In a short recap of the trip so far, I thought I'd address three items:  my bike, my health, and my gear.

1. The bike:  other than needing to tighten the front brake and slightly inflate the tires, there were no issues.
2. My health:
a) weight - I previously mentioned that I was up to 170 lbs when I started this trip. Shockingly, in spite of eating like Joey Chestnut in a room of free hot dogs and pies, I lost 10 pounds. One of the first things my wife said when she saw me was, "You're so skinny!" I believe this green lights the Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
b) left elbow - If you recall, I crashed on my third day of riding and bloodied my elbow. There was a scab for a couple of weeks so it hurt every time I placed my elbow onto any surface. However, once the scab disappeared, it still hurt to place it on anything solid so I suspected something else might be going on. I was able to squeeze in an orthopedist appointment between my two vacations and the physician determined I have a "bone bruise."
c) left shoulder pain - This spontaneously started hurting shortly before I started this bike trip without any type of injury. At that same appointment the orthopedist let me know that I have some osteoarthritis (the kind of arthritis you get when things start wearing out - like after you've turned 66), but I suspect something else is going on. About the only thing I can't do is move my right arm across my body, so as long as I never need to wash my left armpit I think I'll be okay.
Neither the elbow nor the shoulder are limiting my riding whatsoever, so no worries.
3. My gear:
The Garmin was, euphemistically, "problematic," and Lyle's comment ("Every Garmin that I’ve tried to use for navigation has ended up crushed under my heel") kept coming to mind. Tempting, very tempting. However, as a person who believes in 2nd and 3rd chances, I'm going to see how it goes now that it actually has maps loaded on it. The jury is still out so I won't put on my stomping boots quite yet, but I'll polish them up.  

A friend of mine said that because I’m carrying so much superfluous gear I’d be mailing half of it back after a couple of weeks. Surprisingly, out of the ~250 items I carried (granted, that includes bike, bags, wristwatch, etc),  I used the vast majority. Items I didn’t use:
clear lenses, yellow lenses, National Parks Pass, passport card, earbuds, remote controller for Canon Powershot, Sugru, cotton ball, degreaser/hand cleaner, duct tape, electrical tape, emergency tire boot, FiberFix, grease, lube, needle nose pliers, patch kit, pedal wrench, Presta-to-Schrader adapter, spare tube, speed lever, spoke wrench, bandana, head netting for mosquitoes, butterfly closures, cephalexin, diphenhydramine, ACE bandage, non sterile gloves, loperamide, promethazine, triamcinolone, zinc oxide, face masks, playing cards, safety pin, sewing kit, carabiner, LifeStraw, waterproof matches, toilet paper, merino gloves, merino beanie, rain pants, spokes.

That's 45 items (far fewer than I had anticipated), totaling 3.3 lbs/1520 grams. Of that, the things that absolutely must be taken regardless of whether they get used:  patch kit, spoke wrench, National Parks Pass, passport card (going to Canada), playing cards (because it's the only item I've taken on every single one of my bike trips since 1982), spare tube, pedal wrench, FiberFix, speed lever (tire tool), and toilet paper. 

Those ten items weigh 0.93 lbs/423 grams. Subtracting 423 grams from 1520 grams comes to the amount of weight that I carried, but didn't use: 1097 grams/2.4 lbs. Considering the total weight of the bike, my gear, and me, two and a half pounds doesn't seem like a lot, and a lot less than I would've expected.

I'm changing out some things as well. If you recall from Day 35, my cycling shorts appear to be wearing thin so I bought a new pair. They're amazingly thick, with more cushion than I've ever seen in a pair of shorts. In fact, I'm considering also using them as a pillow, as long as I remember to make sure they're clean when I do; otherwise, I risk an urgent visit to the Emergency Room for facial burns. I'm also switching out my Bingham Cycling jersey for a long-sleeved Terry jersey, and leaving one of my 1.5 liter water bottles at home (I never needed it, and water is heavy). I'm bringing my Gray'l water filter instead of the LifeStraw (adding an additional 386 grams/0.85 lbs, unless you discount the water weight I carried).

I bought a neck cover that attaches to my helmet and some sunsleeves. I hate wearing sunscreen, but would hate even more to get skin cancer.

There's one other item that I strongly considered bringing, but didn't.  Melissa, my sister-in-law, is very likely the only person who has read every one of my blogs. In fact, I’m so sure of it that I’ll offer an autographed picture of a future Pulitzer Prize winning author to anyone who has read all of my writings (disclaimer: the photo will be me with the future winner, and the autograph will be mine, not his).  

This poor, longsuffering woman had to read them all in order to present me with possibly some of my all-time favorite Christmas presents:  a bound copy of each one of my blogs. Each year that I take a trip and post it online I've received a bound copy of the journal. I mention this because she and my brother-in-law, Scott, bought me a gift, which I found when I arrived at home:

Heart

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Welcome back, and stay tuned.... the next couple of days are jam packed with places I visited during my stay in Richmond, and possibly some of the most interesting yet.