To Exmore VA

May 7, 2024

This morning John serves up some of his daughter Cara's yummy homemade sourdough bread for breakfast. Then we get to meet Cara and little Spencer who is coming for a regular day with Poppa. She's a cutie, and ready to play as she brings me one of her tiny basketballs to toss into the hoop.

On the spur of the moment John decides he and Spencer will ride along with us to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge for a proper sendoff. We have quite a caravan going on this sunny morning.

Spencer is still processing all these strangers at Grandpa's place, but she gets into it once we start riding.

Bikes aren't allowed on the narrow lanes of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Instead you can get a ride from the CBBT folks. Just call them up to schedule it at least 24 hours ahead. There's no charge other than the normal toll for a car to cross.

Loading our bikes into the van for the 19 mile trip across the Chesapeake Bay.

Thanks to John for an awesome stay in Virginia Beach!

As we emerge from the tunnel onto the bridge, it's clear why you can't ride a bike here.

Once we're off the bridge and back in the saddle, Mike and I discover we have the same problem with our Wahoo Bolt gps devices. The screens are frozen in rerouting mode and none of the buttons work except the power button. I guess the tunnel confused them to the point of paralysis. It takes two hard restarts to get them working again, a relief. Barry has a new Wahoo Roam that does not have this problem. If it's been fixed for the Roam, it seems like that could be an update for the Bolts too.

We're in Cape Charles at the narrow southern end of the DelMarVa peninsula, starting off on a bike trail through the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. The path flows onto Seaside Road, a quiet route with very few cars that we'll follow all the way to Exmore. We haven't seen a lot of farm land on the tour and are enjoying the ride past fields and flowers.

The bike path runs along Lankford Highway but the screen of trees between us and the road makes it easy to tune out the traffic.

A friendly farmer waves to us from his tractor

The red stakes poked in by all these plants color the fields beautifully. I wonder what the plants are?

Breathing deeply as we ride past sweet-smelling meadows

The 19 mile bridge shuttle has shortened our ride to a moderate 38 miles, leaving time for a nice lunch. In the town of Nassawadox we ride by the Little Italy Restaurant. Italian sounds good until I see they have an extensive Mexican menu too which sounds even better. The yummy fajitas are a deal at 12.99. I love these small town places.

Our room at the Quality Inn has lots of space for three bikes, a big writing desk and comes with a good breakfast. We're enjoying the mix of stays - fresh air and space in the campgrounds, fun connections and conversation with our WarmShowers hosts and the simple comforts of a motel room now and then.

I take advantage of the desk to finish up the story of our day in Kitty Hawk, a post that took me three days to write. There's been a lot of time invested lately in planning routes and accommodations for the rest of the tour that has squeezed out writing time. I'll keep plugging along.

Clean, comfortable, spacious... pretty nice for an inexpensive hotel.

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Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 1,780 miles (2,865 km)

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