Day 2: Monday, April 11, 2011

64 miles to Kiptopeke State Park, Cape Charles, VA

We had a little drama in the morning. As we were getting ready to leave, we decided to check the weather.  When Vincent turned on the radio, it started going on and off, then all the electrical components went haywire.  We called Don, our personal guide to anything and everything about the travel trailer, and although he had lots of theories about what might be going on, he couldn’t say for sure because we didn't give him all the information.  We finally decided to check with the help at the campground and he discovered that one of the circuits had been tripped and the battery didn’t charge so we were running out of power.  Once he got everything reconnected, Bob had to wait an hour so he could pull the slide in. John stayed with Bob to provide moral support.

Vincent, Judy, Carla and I set out for the start of the second day.  Luisa went ahead in her car to scope out a place for lunch.  Turns out Google does a pretty good job of mapping out the bicycle route with lots of back roads that are very picturesque.  We had a few problems with unmarked roads.  Thank goodness for Vincent’s Smart Phone since he is able to pull up the maps and see where we are.  That will certainly come in handy and I hope we can get data in most places.  We hit really heavy head winds this morning and the first 20 miles felt like 50. 

We stopped for lunch and Bob was able to join us this day since he had the trailer all set up.  After lunch, Vincent and I took off on our own for the next 44 miles.  I have to say it was some of the hardest riding I have done in some time.  The winds just never let up and it took us about 6 hours to get to camp.  The crew waiting for us was a bit worried, but we knew we were ok and we just had to DIG DEEP! (This is what I kept telling Vincent when he wanted to give up!)  We rode nearly the entire route to the camp down a beautiful, scenic, little traveled Seaside Road.  We only saw one bicyclist who happened to be flying by in the opposite direction since he had the wind at his back. 

We got a standing ovation when we finally straggled into camp, tired, hungry and glad to be done for the day.  Judy and John wished us farewell and good luck for the rest of trip. Bob made a gourmet meal of feta, spinach turkey burgers and we enjoyed a sunset dinner with Carla and Luisa. 

The park was truly beautiful with lots of wilderness trails and boardwalks through the woods to the shore.