Day 4 - Charlottesville, Virginia

Thanks to sleeping in the firehouse I didn't need to pack a tent that morning. Got on my bike at around 8, after I had filled my bottles with 5 litres of water. There wouldn't be any service for the first 30km and as it turned out, I needed every single drop.
The sky was overcasted again and I had a nice ride through the woods. As I got closer to the Appalachians, the hills were not just higher but also steeper.
The first stop was the little town of Palmyra, where a building with a "bicyclists welcome"-sign drew my attention. The friendly lady told me that it was something like a community room for the local church. She offered me water, energy-bars, WiFi and a place to sit down and have a break. Nice!
On the last 20 miles to Charlottesville I had to climb up some seriously steep switchbacks without shoulder. Charlottesville, home to 40.000, is the central traffic hub for this area and therefore traffic was high. That's why the transam-route avoids all the big cities.
First time I didn't feel safe, however I arrived alive.

Things to mention:

Missed a turn twice and did at least 10 miles for nothing. Part of the game I suppose.

Saw "Black Vultures" (dt. Rabengeier) about 10 feet away by the side of the road. Two times. Impressive birds!

While riding through some forest maybe 30 yards ahead of me an huge, black animal crossed the road. I stopped immediately but the creature was already gone. My first thought was a small bear. But I've seen wild bears in California last summer and they don't have that smooth, catlike, walk. The ratio of length and heigh didn't match to a mountain lion but that's the only explanation I have. What other animal of that size with a catlike walk is out there?
So maybe I had one of the extremely rare mountain lion sightings in Virginia. As I'm never gonna know what it really was, I'll just pretend.

Riding into Charlottesville a guy in a car talked to me at a stop sign. When he heard I was from Germany he began talking some pretty good German and told me that he had been living in Germany years ago. I love those random talks, you here all kinds of stories, too bad I forget most of them within hours.

By the way: Charlottesville, home of University of Virginia, was named after a German princess "Charlotte". She later married a British king and thus became Queen.