Day 14 We found some flat road!

This is a view of I95 from Virgina Route 301 just a mile or so from our destination.It runs parallel to I95 and is so close that you can easily read the signs.







We left the Hampton Inn in south Richmond at about 6:15 and immediately went the wrong way. We ended up going a total of 2.3 miles out of our way and it was up hill coming back. YUCK!

The real beginning of the trip was hilly again AND there was a pretty strong south westerly. We love headwinds (sarcasm in case you missed it). In spite of all that we persevered and made slow progress. We stopped at a Wawa for drinks and restrooms. I really needed the cold liquid. We chatted with some people. At least one of them warned us about stopping in Petersberg. It is supposedly dangerous with drug related incidents. He showed us a knife and said we should have one.

The next time we stopped it was in the southern  outskirts of Petersberg. We had gone through what seemed to be the bad section of the city. The main problem seemed to be that the roads had been patched and repatched but never really paved.  After climbing what we hoped was the last hill in the city (it wasn’t) we hit a CVS for restrooms and drinks.

Off we went again. When we got to our mile 30, it was about exit 45 on I95, we passed several motels and had to decide wether to stop or push on 12 plus miles to the next place with motels (for which we had coupons). So Debbie “convinced” me to push on.

At least it was mostly flat. There was that headwind which made our progress slower and more effortful that it would have been but were would end up farther down the road. The hope was to make this the last might in Virginia.

It took us 2:30 to make the 12 or so miles (one stop for drinks), but at about 2:30 we pulled into the parking lot shared by the Hampton and Sleep Inns. We chose the Sleep Inn because the coupons we had gave us a $10 better deal there. We checked in, put the stuff in the room, washed our faces, and walked to Denny’s for “dinner.” Mel had two.

Today’s mileage: W biked 42.1 miles  (2.3 off route) at an average speed of 7.9. We are 557 miles into the trip (of which about 17 is off route).

Debbie’s emotionometer: After a crabby “I hate the hills and headwind” period early in the day, Mel found his inner Lance for the last 8 miles and was totally awesome! We finished hot, tired, and hungry, but feeling like we accomplished more than we thought we would.