Day 23 - Charlottesville, VA to Hopewell, VA - 147.1 miles

Sunday, after 147 miles, I made it to my parent's house!!!  The day started out from Charlottesville and the route went through a mix of open country and forested roads.  It was much flatter than it's been.  There were still rolling hills, but they were shorter and not as steep.

(Starting out for the day.)

(Some vineyards.)

(Beautiful roads.)

(House sitting at a fork in the road.)

When I stopped in Palmyra, the ladies at the store told me about a guy that rode through this morning.  I met him later in the morning at another gas station where we had both stopped to get supplies.  His name was Dan Miner and he was racing the TransAm.

Apparently he the last time he slept was Friday night and he started this leg of the trip Saturday at 4:30am, rode through the day and overnight, and was riding through Sunday hoping to make it to Yorktown by the end of the day.

He left the gas station before me, but I caught up to him a little bit down the road.

Later that night, while I was sitting around at my parent's, I checked the TransAm tracker and sure enough he made it!  So, congrats to him!

(Catching Dan after he left me at the gas station.)

(Riding along Lake Anna.)

(Lake Anna.)

After passing Dan and riding through Lake Anna, the next big stop was Ashland.  At that point, I was going to access if I really wanted to go all the way to my parents (150ish miles) or stop for the night.  I decided to continue on.

While in Ashland, I stopped at a McDonald's.  The looks from the people were funny as I brought my bike in, sat down at a table, and ate my Quarter Pounder and fries.  Good food to recharge (sorta) 100 miles into a 150 mile ride.

(The roads were rough at time, but stunning.)

Once I got to the East side of Richmond, the route hopped on the Virginia Capital Trail.  It's a 52 mile dedicated multi-use trail from Richmond to Williamsburg that parallels Route 5. 

(Capital trail.)

(Gotta love getting off the road and on a dedicated path.)

With 7 miles to go, I hopped off the TransAm route and headed across the James River towards my parent's home.

That meant crossing a draw bridge.  As I got to the bridge, the lights started flashing and the gates came down.  I stood there for a while as they opened the bridge and then I decided to sit down on the curb.  About 15 or 20 minutes later, the bridge came back down and the gates went back up.

There was a long line of cars waiting for the bridge, so I let them go by.  No sense being in their way going over a two lane metal bridge.

(Bridge over the James River.)

(Got there just as they were raising the draw bridge.)

After crossing the bridge, it wasn't much further and, before I knew it, I was turning into my parent's neighborhood.  After 147 miles, it was a welcome sight!

(Turning into my parent's neighborhood.)

(Finally there!)