After waving goodbye to our warm shower hosts this morning, we planned on riding from Ashcake, VA to just past Charlottesville, to Crozet, VA.  We anticipated riding 78 miles over hilly terrain.  The weather was hot and humid.  But worst of all, we faced a strong headwind all day.  Long story short, we crashed—physically, not actually—just after climbing into Charlottesville.  The photo below is Charles calling some of our closest friends to see if we might be able to stay with their friend in Charlottesville. We got to a gas station in Charlottesville just as a huge thunderstorm passed over us, with a deluge of rain and hail.  Our reluctance to ride in a thunderstorm combined with our fatigue got the better of us and we called a taxi to drive us the 12.5 miles remaining to our warm showers hosts.

The taxi story deserves a bit of elucidation.  As already mentioned, we pulled into the gas station just ahead of the storm but the roof over the pumps was not sufficient to keep us dry in the lashing rain, so Maja asked the convenience store manager if we could pull our bikes into an empty room with tables and chairs associated with the fried chicken counter in the store.  The manager at first said no, but Maja sweet talked him into changing his mind and so we planned to sit out the storm there.  It was then that we noticed what looked like a homeless man sleeping at one of the tables.  Long story short, he overheard us talking about our options for getting to Crozet—riding, taxi—and took charge.  He called a buddy at the local yellow cab and a little over an hour later, we were on our way to Crozet.  Our very nice cab driver affirmed that our guardian angel is, indeed, homeless.  He sleeps in his Crown Vic in which he also ferries customers.  We are extremely grateful that he took a liking to us, because the hotels in Charlottesville appeared to be sold out and we certainly weren’t looking forward to more hills and rain on the way to Crozet at what, by then, was a pretty late hour.

So, with the story of our 12.5 mile cheat behind us, let’s get back to the ride.  All in all it was a pretty ride and relatively uneventful.

Charles had some problems with his front brake rubbing the tire for a bit and slowing him down.  But we stopped and removed the tire (and put it back on!) and things seemed to work better from there on.

We rode on an extremely hairy road past James Monroe’s mansion and Monticello.  The lanes were so narrow and the roads so windy and hilly that traffic backed up behind us as we slowly climbed the relatively steep slopes.  It was pretty nerve wracking and we were happy that no accidents ensued.  The drivers were amazingly patient.

Maja is especially thankful for the large number of churches on our route for the bathrooms they make available to us, since peeing in the bushes is not an option given all the poison ivy everywhere.

Our warm showers hosts are very bike friendly—see our bathroom below.  In fact, they set up an aid station during the Race Across America that takes our route, but from West to East.  The record for the 4,230 mile race is 17 days, unassisted!!

Tomorrow will be our toughest climb so far.  And we thought today was bad. Total miles are estimated to be around 60 miles. Luckily, the wind is supposed to be at our backs.  Fingers crossed.

We enjoyed a restful night at the Quality Inn with our bikes resting in the room with us then got up for the free hotel breakfast and lunch sandwich making, just like old times. But since they had no peanut butter, we used cream cheese. Because we had re-routed ourselves yesterday just to find the hotel, we faced some back tracking but fortunately discovered a more direct path back to our mapped itinerary, but this involved riding on some very busy rush hour streets and highways with no shoulders til we rejoined the route.

From there traffic thinned a bit and we headed west, our destination the town of Bumpass (seriously) where we once again broke off the proscribed route to find our first Warm Showers hosts of this trip near the town of Ashcake.

All of today we enjoyed clear skies and very little wind but continued to see the results of the deluges they have had around VA with washed out roads and flooded forests and fields. We imagine that mosquitos will be a huge problem in a few weeks.

We passed by the campus of Randolph Macon University and later stopped for lunch at picnic tables next to a country church with a light breeze to rejuvenate us. We did see a few fixer uppers we thought might be good reno projects.

The town of Ashland, VA, where Randolph Macon is located has train tracks running through the center of town, flanked by all the towns nicest homes. We were told that the tracks went in after the houses were built.

We passed some gorgeous horse country, flooded rivers and fields, and historic buildings along the route. Had we stopped at all of the historic markers, we would still be riding.

Somewhere toward the end of the ride, we realized that Maja’s tire was loose in the frame. Who knows how long she’s been riding likes that. But it sure did make a difference to the speed of her cycling once it was fixed.

