September 2- Ashland to Fredericksburg, Va.

An excellent hotel breakfast kept us from an early start.

Once on the road, we retraced about 10 miles from yesterday's route, and finally left the Transamerica Bike Route and headed north on the Atlantic Coast Route. Kentucky and Virginia have marked the bike routes (Transam is 76, Atlantic Coast is 1) with signs at almost every turn, and the signs are very helpful. We hope all states follow suit.

We rode about 40 miles through rolling country. Not many farms in this area. No tobacco, a few cornfields, and a few more soybean fields. Many country homes.

After a lunch stop at a KOA, we hit the steepest hill of the whole summer: 19%! We almost ground to a halt but we did top the short hill, feeling a little shattered. Other than that and a few lesser sharp hills, the terrain is settling down to gentle rolling countryside.

Approaching Fredericksburg, we rode through the Civil War battlefield of the same name. Early in the war the Union army tried to cross the Rappahannock River here and storm the heights behind the city where Lee's forces were entrenched. The Union forces were slaughtered. Something like 20,000 men were killed that one day.

At Fredericksburg, after about 60 miles for the day, the lodging choices were limited, and we ended up at a luxurious Marriott in the historic district. Our room is comfortable and large, but not as large as the dance hall upstairs from the fire station where we slept night before last.

Our plan is to end our ride at Alexandria on Wednesday.

September 1- Mineral to Ashland, Va.

We were up and away early from the fire house in Mineral, to ride ten miles to the next town, Bumpass (pronounced bumpus) in time to attend church there. Then a minimart breakfast and back on the road.

It was only a 45-mile day, so we stopped at Scotchtown, home of Patrick Henry. We got a long personal tour, and learned a lot about him. An interesting guy. One reason he is not as famous as other founding fathers is that he kept very few of his papers. He was also a composer and poet, but he burned it all. He was a successful lawyer and planter, and at the end of his life in 1799 he was one of the wealthiest men in Virginia. The house is maintained by a private historical foundation, and has many pieces of original furniture.

About 10 miles north of Ashland, Va.our route to our goal of Alexandria diverges from the Trans Am route we've been following all summer. But if we'd made the turn there today, we would have been left with nowhere to stay for 40 more miles. So we continued into the sizeable city of Ashland, and will retrace our steps tomorrow.

The terrain has been noticeably flatter over the last two days, though the last five miles into Ashland today were quite hilly.

The picture is Patrick Henry's home, framed by Sandy and our guide.

August 31- Charlottesville to Mineral, VA

Today's 55-mile ride itself was uneventful. A hot, humid day, riding through rolling countryside. We drank a lot of water and were happy to reach our destination.

The town of Palmyra was our halfway point today. Even though the population is only a few hundred, they have a good grocery there with a deli. It was too early for lunch, so we had them make us sandwiches to take along. While there we met a cyclist riding from Richmond to Charlottesville who had hosted our Dutch friend Miriam on her way to Yorktown. She had described us and told him to look out for us. We had told Miriam we planned to ride in Holland when we got old (and couldn't climb hills any more). Evidently she thought that was very funny, since we already looked old to her, so she had repeated the story to the man we met today. At yesterday's lunch stop the couple we met had also met Miriam, and plan to take her to New York after they finish their ride. Miriam herself finished eight days ago.

At Mineral, a very small town, there is a barbecue restaurant, but no motels. We sought out the fire station, which our map shows as allowing camping on their grounds. They welcomed us and let us use the showers in the fire house. As we were relaxing outside before dinner, one of the firemen came out, warned us that there was a severe thunderstorm approaching, and invited us to sleep in the dance hall upstairs in the firehouse instead of out in our tent. We were glad to accept the offer.

Before we moved inside we had a long talk with a man who stopped his pickup nearby just to say hello. We learned that Mineral was at the epicenter of the earthquake that shook the mid-atlantic states two years ago. His own house suffered a collapsed chimney, and the local elementary and high schools were damaged beyond repair. Most buildings in the area were damaged. He mentioned one home which cost over a million dollars to repair, of which insurance paid nothing because of fine print: it wasn't the owner's primary residence.

At Charlottesville last night, the motel was amost underneath a railroad trestle. When a train came through in the wee hours the whole building shook. When the air conditioner cycles on here at Mineral, it creates a similar rumble. Train tracks also run beside the building. If it shakes during the night, we won't know if it is the A/C, a train, or an earthquake.

August 30- Love to Charlottesville, VA

We had 16 miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway to start the cool, sunny day. A magnificent ride. At the junction of the Blue Ridge and Skyline Drive parkways, we descended from our last mountain of the trip and started eastward to Charlottesville. The countryside is similar but on this side of the mountains there is no sign of the poverty we occasionally saw in the Shenandoah Valley.

We stopped for lunch at a store which has been owned and operated by the same family for 127 years. There we met a couple from Manassas who are also finishing a cross country ride. Many shared experiences. They started in Oregon a couple of weeks after we did.

At Charlottesville we were lucky to find a room on a football weekend, thanks to a computer glitch which had left some rooms unsold at the first motel we tried. After a shower and rest we walked through the historic center of the UVa campus, where my father and younger brother both started their college educations.

On the walk back to our motel we enjoyed watching the band practice their halftime show.

