History Trail

Tuesday, May 16. Ashland to near Fredericksburg, VA.

After leaving the wam, civilized, and caffeinated confines of the Ashland Coffee and Tea Company, our ride changed almost immediately to rural roads, georgous forest, and the first real topographical changes we've seen in a while. This is beautiful country--Matthew commented that he could understand why settlers arrived here and never left. We free-wheeled down long, winding descents, and then crawled our way back up the other side. At the bottom of the first descents, the climb up began so abruptly and so steeply that I couldn't downshift fast enough, ran out of momentum, and had to walk up the hill! As I pushed my biike and trailer up the hill, I felt as though it would slide back down the hill if I didn't put all of my weight into the climb. I glanced at my cyclo-computer and noticed that I was going too slow to even register any speed!

Our lunch stop came just a bit sooner than we had planned--my rear tire had a flat. This is the second one in 2 days, and we can't find anything in the tire that might be causing the puuncture. Now we know we'll have to stop at the next bikeshop to pick up more tubes and have them check out the tire for us.

Shortly after our lunch break, Matthew spotted an historical marker for the birthplacee of William Clark (of Lewis and Clark). This is an exciting moment for both of us--the L&C expedition has fascinated us both for some time. The Adventure Cycling organization has created a bicycle route that traces their route, and we'll be riding part of that trail once we get into the Pacific Northwest.

When we got to within about 7 miles of the KOA Kampground where we'll stop, we saw a marker for "Stonewall Jackson's Shrine"--who could resist? It was a great stop, too. The "shrine" is at the plantation where Jackson actually died (he was buried in Lexington, VA). The plantation office is the only building left from the plantation, but it is the actual place where Jackson expired. The room, bed, and blanket that were in the room during those last days are still there. The park ranger who gave the commentary did a wonderful job of telling the tale. We discovered after the tour that his great grandfather was one of 12 survivors (of over 1100 troops) of the regiment that fought with Jackson. So he has a direct connection to the place and time that he narrates.

We got back on the road, and were within a mile of the kampground when I had another flat. Same tire, same place on the tube. This time we fixed it with Second Skin and duct tape, and I made it to kamp. Fredericksburg is about 14 miles into tomorrow's ride--let's hope the patch holds that long.

More later.