A Very Long Day – Fredericksburg, VA to Washington DC

We woke up in Fredericksburg in the Whites’ basement, petted their mutt Buddy, and made oatmeal with peanut butter smashed into it, which worked out well, actually. We said our goodbyes and headed off at 7:15. We rode through Fredericksburg battlefield, which was beautiful and historical; we rode through canopy roads and civil war trenches. We rolled through downtown Fredericksburg, and left the town through the back door. We got a little lost, but returned to the route. This day was comprised of many busy roads, and miles of country. After a bit, we got to Quantico, which I think is where the marines practice things like shooting guns. We rode bordering Quantico for many miles, and had lunch under a bridge over a stream. We ate to the sound of machine gun fire in the distance – we assumed it was . After lunch, things deteriorated. For some reason, things kept getting in our eyes. Constantly. Always. It was a bad decision to not bring glasses. As Quantico ended, the roads got bigger, and we passed more and more suburbs. Miles and miles of this. Our nerves wore thin as the cars passed and our eyes filled with mysterious and painful particles. Miles and miles of hostile roads ended as we entered Fort Belvoir army base, which was a weird and interesting town of sorts. To enter Fort Belvoir, we had to pass through a checkpoint, which was aptly called Tulley gate. They misspelled Tully! The army man who took our IDs asked if we were doing our tour for fitness, which we thought was funny. We exited the fort and got onto Mount Vernon road, which led us to the Mount Vernon. At this point, we had travelled 75 miles, which was more than we had the day prior. We set out for DC down the Mount Vernon bike trail, and didn’t look back. The trail was exhilarating, and seemed like a reward for the miles of bad riding we had to suffer through. We rode through forests, and eventually found ourselves on the banks of the Potomac. Rich, suburban Virginia on one side, and the river on the other. In Alexandria, we got kind of lost, but a fast cyclist came to our rescue, and guided us back onto the trail. Thanks mystery man! We passed Ronald Reagan airport as throngs of cyclists passed us going the other way. Ostensible commuters coming home from the city. The points of the washington monument and the capitol slowly appeared. We came up close and personal with the city as we crossed the Arlington bridge. Finally, we were out of Virginia, which we had been in for all of the five days of our tour, so far. We circled around the Lincoln memorial to find seething masses of schoolchildren. We came to the capitol of America to find the youth of america, so it seemed. We casually cruised down the mall, going east, and caught glimpses of the white house. We were on a mission to get to our friend Jessica’s house, so we couldn’t stick around to sight see. Riding on the streets of Washington was scary at first, but we got the hang of it. We chatted with the driver of a petticab about touring, but had to get moving, heading north. At this point, the odometer for the day was at 96 miles. There was talk of trying to make it to 100, but all talk was put down as we arrived at the intersection of O st and Columbia st, where our GOOGLE map told us our friend Jessica’s house was. Guess what? Our directions were wrong… So, we set off again, riding 15 blocks north. At Florida st, we encountered an unusually big hill. At the hill’s base, Hill Tully performed the most entertaining act of the day. She fell over, bike and all. After months of riding using clipless bike pedals (the kind that lock your feet in), she had never fallen, which is/was a total anomaly because most people fall at least a few times when they first start. She had her first clipless spill in Washington DC, falling over, conveniently, into a cushy bed of grass. We laughed and kept riding, and this time Hillary was able to maintain the momentum needed to go up the hill rather than fall down sideways. Soon we were finally rolling down Jessica’s street, searching for the right house, but we looked down at the odometer for the day and it read 99.9 miles, so we decided to ride all the way down the block and back to top a hundred. This was both Hillary’s and David’s first ever century ride. After topping off our mileage, we came back around to Jessica’s house, and she let us into her cool weird somewhat janky old but interesting house. The living room walls are bright pink and there are chandeliers. We ordered Thai take-out and showered and talked. It was fun