June 12, 1997
Day 4: Lake Anna to Richmond VA
Memories of SNL and "The President is Weewy Weewy Warge"
Continuing our trip as the "Boyz in the Bubble," the weather dawned sunny and cool as we eased our tender bottoms onto the bike seats. We ate breakfast at the same convenience store as the night before, and Mike learned what sausage gravy and biscuits were - nothing very edible to a northern boy.
Maintaining our tradition of rarely cycling more than 7 or 8 miles without stopping for some reason or other, we took a short detour to stop at the North Anna nuclear power plant visitor center. An incredibly perky woman showed us around the exhibits which showed how Lake Anna was built specifically as a cooling pond for the power plant and how all the safety features meant nothing could go wronG nothing Could go Wrong nthingo cldou og rwngo a;lkusrdjqpwwoei;urqaslfdialksf
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The visitor's center had a full set of maps showing evacuation routes, I mean scenic touring routes, to Richmond but we stuck with the Routemeister's plan to get back on Bike Route 76 and were rewarded with miles of flat to rolling hills and passed a series of folks biking the Bikecentennial route to Oregon.
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We decided to push lunch back to the 42 mile mark, to take a short detour in Ashland to eat at the Smoky Pig. That caused some moaning and groaning as we slogged through gradual uphills but the appearance of Newfound Falls, a scenic little waterfall in the middle of nowhere, gave us a boost.
The route had a nice stretch paralleling railroad tracks where a number of beautiful old homes had been restored.
We glided into the Smoky Pig after following Bike Route 76 out of the woods and into the heart of the I95 corridor.
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We demolished large helpings of barbecue at the Smoky Pig and had about 15 more miles of urban cycling to go before we reached the Econolodge just north of Richmond.
We crossed the RR tracks just ahead of one looong train, but at the next crossing we had to wait as an even looonger one went by. A cyclist with a British accent caught up to us and chatted for a while and we reached the hotel by 4 pm or so.
We walked a mile or so to do laundry, ate mediocre Chinese food at a nearby restaurant, stocked up on supplies at the Food Lion and collapsed in the hotel to watch the "Blue Brothers" movie.
Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 225 miles (362 km)
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