Back to Day 23

8 AM

Last night, walking back to the hotel, we found the Virginia Capitol Building:

and this story about a woman who is my new hero:

We figured we should do laundry, since we never know when we will get another opportunity. Dana got us this HUGE room, but it as far from the elevators as possible, which did not make me more excited about doing laundry. But then he found a shortcut from the elevators to our room, through the pool area.

There seems to be some sort of children’s theater competition going on nearby, because the hotel is packed with children in costume. We suspected something when we checked in and saw a boy dressed like a tree. There are trees and shrubs and fish and zombies and fairies – and even a brick wall – running around all over the place. But nowhere are there more children than in the pool. So it is a wet, steamy, noisy walk to the elevators, but at least it is a short walk.

I had grits for breakfast this morning. I’m getting into grits, I will try making them when I get home. I’m not sure how Dana feels about that.

1 PM

Having lunch at Cul’s Courthouse Grille in Charles City, VA. 32 miles into a 56 day. We are now in the middle of the Bike Virginia 2014 Tour. 2000 riders, who just happen to be riding from Richmond to Williamsburg today, and all of whom are faster than me. I’ve heard a lot of “on your left” in the past hour, and I’m anticipating 18 mores miles of it.

We seem to be on the Historic Battlefields of the Civil War route as well. Lots of historic markers. I was stopping at each one for a while, but now I’m too tired. We’ve seen a lot of plantations – I’m surprised they still call themselves that, but they do.

Some pictures…

We saw a bald eagle overhead while we were taking pictures of these cannons.

Got wheat?

How about tobacco?

This one was in the parking lot of a quickie mart:

We even got a picture of us, courtesy of one of our 2000 new friends:

Our butts are sore today, but luckily we were on a bike trail for a long way. Getting out of Richmond was tough – city traffic, followed by uphill-away-from-the-river hills, but out here it’s very nice. Pain with no stress is better than pain with stress. Speaking of pain, my problem areas are butt, left knee, and right hand. Dana’s are back/neck, feet, and butt. Just thought we’d share.

7:45 PM

Sitting in the DoG Street Pub in Colonial Williamsburg. We took a cab here from the B&B. The driver dropped us off right next door, and we proceeded to walk a half mile the wrong way looking for it. That’s OK, we needed the exercise. Besides, we got to see all the old colonial buildings – shame to come here and not see any of it.

So after our lunch stop, we kept riding with our 2000 new friends. Along the way, we crossed the Chickahominy River:

Then we came to Chickahominy Park, where the Bike Virginia people had set up their tent city for tonight. So we figured we would go use their bathrooms, and take some pictures of what 2000 bikes look like stacked around 1000 tents.

They had some service tents set up – massages, showers, ice cream, clothing, bike repair, etc. Dana has still been having problems with his derailleur, so he asked the repair guy if he could check it out. We were very honest about the fact that we weren’t part of their ride, but everyone was extremely friendly and inviting.

So while Ed of Cycles by ED played with the derailleur, we were offered “thrones” to sit in – wonderfully awesome folding canvas chairs – the kind I never totally appreciated as a soccer mom, but I certainly appreciated today! And we got talking to Andy, a lady on the ride who was hanging out with Ed. And then Andy and Jody went to help David set up the beer tent, and I offered to help.

In the beer and wine supplies was a wonderful new box of Glad trash bags, and I asked David if I could trade my labor for 3 bags, since the bags I brought from home are getting kind of ratty, what with packing them and unpacking them and zippering through them and using them for laundry. So I moved some tables and coolers, hung out with Andy, David, and Jody for a while, and then returned to Dana, who was thoroughly enjoying his throne sit.

I commandeered the throne, and Dana got me a bag of ice for my sore knee, and Jody gave me a free pair of socks. We would have loved to hang out longer, but we had another 10 miles to go, so we bid them farewell. We will probably see some of them tomorrow on the Ferry across the James River, which goes from Jamestown to Scotland.  But we will not see Andy, as she plans to take the ferry at 4:30 AM.

We checked into a really nice B&B just outside of Colonial Williamsbburg, which explains the cab ride. In our room there is a book entitled “50 Ways to Pamper Yourself”. I’m thinking “plant your butt on a bike seat for 2400 miles” did not make the cut.

So far the derailleur seems a lot better, so thank you Ed! 🙂

On to Day 25