June 24, 2016
Onward to Richmond
Today's ride from Jamestown to Richmond was almost entirely on the Virginia Capitol Trail. The entire trail has a brand new creamy surface, although you need to be careful of pine cones and tree debris in certain sections of the trail.
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We saw some logging going on next to the trail. The entire operation is very mechanized - no more hand held chainsaws for cutting down trees or loping off branches. The feller can take care of that in seconds.
After about 10 miles we pulled into a gas station near the trail. Kerry bought a bag of chocolate covered donuts. Apparently the man who will not touch a fresh blackberry for fear of worms knows no fear (or at least checks no sell-by dates) when dealing with junk food. Fortunately for Kerry the first thing he did was offer one to Alain who snarfed down half a donut in a single bite, thereby discovering that they were moldy. The clerk allowed Kerry to swap the donuts for a junk food item that had been produced in the 21st century. Alain declined the generous offer to share in the new bounty.
The trail took us to Charles City which has one of the oldest courthouses in the country. We were not impressed with the demeanor of the judges.
At the advice of a local cyclist we met on the trail we took a diversion down to see Wilcox's landing. In June of 1864 General Grant moved his army from Cold Harbor to attack Petersburg. The union army crossed the James River using ferries at Wilcox's landing and a pontoon bridge a couple miles downstream at Weyanoak Point. The pontoon bridge was 2100 feet in length yet was constructed in under 8 hours by the army engineers.
Our next side trip off of the Capital trail was to visit Shirley plantation. We had to give up the smooth pavement of the trail for a dirt and gravel road to reach the plantation but it was worth the effort. The 4,000 acres of land for the plantation was granted by the King of England in 1613, 6 years after the founding of Jamestown. The great house was built in 1638 and is still occupied by the same Hill / Carter family that has been there for 11 generations. We were given an interesting tour of the Shirley house by Ms. Eide Johnson.
The trail ended when we reached the center of Richmond. We then had to negotiate a few congested and hilly miles through Richmond to reach the house we were staying in.
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Once we got to the house we got cleaned up and went out in search of dinner. Unlike the small towns we have been staying in, the Carytown neighborhood in Richmond had dozens of restaurants to choose from. We walked into half a dozen before choosing a Mexican restaurant. After eating we walked back to the house, with a stop for coke (diet) and chocolate donuts (mold-free) along the way. We made it back to the house just as it was starting to rain.
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