with our day off tomorrow. Should we visit the Banjo museum? Perhaps Natural Bridge Zoo, where the giraffe, deer, goat, llama and other animals 'are waiting for a feeding interaction with you' - so that would make you lunch I presume.  Visit the Pink Cadillac Diner (home of the famous 'Elvis Burger').  I suspect the Mechanic will insist on a visit to the local brewery to sample a growler (???). There is loads more to avoid, but time for bed - I'll let you know how we get on