Richmond to Fredericksburg

May 15, 2016

Wow, another beautiful day . . . sort of. Bright and sunny but still a bit cool as it was early in the morning. We also had a wind out of the west/northwest that we would have to deal with. But that would be later . . . as the first order of business was breakfast, which Nancy (Jeff's mom) was kind enough to make for us. And we lingered a bit as Jeff was visiting parents, which is important and can't be rushed!

Plus, there was no need to rush. Today would be my shortest day, less than 60 miles! But I was feeling the aches of the prior four days of somewhat (by my standards) long-distance riding. I don't usually stack so many 60-mile-plus days together, but I had no choice in this case (and it was a short tour after all), but that doesn't mean I wasn't feeling it!

So I started the day off a bit easy. I ride with Jeff often, and we usually pace each other pretty well, but today would be different as he was not carrying gear and I was! So I was careful not to push too hard just to keep up.

Jeff Oser's parents' home; they were very generous and welcoming. You can see my bike in the shadows, geared up and ready to ride.

Today's ride to Fredericksburg

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Getting out of Short Pump was not any more difficult than I expected. The first five miles or so were the typical suburban arterial roadways with limited facilities for bicycles. But it was also a Sunday morning, so traffic was reasonably light. And it got better the further out we went . . .

After about five miles, we were nearly in the country. And at ten miles, we had left the city behind!

This is especially evident when you see horses!

We biked on a lot of nice roads, but this one, Goshen Road, had to be one of the nicest.

In spite of the wind, we were actually making pretty good time, better than I had expected. After MP 25, we were biking in a more northeasterly direction and had less headwind.

Jeff got ahead of me, so I was biking solo for a good part of the middle of the ride. But somewhere along the way, unbeknownst to me, he stopped for lunch, and I pushed through, stopping at Guinney Station for a break and some snacks. At this point, we only had 12 miles to go.

That stop was a little bit off the route, but when I went to recover the course, Jeff was coming up behind me, so we rode our way into Fredericksburg together. After Guinney Station, we had also merged with the route I had taken southbound . . . and the wind had abated some!

Jeff had to work Monday . . . so our plan was to get a hotel in downtown Fredericksburg, close to good restaurants and the VRE Station. Then he would rise early and take VRE into Washington.

The VRE Station. Jeff will take VRE into DC tomorrow.

Our very spacious room at the Courtyard Marriott.

All that worked out well, and we enjoyed a decent dinner at the Capital Ale House. I guess we could have done something fancier, but Jeff had a limited change of clothes (gym shorts, basically), and I wanted a steak dinner, so the Ale House suited us fine.

Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 327 miles (526 km)

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