Distance: 140 miles Mineral, VA to Jamestown, VA
I wanted to get a campground spot in Williamsburg to stay in for my final day of riding and also to prepare for our return trip. I wanted my last day to be the 25 miles from Jamestown to Yorktown, VA so we could enjoy our final day. That meant that today I would have to ride about 140 miles and that would include riding through Richmond and all the way down the Capital Bike Path between Richmond and Williamsburg.
Mentally I figured the day would break down into three parts. First would be riding to Richmond, second would be riding around Richmond with all its traffic and third would be the Capital Bike Path that could be done after dark.
I started riding in Mineral. They were re-.paving main street and I had to do some working around the regular GPS route. It took a little bit of changing, but I finally made it out of Mineral and back onto the road leading to Richmond.
I was really looking forward to the bike path and dreading riding in the traffic of Richmond. The TransAmerican Bike Path gives two options for going though Richmond. One route goes around Richmond’s north end with GPS and the other without GPS and just a map goes right through downtown Richmond. After using the map only in California and along the Mississippi, I decided that I would use the GPS route and stay out of the downtown traffic. The downtown route visited important buildings of Richmond history and the belt loop visited Civil War Battlefields.
It was fun getting to Richmond. It was a another goal complete. About half way around the Richmond belt, I got hit by another thunderstorm. I went into a 7-11 and filled up my water bottles and then used their awning to stay out of the worst of the storm. The route around the outside of Richmond missed out on the first few miles of the bike path. I was really looking forward to the bike path and reaching it was another goal done. The bike path was in great condition and it was so relaxing to be out of traffic. We had dinner in Charles City.
It was getting dark by the time I got to the Jamestown Visitor Center. The swamps around Jamestown were terrible with bugs and mosquitoes. Kathie called and let me know where our campsite was and I started to go there. My phone told me to go 3 miles but at each turn it told me to go another mile and a half. I was riding so long today that my cycling computer died. It was a real relief getting to the campground.
ThruUSA2 