Field Trip 21

 Day 55 +/(We've been travelling from the coast of Oregon for 66 days,  I have sometimes not been counting Sundays since its a non-riding day. The moral of the story is to take the Day # with a grain of salt).   Started out along I 95 north of  Richmond. The route took a  somewhat circuitous route east and finally south to connect with the Capital Trail, a bike trail that goes all the way from Richmond to Jamestown. As you travel around the northern suburbs of  Richmond, you are constantly passing roadside markers commemorating various Civil War battles. And as I turned down a road, what should I see? He was scooting across the road, in contrast to the turtles I saw in Missouri, which were sitting like lumps. The bike trail terminates at the Museum in Jamestown.  There I got on the Colonial Parkway.  This road was probably built some time ago. Its concrete, with rather large round pebbles/rocks in the mix. Over time the superficial concrete has worn away exposing the rocks.  Its ve

 Day 53 Started out Near the town of Trevilians, and then went southeast through Louise,  and Mineral. The route crossed lake Anna several times.  I kept seeing signs directing you to a nuclear facility.  Wonder if the lake was used for cooling a reactor.  Passed through a place on the map called Bumpass, but I didn't know I had passed through, it was so small.  Went by Patrick Henry's house. Into the town of Ashland, then south to our campsite nest to the Hanover Airport, a general aviation airport. The land is hilly, but not real big hills and most not real steep. Morning Ride Distance 62.13  mi Elev Gain 1,450  ft Time 4 h  11 m Try this route

 Day 52 We started out at the Misty Mtn Campground. The route went down route 150 to Charlottesville.  My Wahoo Element Bolt died during the rides in the rain last week.  I found a bike shop in Charlottesville that had one in stock.  So I used Google to plot a route, and that went sideways pretty quickly. Managed to find the bike shop Blue Wheel Bikes and get the replacement. Talking to the guys there thought I was crazy to be riding on Rt 150. They proposed several alternatives that would have taken me miles out of my way.  Managed to find my way out of Charlottesville and on to the Small Country Campground, in the countryside west of the town of Louise.  Glad to be back on small backroads.    I ended up with about 42 miles for the day, I had been recording rides with my phone, which died, so the recorded ride was about half that. 

Day 51 Today we spent at the "Misty Mountain" campground on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Much warmer and more muggy.  The usual laundry and bike cleanup and inspection.  I finally had to replace a tire. So far I've cycled 3690 miles and climbed 140,672 ft.  Interestingly this last week mostly in western Virginia had more climbing than the week before. We have 4 days to go.  We're planning to camp in Williamsburg on Wednesday and do a short ride to the coast on Thursday.  Hard to believe its coming to an end. Thanks for reading

 Day 50 The day started out at the Natural Bridge KOA.  There was a fairly thick fog, and everything was wet.  I started out without my rain jacket on, but that didn't last long.  As I rode north on route 11, things gradually cleared, and it turned out to be a beautiful day.  I passed through the town of Lafayette, which is home to the Virginia Military Institute.  Saw a bunch of guys standing around in military garb.  As I rode north, the route became less hilly.  This was right in the Shenandoah Valley.  I made my way to Waynsboro, then over the hill to our campsite.  The route crossed the Blue Ridge right at the end/start of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive.  As I went downhill headed east, I noticed that the cars headed west were backed up for more than 5 miles.  The freeway that goes through here is Rt 64, and apparently there was an accident that blocked west bound traffic. Everyone had gotten off the freeway to get around the accident, so they parked on Rt 250.  Tomo

 Day 49 Started out in Claytor Lake State Park.  Did the climb out of the park back up to the route.  The route takes one to Rayford, then Christiansburg.  Coming out of Rayford, I made a wrong turn and after some time ended up back in Rayford.  Rayford is home of the University of Rayford.  The roads that I came into Rayford on were marked for cycling events, including a race WRR.  After getting sorted out I ended up in Christiansburg.   This lead to a fairly long time on small country roads with a fair amount of climbing. The weather was partly cloudy, and the temp started out in the high 60's.  Did a lot of hill climbing, some steep, but not as long as those in Missouri and eastern Kentucky.  Cut the trip through the country side short, had lunch on the outside tables of  a road stop.  The lunch started out sunny, the wind picked up and it got completely cloudy.   As I headed north from Troutville, the sky opened up.  A pretty rainy ride. The rain had subsided by the time I got