May 19, 2017
Day 22: Thornburg, VA to Woodbridge, VA
Today was another long, hot and hilly ride. Because we knew we had a long (for us) ride and the it was going to be hot, we left earlier than usual. Leaving Thornburg, we had good roads and nice open vistas with light traffic – the way we like cycling to be.
Just outside Thornburg we visited the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. The shrine is part of the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park and is located on what was once the Chandler Plantation. There were several displays that told of the battles in the area as well as the history of plantation where Jackson died. It was a nice break for us and about the last enjoyable part of today’s ride.
Leaving Fredericksburg, we had our first serious climb of the day, the road conditions deteriorated and the traffic picked up. It was that way for the rest of the day – lots of hills, lots of traffic and not a whole lot to see except trees. The good thing about the trees, however, is that they provided us with some shade and made it feel cooler. That really mattered, because we had a 30 mile stretch where there were no services. We did stop alongside the road a couple of times to cool off and rest our legs.
Even with the shade, by the time we reached Aden Grocery, we were beat. Aden’s is a little country store which has been in business there for over a hundred years. We remembered it well from stopping there with Team A last summer. It didn't have any place to sit, but it had air conditioning, food and Diet Coke, so we were happy and ready to face the final 16 miles of today’s ride.
Coming into Woodbridge, we had several miles of really heavy traffic on multilane streets, but we made it to the motel without incident and were just glad that the ride was over.
Shortly after checking in, we met with Kerry's sister and her husband and son. They drove over from their home in western Virginia to visit us. We all went out to Olive Garden for dinner and then spent time at the motel having an enjoyable evening together. They’re spending the night here at the motel, so we’ll get to visit some more before we leave in the morning.
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Tomorrows ride should be more pleasant. The weather will be cooler and our destination in Bethesda, MD is only 45 miles away with most of that being bike trails.
Today's ride: 65 miles (105 km)
Total: 1,111 miles (1,788 km)
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