Back to Day 24

7 PM

In a hotel in Suffolk, VA. Dana had originally thought Suffolk was in North Carolina, but he was wrong. Bummer. Well, at least it’s a nice hotel, regardless of what state it’s in.

Today was an exercise in frustration. We started with a lovely B at the B&B. This is Barney Fife – his job at the B&B is to eat the chocolates off of the guests’ pillows.

Our first 4 miles were to the Jamestown Ferry. On the way, we passed the story of Pocahontas, which was actually worth backtracking for:

And the history of the road we had just ridden on:

Here’s one for our German friends:

And one for our Polish friends:

The ferry ride was very pleasant. There were 10 cars on the ferry, about 100 Bike Virginia cyclists, and us. Again, the Bike Virginia folks were very friendly, and interested in our adventure. One of them took this picture of us.

Welcome to Scotland, VA:

We rode with the group until the town of Bacon’s Castle,

where they turned left and we went straight. There is a store in Bacon’s Castle, where we had ice cream.

The problem with going straight out of Bacon’s Castle was that we were supposed to turn right. Dana figured that out about 5 miles too late, when we crossed the county line into Isle of Wight county, and he muttered “Shit! We’re not supposed to be here yet.”

Meanwhile, somewhere between Scotland and Bacon’s Castle, my bike computer died. A note about map math: There are two distances we need to monitor on any given ride: miles for the day, and miles on the current map. But every time we go off route the map miles get messed up. And today, when my computer died, we lost track of miles for the day. And we are constantly doing math, adding or subtracting offsets to figure out where we are, where we need to turn, etc. Today we were just confused. Lost and confused. How pathetic is that?

So we stood on the side of the road in the sun, trying to find alternate routes through Google Maps, but it’s hard to see the screen in the sun, so we rode up to the Citgo station and sat on folding chairs in the back of the store. The folks there told us to just stay on rte. 10 into Suffolk, so we decided to do that.

Route 10 was fine for quite a while, except that they were repaving part of the road, and we sort of had to race a semi through the construction area. Then I had tar and rocks stuck to my rear tire for another few miles. Dana suggested reaching my hand behind me, grabbing the rear wheel, and cleaning it while I rode.

He really doesn’t understand me very well, does he?

We stopped for lunch in Smithfield, Va for lunch. We probaly should have ridden into the Historic Downtown, but we were too tired, so we sat on the grass in the 7-Eleven parking lot. Then we tried to get back on rte. 10, but it turned into a highway, so we backtracked and found a different route to Suffolk.

Note: I’ve regretted bypassing Smithfield all afternoon, as I figured they would have some good ham restaurants there. But I just looked it up on Google, and they don’t have a House of Ham, or anything like that, so I guess I’m over my regret.

The rest of the ride was relatively pleasant and interesting. We watched wheat being harvested:

And we crossed the Prince River, with cypress trees growing right out of the water:

About 5 miles out of Suffolk, we stopped at a roadside fruit stand and shared a watermelon while sitting on the grass watching traffic.

The watermelon was delicious. While I ate my watermelon, I took a picture of the socks they gave me yesterday at Cycles by Ed.

Speaking of Ed… Dana is thrilled. Since Ed fixed his derailleur, it hasn’t skipped once. He previously brought it to 3 different mechanics, and none of them checked the alignment of the derailleur hanger. Ed had a special tool for checking and straightening it, it’s the first thing he tried, and now it seems to be fixed. Dana is very excited.

The ride into Suffolk was nice, and we stopped at a Rite Aid to buy a battery for my computer. Then, all of a sudden, the traffic got horrible and dangerous, so Dana said “Pull over. I don’t know where we are, and I’m nervous.” So I pulled over and miraculously ended up the the parking lot of our hotel. It was the highlight of my day.

We have decided on a rest day tomorrow. This is a nice hotel, and I for one need a break. My butt is sore – even with the Bark-O-Lounger – and the constant fidgeting is messing up my knees. Dana’s butt is sore too, and his back keeps spasming. So tomorrow we will sleep in and rest our sore butts. Then on Thursday we will ride 50 miles to Elizabeth City, after which we will head to Kitty Hawk and the Outer Banks.

On to Day 26

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