We have a good web connection, so I'll include pictures from yesterday and today:

Sandy on Blue Ridge Pky Thursday, telling our story.
Our cabin just off the Blue Ridge Pky.
Blue Ridge Pky Friday.
Wyant's Store, White Hall, Va.
Univ. of Va. Rotunda

August 29- Lexington to Love, VA

Today's route took us across the Shenandoah Valley and up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The first ten miles out of Lexington were uneventful and relatively easy riding, but then we found there were discrepancies between what the map and cue sheet were telling us we should be seeing, and what we were seeing. Which is to say, we were lost. A helpful woman stopped at a crossroads where we were scratching our heads and directed us in the right direction to rejoin the intended route.

The elevation profile led us to expect that from the town of Vesuvius the road up to the Blue Ridge would climb 1500' in four miles. It was to be the last major climb of the whole trip. We have faced many difficult climbs with foreboding, only to find that they really weren't so bad. The most recent example was crossing the first of the Appalachian Range into Virginia's Great Valley. That one we gave the name of Pussycat Pass. Well, today's should be called The Boy Who Cried Wolf, because it was even harder than we expected. The whole climb was at a grade of 11-15%. We stopped to catch our breath more and more frequently, even though it is hard to restart on such a steep grade. It finally got to the point where we could only go a few hundred feet; we gave up and walked, pushing the loaded tandem up the mountain. In summary, we rode the first mile, took breaks during  the next mile, and walked the last two. It wasn't pretty, but we did get our bike, gear and carcasses up to the top. An alternative name for the climb would be come-along since we could have used one to hoist the bike up the mountain. One man we spoke with in Lexington yesterday rolled his eyes at the idea of riding a bike up from Vesuvius and said that during the Revolutionary War the Americans hauled cannons up that route and no one knows how they did it. We know how they must have felt. By the way, we have climbed the real Mt. Vesuvius, on foot, and it isn't that steep.

Once on the Blue Ridge Parkway we enjoyed that beautiful road for 11 miles. When they built that road in the 30's, they routed it around the peaks and kept the grade to about 10% or less. There are very few places for lodging or camping along the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Skyline Drive further north. The place we stopped for the night is just out of sight of the Parkway, and we would not have known about it except for a listing on our map. We have a comfortable and well equipped cabin, and there is a little country store here where we got lunch and supplies to fix our own dinner. All the other cabins are vacant tonight, probably because no one knows they are here. Would make a good marketing case study at a business school.

We have a weak wifi connection, and I don't dare try to upload any pictures.

We will sleep well tonight.

August 28- at Lexington, VA

For the first time on the trip, we stayed off the bike entirely today because of weather. It was raining with lightning nearby this morning, and the next leg of our journey climbs up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It will be hard enough in decent weather, so we stayed a second night at our luxury B&B, and spent the day reading, relaxing, and letting our brains rot. The weather forecast for tomorrow is better, and we'll be on the road no matter what.

We have settled on our final destination for the trip, at Alexandria, VA. It is about 50 miles and one day further than the traditional Yorktown, but my brother and his wife have invited us to end our trip at their house on the shore of the Potomac, and we are looking forward to seeing them.

At the end of week 12 we are at 3962 miles and 149,018 feet of climbing.

August 27- Daleville to Lexington, VA

This was a day of stark contrasts.

We had diverted from the prescribed route yesterday by a couple of miles on a very busy highway in order to reach a motel; we even had to walk the bike on the shoulder for a short stretch. This morning, to avoid fighting our way back, we continued in the same direction for a short distance before turning onto U.S.11 to intersect with our route. It was a challenge to negotiate that busy, multi-lane highway, but we managed it without incident.

Shortly, we found ourselves on a lonely backroad with killer hills- the max was 18%- making us wish we were back on the highway. And in fact, we soon were. But it wasn't long before we were back on a country road and I remarked to Sandy that it was pleasant riding. As I thought about it, of course it was pleasant. It was sunny and cool enough that the sun and shade were equally comfortable. The smooth road was winding through woods at a steady 1% downgrade. We were warmed up but not tired, and the bike liked the gear it was in. You could sell tickets for a ride like that.

We stopped at the historic town of Buchanan for a meal, even though it was only 10:30. We keep telling ourselves that mealtime should be a matter of opportunity rather than the clock. We ate at an old drugstore with a pharmacy, soda fountain, and booths. Not cutely nostalgic, just an old place still going. The staff was putting up Happy Birthday banners for the boss, which we thought was a nice touch, not something you'd see at Walgreen's.

The later ride was on backroads though never far from I-81. In early afternoon, at about mile 50, we reached Lexington, and sought out the bike store we had been looking forward to. We restocked our supply of tube patches but the shop was so cramped the owner couldn't get our tandem back to his service area to do a little cable improvement I was hoping for.

We retraced our route a few blocks to check out a B&B we'd seen on the way into town. It is a budget-buster, but worth it; a large, luxurious house with antique furniture and beautiful artwork. We've stayed in enough cheap motels to feel we deserve hardship mitigation sometimes.

We walked several blocks to a Greek restaurant and enjoyed dinner there. We have seen no Greek restaurant before on this trip.While there we met four young cyclists (3M, 1F), eastbound like us. They left Astoria only a week after we did.

On the walk back we stopped at a cemetery to visit Stonewall Jackson's grave.

Lexington is a beautiful old town of 8000, the home of Washington and Lee College and also VMI. As pretty a town as any we've seen, and thriving. The restaurant prices are higher than we've grown used to.

One other thing to mention. We must have been asked our age at least 50 times so far on this trip. Since that's a question out of normal polite bounds, there is apparently a disconnect between what we are doing and how old we look. Makes us feel good every time we're asked.

The first picture below is nothing special, just a typical view of our roads through Virginia.