29. Davenport

About two miles north of Davenport, Route 76 crosses Russell Fork, a mountain creek that winds along the side of the road for nearly thirty miles close to the Kentucky border. Or, to be more historically accurate, the road winds along the path of the river, as the waterway existed in this land long before these routes were established by people walking, riding on horseback, traveling in wagons, driving cars, or riding bicycles. Across Virginia, Route 76 is inseparably connected to waterways. Over and over again, cyclists cross rivers and streams on bridges. Even more commonly, as in the case of Russell Fork near Davenport, cyclists spend considerable time riding alongside the river before they actually cross over the water. It may not be obvious to a cyclist in the mountains of southwest Virginia, but every stream is connected to a broader waterway that shapes the contours of the entire country. In fact, Russell Fork near Davenport is part of the same Mississippi drainage system as the entire length of Route 76 across Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and the eastern part of Colorado. All of the waterways crossed along this route ultimately drain into the Mississippi River and then the Gulf of Mexico. An exploration of how Route 76 is connected to Virginia’s waterways thus provides a basis for thinking about how lands and people are connected by water in ways that can be observed as well as experienced. This episode is connected to the community of Davenport, located just over 530 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and about twenty miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia.