Day 8: Sunday, April 17, 2011

75.5 miles to Tabscott, VA

We rode through Ashland today, a quaint little town with the railroad running through it and a terrific coffee house that features live music and a gathering place for bicyclists.   We biked past Patrick Henry’s home and over Lake Anna.  We finally noticed that the trail is marked with “76” route signs which is pretty awesome since the trail was first ridden to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976.  I hope they are posted the entire route as it sure makes it easier to find our way, although we took one wrong turn today.  Fortunately, we only strayed about 2 miles.

Day 7: Saturday, April 16, 2011

Another rest day dictated by a serious storm that began when we woke up this morning.  We decided it would be best to rest this out and double up on mileage the next couple of days.  We are heading to see my high school friend Tammy in Staunton, Virginia. One nice thing about another rest day is that I am able to work on the counted cross stitch I brought for this trip. I had just finished a set of 4 butterflies before we left, so I can now start the “Smoke Ceremony” piece I bought several months ago.

Golf ball size hail. Good thing we didn't ride.

Day 6: Friday, April 15, 2011

72 miles to Mechanicsville, VA

The day was spectacular and the ride incredible. As often as I have bicycled around Williamsburg, I never knew about the Capital Trail.  It picks up right at Jamestown and goes to the Chickahominy River, then restarts at Sherwood Forest Plantation and goes through verdant farm land.  We passed several other plantations and rode through the Richmond National Battlefield Park.  We stopped at the Old Dominion Outdoors store which was still closed for the season.  We used their picnic table and surprisingly the restrooms were unlocked and very clean.  Nice stop for us.

The Capital Trail runs through scenic farmland

Taking a rest at Old Dominion Outdoors

Road closed in Richmond Battlefield

We bicycled down it anyway and just had to get over a pile of boulders

Day 5: Thursday, April 14, 2011

We decided to stay another day at Chippokes Plantation. Mostly for logistical purposes as we still needed to work on more details for the trip and my friend Tammy, who we are visiting, had last minute business out of town for the weekend. We found a handlebar bicycle bag for Vincent.  It works out perfectly since it has a special map holder on top that the ACA maps fit into nicely.  After we picked up the bicycle, we took a walk around the plantation.  It was founded in 1619 and has been continuously farmed since then, making it one of the oldest farms in the country.

Day 4: Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A well deserved day of rest.  We decided to take today off to catch up on things, blog and work on the next few days of the route.

Day 3: Tuesday, April 12, 2011

42 miles to Chippokes Plantation State Park

We drove over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (no bicycling allowed) and up to the Norfolk Naval Base.  I had never been to the base and decided to check it out.  Wow, it is huge.  The NEX is massive and has tons of departments.  We took the opportunity to purchase a few things we needed, then headed up to Portsmouth to restart our ride.  Carla and Luisa joined us for just a short time since we had to travel on a pretty busy road out of the city. We were sad to see them leave.  It was so great to have all of our friends for moral support and companionship

Once we got out of the city, the traffic thinned out and the ride was a little easier.  We had the wind behind us today and we made much better time.  We hit rain off and on, but it wasn’t too heavy.  We were rewarded at the end of the ride with a beautiful set of double rainbows.  All in all, a great ending for the day.

 

Bob had the trailer all set up and it was like coming home for the night.  Once we get comfortable with everything, it will be a lot easier and more routine.

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.