Day 14: Rest Day in Richmond, VA

May 26, 2008

I got up later than usual (this was supposed to be a "rest" day). Walked a few blocks down from the motel and found a Kroger and stocked up on snacks, then back to the room and consumed some of them, then made one last attempt at reviving my waterlogged bike computer. It appeared to be dead. What a shame - I bought the thing in 2005, when I started riding "seriously", and it made it across the USA with me in 2006. The odometer was only a few miles away from hitting 10,000 miles, too. I was going to take a picture of it rolling from 9,999 to 10,000. *Sob*

I called a few bike shops, and found one that was open on Memorial Day. My motel was actually on the outskirts of Richmond, and the bike shop (all of the bike shops in town, actually), was eight or ten miles away.

So, I rode the unloaded bike towards downtown. As always, the bike felt so ultra-responsive without anything on it, that I felt like I was going to fall off, or something.

Traffic was fairly light all the way through the outlying neighborhoods, then the business district (lots of big banks), and finally through the interesting "Carytown" neighborhood (funky stores, ethnic food, lots of kids riding fixed-gear bikes, etc.)

The Carytown Bicycle Company was a nice shop, staffed mostly by heavily tattooed young women. Despite the obvious hipsterish vibe of the place, the people there were extremely nice to me, and didn't openly mock me or my kickstand.

I bought a Road Morph tire pump, which I had been lusting after since seeing Robert Ford's several days ago (my cheap pump sucked), and of course a new bike computer. I decided to pay one of the women at the shop to put the computer on, while I got a more interesting lunch in Carytown than I could find near my motel out by the airport (the options there were pretty much limited to Pizza Hut and Waffle House).

I walked around Carytown for a while, then stopped at an Indian restaurant for lunch. It was good, although I avoided the very spiciest fare there. I wasn't sure how something like Chicken Vindaloo and bike touring would mix the next day...

After lunch I walked back to the shop, where my bike was waiting. I talked to one of the women at the shop about touring - she was interested in doing a long tour. I told her I was doing a mixture of camping and (lately, mostly) motels. "Stealth camping?" "No, actual campgrounds." "Oh 'Girly' Camping" she said...

I rode back to the Super 8 and tried to get this journal caught up. I can't get that far behind again. What a nightmare.

The cool bike store where I bought a new pump and a new cycle computer.

Today's ride: 19 miles (31 km)
Total: 1,056 miles (1,699 km)

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