The Capital Trail in Richmond

Today was a great day! The penultimate day! We had perfect weather. A complete 180 from yesterday. It was sunny and warm all day. We rode on the Capital Trail from Richmond to Williamsburg, a car-free trail.

My dad rode with us the whole day, my brother Michael joined us for the first half, and my mom joined us for the last 10%. We had a plethora of Kauffmans on the ride today and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We stopped at a cafe on the trail for lunch and the place was packed with cyclists. The server asked how far we were going and when we told him he remarked that we look a lot better than most TransAm cyclists who come through. He said most people look like they just fended off a bear.

We stopped further down the trail at another restaurant to meet up with my mom and met a cyclists there who is riding from Colorado to Florida. He’s basically a vagabond though. He has a guitar with him and plays outside of gas stations whenever he needs a meal in the hopes that someone will like his music and will buy him some food. I gave him some Twizzlers and then he offered to share some weed with us. We politely declined.

Kelly and Jordan’s friend Brandon came to Williamsburg this afternoon to celebrate the end of the trip. We all went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner to “get sloshed on margaritas one last time.”

Highlights

• I passed a group of six or eight road cyclists heading in the opposite direction. One of them spotted my bags and guessed what I was doing, so he said to me “you’re almost there!” By the time Mike passed them, they had all realized what we were doing, so all of them chanted together for Mike “you’re almost there! You’re almost there!”
• while we were having lunch we noticed some cyclists parking their bikes had taken an interest in our bikes, with all the gear on them. They huddled around our bikes to check them out. When we were leaving and started wheeling our bikes back to the road, someone called out and asked if we were headed to Yorktown. I said yes and he asked where we started. When I responded “San Francisco” the whole patio of cyclists erupted into cheers and applause.
• I loved riding with my mom, dad, and brother. I’m so grateful they all took the time to support me on this ride and to be involved.

Lowlights

• more mediocre than a lowlight: the Richmond marathon was this morning, and we rode right past where it ended. They also had people running shorter distances who had already finished by the time we were cycling past, so there were just pedestrians everywhere. So many of them. We had to walk our bikes for a bit.

Julie’s food

• Breakfast: oatmeal and coffee
• First Snack: Clif bar and chocolate chip cookies
• Lunch: black bean burger and fries
• Second Snack: Clif bar and Twizzlers
• Appetizer: Miyoko’s cheddar cheese spread, hummus, crackers
• Dinner: taco bowl

Stats

• Total distance: 59.03 miles
• Elevation gain: 1,293 feet
• Weather: warm and sunny, high of 79 degrees Fahrenheit