Many miles, little progress

2 May - Beckley-Fayetteville: high 60s, partly cloudy; 11:40-3:40, 39.3 miles
The day had a different feel to it, a disjointed rhythm. Danny fixed us a wonderful breakfast, then I went alone to speak at the high school. The talk went fine - as usual with the older kids, they were reticent to ask questions. After the kids took pictures of me with the teacher (Ben Alston) I'd met last night, and with the principal, I returned to Danny's.
After repacking, we followed the bike trail (the only flat passage in Beckley) to the bike store so Tim could change tires and pedals. Rob at Ride-n-Slide proved very helpful, giving Tim free tires, and throwing in a pedal strap to replace one I'd broken. We then returned on the bike path and rode past the high school en route to Oak Hill. Once there, we had to back-track a mile so we could arrange a car rental to explore the area later on. We then pedalled forward to Fayetteville, and had to backtrack another four miles to stay at the motel we'd already passed. Then, as we drove to the New River Gorge, we discovered that our route for tomorrow had closed down as of yesterday for bridge replacement. We would have to return to Oak Hill for an alternate route. (At least the rental car was a pickup truck, so we could drop the bikes there when we returned it.)