At the motel in Sandston Hap discovered that somewhere along the way we had broken a rear spoke. We aren't sure how long it had been broken. Usually its pretty obvious when one breaks. Hap spent some time replacing it. This is the first broken spoke we have had the entire trip. On past trips we have broken alot of them so we were prepared. Hap's a gotten very good at fixing them over the years. So it didn't take him long. For dinner we walked across the parking lot to a place called "Soul Food". It was an interesting restaurant. You paid by the pound for buffet food. $5.49/pound. The food was ok.
We left Sandston and planned to skirt around the northeast corner of Richmond. We found a nice four lane road that was great for riding on until we found some road construction. After all the traveling on the bike, it is interesting to see how people/cars react to our bike in traffic. Being on the back of the tandem I can really watch what is going on. Afterall I have to protect our "assets"! One lady drove right up behind us, we were on a 4 lane section, and she had a clear passing lane to move into. But she just stayed on our wheel. Finally she had both lanes of traffic lined up behind her. Eventually she passed us, BUT she kept all four of her wheels on our side of the right lane. Interesting?? Before leaving Richmond we stopped for some sandwiches. Once we got out of town we were on nice low traffic roads again. There wasn't much traffic at all. When we left the hotel it was about 60 degrees and threatening rain. By the time we left Richmond the temps were dropping, eventually down to the 40's and it started to rain very hard. We spent the rest of the day riding in the rain. We were heading for a little town called Beaverdam where a friend of ours lived, Charlotte. The terrain changed today. We are finding more rolling hills. It was a beautiful place to ride. We arrived in the town of Beaverdam and called Charlotte. She said her house was another 4 miles down the road. So off we went again in the rain. When we arrived Charlotte welcomed us with some great hot coffee and a warm, dry house. Thanks Charlotte! She also cooked us a great meal of homemade stew and biscuits. Mmmmm.....
Since the weather was supposed to be bad again the next day we decided to take a day off and spend it with Charlotte and Boo Boo. Ok so we are getting our dog fix again as you can see in the picture above. Charlotte cooked us breakfast and then showed us the sights around town. We stopped by the post office to mail off the maps and things we don't need anymore. We are on our last set of maps. That's so hard to believe. When we left home last May, I collected all of the maps that we would need for our adventure and put them in a huge plastic tub in our living room. Throughout the year someone has been going by the house, getting the maps we need and mailing them all over the country. Now here we are almost a year later having used most of those maps. Wow! Hard to believe. We went out for chinese food for lunch. Then we stopped by the EMS station that Charlotte works at for a look see. By the time we got home we were all pretty tired and just sat around and talked.
This morning we left Charlotte and Boo Boo heading for Fredericksburg. Once again it was threatening rain, but it was warmer in the 60's. We were expecting rain all day. We had a great ride today. Low traffic roads, some rolling hills and pretty scenic views. We also had more color in the trees and bushes. Maybe spring is finally on its way. It seems like it has been a cold winter. When we arrived in Fredericksburg we were trying to find the Motel 6 that I had made a reservation for. I called the motel and asked the lady for directions. When I asked her how far it was to the hotel she said, "I am not sure by bicycle, but if you drive it is about 5 miles!" I am leaving ya'll with that statement. If you figure that one out let me know. I asked her about it when we got to the motel. "Wouldn't the distance be the same if you were riding a bike or driving a car?" She said, (and I quote) "I don't know, I've never ridden a bicycle.........."
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