I pissed off a whole lotta Virginians today. But I would have pissed off many more if it weren’t for my new Road Angel (whose name I can’t remember.) But I’ll get to that shortly.
I rode 50 miles today in blazing heat, without much cloud cover. I made my way back to Minnieville Road to find my route, since I was off it by a few miles. Prince William Parkway had a nice, wide sidewalk for me to ride on, so I had no complaints there. Oh wait, I do have one... the people who are walking towards me, looking in every direction except straight ahead, and I have to yell “Excuse me!” three times before they go “Oh shit!” and jump out of the way. There...got that out of my system... Moving on.
My route took me on several different “highways” at this point. Riding down one of them, I saw my first cross-country bikers heading north from Florida (I assume). I would have loved to chat with them, but they looked so exhausted from the climb they were doing, they could barely wave at me. I switched from 642 to 234 to 646. I stopped at 646 and 611. It was noon, and there was a small general store on the corner, so I took the opportunity to enjoy a turkey sandwich. SMART because it was my last food opportunity for quite a while. I mentioned pissing people off - these roads I’m mentioning do not have much of a shoulder at all. I did the best I could to get out of the way, but it was very tricky at times.
I took a wrong turn at Sowego Road and went 6 miles out of my way, but that was my only navigating mistake for the day. I needed a bathroom pretty bad at that point, and there was nothing around. I pulled up to a church, and a nice man washing the floors let me use the bathroom. Yay! 611 changes to 612 and then 646 again, then 616 and then 627. Whew! I was on this road for 7 miles. Then 651 and 628. This is when I made a decision that may or may not have been the right one. I Google Mapped and saw that if I took Route 1, it would save me some time. It was getting late, I was getting tired and it was REALLY hot. I turned right onto 1, and for a few moments I thought “Hey, this isn’t so bad! I’ll be in Fredericksburg in no time!” That didn’t last long. Route 1 was absolutely treacherous for a biker, especially one with a trailer. It was a busy time of day for traffic too. I knew I had to get off that highway and quick. Even getting off the road proved to be difficult. There was a gas station across the road, but I had to smush myself against the curb and wait ten minutes for a break in the traffic.
I had to make the difficult decision to ask for help, something I don’t like to do. I went up to a few drivers at the pumps with pick-up trucks and asked them if they were headed to Fredericksburg. None of them were. I asked a gentleman inside the store if that was his truck outside. He said yes, and I asked if he was headed to town. He said no. I went back outside for a while and then he motioned me in. He said he would take me. We chatted about my ride for a while, and then piled everything in the back of his truck. It felt like we drove forever. I never, ever would have made it in a million years. He really saved me. The highway on that stretch would have been even worse biking for me. I’m so grateful to that man for his help, and also the nice young man who helped us get my bike out of the truck. So many nice people. I’m so grateful. Taking a day off tomorrow.
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