Not quite reaching Bumpass (sorry, Foley, no photo!) we took a small road to our hosts’ house and trusted Google maps to direct us. That app failed us and took us to another house some 2 miles distant so after contacting Dana, we had to backtrack to their house. Our hosts are incredibly friendly and kept us entertained with stories of bears, washed out culverts, fencing and family lore. After a nice dinner and conversation (they used to live in Cleveland Park) and a quick load of laundry we will rest for a vigorous ride tomorrow, 78 miles and hills!

Dawn got us out of bed and to the ritual loading of our bikes—our trusty steeds. Last night we watched the Preakness from the Yorktown Pub amid a cheering throng of diners/drinkers. Good symmetry between Justify’s second win and our second ride. If Justify wins the triple crown, do we need to ride a third time? Don’t hold your breath.

After loading our bikes we rode to the traditional starting (or ending if you’re riding west to east) point—the Yorktown Victory Monument commemorating the American Revolutionary War victory of 1781. Although Congress approved the monument shortly after the war’s end, it failed to fund the monument for a century so it wasn’t completed until 1884! Some things never change. We then performed the ritual of dipping our rear tires in the Atlantic to be followed at the end of our trek with the baptism of the front tires in the Pacific.

So, full of hope and optimism we headed West out of Yorktown on the Colonial Parkway to the tune of the National Anthem (we kid you not), we presume from some nearby military facility and the perfume of honeysuckle. Leaves of poison ivy waved us forward. An hour or so later, we stopped for an excellent breakfast in Williamsburg at “Aromas”, based on a recommendation by a very friendly local out for his morning ride. With the exception of one pickup truck that purposefully blew black sooty smoke out of its exhaust—called “rollin’ coal”—, everyone we’ve met so far has been incredibly friendly!

The Parkway connects the Yorktown, Williamsburg, Jamestown triangle and once at the terminus we connected to the Virginia Capital Trail – pedestrians and cyclists only – for 35 miles. It was enjoyable not to have to focus on oncoming or following car traffic, although we were battling a 10-15 mph headwind the whole way. In fact, the headwind was the bane of our existence, today. That said, one of the roads we took later in the day had been closed due to flooding just yesterday following 4 days of torrential downpours. So, in that respect we were lucky that the road was open and the day was dry.

Sadly, not long after our “lunch” of a Cliff Bar and banana, we had to leave the Trail for some country roads, but not before we met a French couple whose bikes could not possibly have been more loaded down. They have been riding in the US, Cuba and Chile for the past 9 months and have logged over 9,000 miles. They were very happy to be able to converse “en francais” since they said their English wasn’t that good. We were happy to meet some cyclists more crazy than we are. “Formidable!”

Having left Yorktown with the Revolutionary War echoing in our ears, we entered the Civil War era as we climbed away up into the countryside. Our route took us past the site of the Seven Day’s Battles at Malvern Hill, battles that, according to the signs, had more influence on the course of the war than any others.

Riding past these battlefields, we fought our own battle against fatigue, wind, heat and route uncertainty. Four miles from our hotel we encountered a Road Closed sign placed apparently after the heavy rains the area has had. As we pondered an alternate route, another cyclist approached and said he had driven the “closed” road the day before but wasn’t sure about bikes. He took off toward the closure (downhill) then a few minutes later road back uphill to us to say he thought if we stayed in the center of the roadway through the flooded area we would be alright … and we were! Thank you kind stranger.

As the expected 4 miles came and went with no hotel in sight, we switched to Google maps and discovered we still had an almost unbearable 5.5 miles to go. Our optimism, hope and enthusiasm flown away, we had nothing to do but slog ahead and finally arrived at the hotel 10 hours after we left Yorktown! We collapsed into our room to begin rejuvenating mind and body, a decent meal at the “Mexico Restaurante” helped!

Tomorrow we head north and west and will stay with our first Warm Shower host of this trip.

Tomorrow we will dip our rear tires into the water here in Yorktown, Virginia where the good citizens have paved a bike path to the water’s edge to save our gears from starting our ride sand encrusted. It’s hard to believe that we will, once again, be embarking on a cross-country adventure. We feel we are in worse shape than last time, but with the experience of our WA-ME ride under our belts, we are more confident of our ability to ride ourselves into shape. Time will tell. We hope you will enjoy the ride with us. And don’t forget that you can leave comments.