May 12th First day on bike

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I left Yorktown about 7:15 this morning. I stopped at the monument to get a picture of me and my bike, but had to resort to a picture of only my bike. It seems that there are not many tourists out and about in the rain at 7:15 in the morning. I guess I could have taken a selfie, but selfies make my head look freakishly large. I had better luck down at the waterfront for the obligatory dipping of the back wheel in the water.

It rained on me the entire 65 miles I rode today. I had planned to go about 75 and camp, but lucky for me I checked the weather yesterday and arranged to stay at Willis Methodist church outside of Richmond. What great hospitality: the door was open when I got there, there is a nice shower with big thick towels,  a Keurig coffee maker, and food in the kitchen.

Speaking of Methodists' , I stopped at a church in Charles City (an apparent misnomer ) where they were selling barbecued chicken dinners. I ate half of a very large chicken for lunch.

The first 25 miles of the route today was on the Colonial Parkway. Like other pathways I have ridden on , it was nice,but a lot of people use it for a bypass in the mornings. The traffic thinned down to almost nothing after Williamsburg. One thing I didn't like about it was the paving. It was paved with small cobbles about the average size of a quarter to about a silver
dollar. They were embedded in concrete which had somewhat eroded away, making for a very bumpy ride.

The next 35 miles was on the Capital Trail, which is a very nice green way  from Jamestown to Richmond. I'm glad I rode it today, because there are 1500 riders signed up for a ride on it tomorrow. I learned this from Wayne who was helping set up the event at Charles City. Wayne looked to be about my age, and he told me he did the Trans-Am route in 2014. He said he had a great time and envied me for my trip.