Charlottesville to Mineral

Miles Today: 53.67
Average Speed: 9.5mph

Total Miles: 3,641.57

The morning began in nearly the same place the day ended–after we had some breakfast with Stephen and said our goodbyes, we headed to the Mudhouse coffee shop on the pedestrian mall, hoping their coffee would be cheaper than their chocolate milk.
Fortunately, it was, and we were able to enjoy a wonderful cheddar-chive scone, to boot. We left Charlottestown at a leisurely pace. With the knowledge that we were done with the Appalachians, nothing seemed too daunting. It was pleasant riding out, with a good clearance for bikes and friendly cars… Until we actually got out of the city.

The shoulder disappeared, and the road started to twist and turn. We were approaching Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home, and traffic was pretty heavy for a small, winding road. We had decided the day before not to visit Monticello, after finding out that a ticket to see the manicured lawns, perfect gardens, and elegantly restored home of our third president would cost us $24 apiece. I’ve seen plenty of old buildings, awesome gardens, and enough lawns to feed all the cows of America–for free.
Just after we passed Monticello, we saw an orchard to the right. A crew was out working on the trees, and we waved hello.

My favorite find of the morning was this snail, who was seen crawling across the gravel during a shade break. His shell was probably the size of a gumball and his little antennae were so fascinating.
As we rode, I pondered the physical properties of snails and slugs. Does anybody have any idea how they project those antennae? Are there tiny muscles in their heads?
This question baffled me until Evan shouted, “check out those trees!” and pointed to the right.

The trees were wispy and colorful, and yet again we were awed by the stuff that just grows here. Those trees seem like the kind of thing that would take a whole lot of effort to grow in most places.
Soon we passed a road called “Wyoming View Place” or something similar, and I wondered if this is what all Virginians think Wyoming looks like.

I certainly don’t think that this landscape reminds me of Wyoming. When I think of Wyoming, I think of beautiful sunsets, and mountains, and lovely things, not dying trees and sand.
As we rode on, the road straightened out a bit, and we were flying along. It feels so nice to have our speed back!
Under a tree, we found Choi Sung Gyoo, a Korean medicine doctor who has set out to cross the country by bicycle.


We had a great chat. Since we are ever approaching the east coast, we are appearing earlier and earlier in people’s journeys, and we were actually the first cyclists he’s seen! It has got to be a big relief to see cyclists after riding for a few days, wondering if you’re doing it right.
After a little sleuthing, we discovered that Choi Sung Gyoo has a ton of videos up on YouTube. We don’t speak any Korean, but if you’re interested in watching, you can visit his web page at Choi Sung Gyoo.
After we continued on, the shady areas became scarce, and the landscape slowly transformed into one dominated by fields. The temperature was rising, and we hadn’t seen a good town in a while.
Since we knew the towns would be sparse today, we ended up stopping in at a post office (the only building we could find at an intersection), where the clerk was very kind and filled our bottles for us. With the heat of the afternoon sun, she saved the day by helping us battle dehydration.
Out of nowhere, about five miles down the road, a bike lane appeared on the road. We were excited to see the little biking man painted on the pavement, until we looked at the cruel joke being played on us.


A bike lane is only a good thing when it’s clear of debris and sand, and this beach of a bike lane was not going to be graced by the rubber of our tires until it cleaned up its act.
The bike lane left just as suddenly as it had come, and we continued to ride in the road, since the shoulder was still covered in sand. Then we saw a sign for the tiny town of Kent’s Store. I liked this, because Kent is my pastor at Excelsior United Methodist Church, and the idea of him having a store in the middle of Virginia is amusing.


The thing we saw the most of this day was lawn-mowing. Apparently, Friday is lawn mowing day in these parts, and we were serenaded by tractors and mowers and weed whips (oh, my!) all day.


Evan is probably getting tired of it, but I inevitably sing the line “for amber waves of grain…” at least once a day.


It’s always followed by “but where are the purple mountains?”–I guess I saw those on the other side of the country.
The next giggle of the day was brought to us by Goochland County–if you ever watched Diff’rent Strokes on tv, you might remember the Gooch, the bully who didn’t ever come on screen, but was a presence in Arnold’s life for a while. Gooch is also the name of my good friend Jenny’s dog, and a funny word to say.


Then we saw Beer Can Alley, and forgot all about the Gooch, doubling over in laughter yet again.


Okay, we didn’t actually double over in laughter, since we were on bikes. But man, there are some great names out here.

We had a bit more riding to do, and were anticipating getting to Mineral for the evening, since the fire station awaited us, and Evan’s friend Tim was driving all the way from Washington DC to visit! We stopped briefly at a gas station for chocolate milk, and then pedaled the last three or four miles into Mineral.


As promised, the fire station was there at the end of town, with its gleaming trucks and smiling firepeople.


And then we rounded the corner and saw Tim!


Tim left his little baby Will, and his partner Jen, and drove all the way from DC in memorial day weekend traffic (that’s on top of the normal DC traffic, which I’ve heard is horrendous) to have dinner in the tiny town of Mineral with us.
It turned out to be a nice break from the monotony of home for him, and it was really nice for us to see a familiar face. The dinner wasn’t half-bad, either.


It was great to hang out with Tim, who has been following the blog pretty devotedly–Evan would try and tell him a story, and he was able to finish half of the stories because he had “seen it on the blog”. We laughed because the only time he would logically have to look at the blog would be at work, where he’s blocked from visiting most websites. I guess my blog flew under the radar!
We were so incredibly grateful to have a friendly, familiar face in an unfamiliar place. I had met Tim at Christmas, when we visited the east coast for a week, so it was nice to get to know him a little better.
He left after dinner, deciding it best not to camp out and drive in the morning, and we ended up spending a good portion of the evening after that chatting with Steve and Carlos, who had showed up in Mineral while we were at dinner! Their original group of four had dwindled–Matt had only planned to do part of the loop, and had gone home after that, and David had to leave early due to an issue with his bike. We were sad to hear that David couldn’t stay on, but of all people, I know that it’s not a good idea to carry on when things aren’t right.
Steve and Carlos were on their last night of camping, and the next day would see them riding back to Richmond to complete their loop. After some story-swapping and discussion, we all realized that we were wiped out, and headed to our tents for the night.
The firehouse yard was relatively quiet, and we fell asleep pretty quickly, the joy of seeing old and new friends fresh in our minds.