The Thin Blue Ride - Part 2 Day 91 - Ashland, VA to Charles City, VA

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Ride Report:  52 Miles, 4,186 total Miles, 18.5 Avg. mph, 1,332 Ft. Climbing, 4,056 Calories.

Check out that average speed for today.  52 miles, with some climbing, and I averaged 18.5.  While the climbing numbers have decreased as we approach the coast, this was by no means a flat course.  I’m 59 years old - I’ll take 18.5 - and live to tell the tale.  Probably repeatedly - even if no one asks.  But please ask, it’s just less awkward for all of us that way.

So - it was a good day today.  The only drawbacks were getting around Richmond and the increased traffic, but that's not gonna get any better before the ride concludes, so ya just kinda suck it up.  Even at that, given that the ACA established this route in 1976, I think it's amazing that they managed to find roads back then that are still serviceable for riders today.

Tomorrow is the big day - we complete the ride at Yorktown.  But before then, there's still today to examine.  Examine away...

This shot was early in the ride.  I believe we were still in Mechanicsville.  If ya ever wondered where all those guys that fix cars come from, this is the place.  Must be something in the water.  When I asked around, nobody seemed to know Flo - the guy who fixed our discombobulator in Hays, KS.  I did, however, ride past the Mechanicsville School of Discombobulating (MSD) where he received some of his training.  Their mascot is the "Wrenchers".  Looks pretty good on the side of a football helmet.

Those of you who are regulars here at The Thin Blue Ride know that this guy has been with me from the start.  I've managed to catch a couple of shots of him during the course of the ride.  Normally he's a pretty diligent worker, but today I caught him loafing.  We can't have that now, can we?  I lectured him and warned him that his continued intransigence and sloth would get us nowhere fast.  Apparently he listened because we went fast for the rest of the day.

There were a lot of cast iron roadside signs commemorating this or that battle of the Civil War along the route today.  In all honesty, if I'd stopped to check them all out we might still be on the road.  But this one was hard to pass up - for reasons that will be made clear below.

That's right - it was Sig and his penchant for "militaria" pics again.  He just can't help himself when he sees a big gun.  You shoulda seen him.  He was at the back of the cannon peering down the barrel pretending to aim it,  shouting "BOOM" at the top of his lungs, asking how big a team of horses it took to pull it.  Good Lord - it was embarrassing.   

But not so embarrassing that I didn't ask him to take a pic of me with the cannon also.  I think I pull it off much better than Sig, but didn't say anything.  I specifically didn't shout "BOOM" as a lady with a baby walked by, making the baby cry - like somebody else I know.

Susan stopped short of one of our planned breaks - and for good reason.  She stumbled across a national cemetery.  There was no one else there and the visitor's center wasn't open.  We went in and looked around.  The oldest stones dated from the Civil War, but there were markers there from WWI and WWII as well as some later stones.  Susan even found a husband and wife named Carey (close enough she said) buried there.  Of course she did...

I don't know if the reader can make it out, but the brass plaque on this cannon says, "Interments 1,192    Known 234    Unknown 958"  These numbers, no doubt, speak of the Civil War dead buried here when the cemetery was established in 1866.

The house behind us is the visitor center for the cemetery.  I can only imagine that it was "appropriated" at the time of the burials and the cemetery later commemorated after the war.  However, they knew we were coming.  Look - that's "us" in front of the house.  Don't blame me, Susan made me put that in there - thus proving that there are bad "Mom jokes" too.

After leaving the cemetery we proceeded to our original break location - which was right across the street from the Virginia Capital Trail.  This thing is a bike trail something like 50 miles long that runs all the way to Williamsburg.  We got on the trail near the West end and will follow it all the way to its starting point before taking the Colonial Parkway to Yorktown tomorrow.  The trail was fairly heavily used, but I saw only two runners - and NO ONE walking yappers.  My guess is that this will change as we get closer to Williamsburg tomorrow - Sunday morning.  With my luck it will be yapper central.

Susan snagged this pic of me riding away from that very same break.  So, this is Sig and me on the Virginia Capital Trail.  Note the casual one-handed wave.  Used by permission of Susan Schoen photography, LLC.

The Virginia Capital Trail about 10 miles later.  It really was in good shape, and once we got away from our break location, less traveled as well.

There were a number of these wooden bridges over creeks and rivers on the way to Charles City, VA.  They make a great sound when ya ride over them at about 20 mph - which was pretty easy to do since they were always at the bottom of a small hill.

That's my "I'm enjoying myself at 19 mph" smile.

This is another in a long line of accidental screen shots that happen when I put my phone back into my jersey pocket.  Must have something to do with the way I hold my phone when I put it away.  Note that I was listening to Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" at the time.  I've heard this song so many times across the country that I hallucinated on a climb in Kentucky and thought I was John Francis Bongiovi.  That's his given name, his friends just call him John.  He's known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi

This is Johnathan.  When I got to The Rig at Charles City this afternoon, Susan was already chatting him up.  She saw him riding toward Charles City as she passed him and since The Rig is parked maybe 30 ft. from the trail, she hailed him and got him to pull in as he came by.  After refilling him with water and letting him use our pump for his leaky back tire, he told me that he's a veteran (US Army) who suffered a broken neck during his service.  And he had the (huge) scars to show for it.  He described how when he woke up he was paralyzed and he still refers to himself as a walking quadriplegic.  It was obvious he had some physical limitations, but he was also at the tail end of his 600 mile tour and getting close to home.

Can't beat that for inspiration and a great way to close the day.

Till next time.