Blue Boat Home

Today's weather was just miserable: cold and rainy and windy.  I stayed indoors as long as I could stand to -- Marisa let me use her computer while she was in a study group all afternoon -- but then I insisted on going out.

Marisa thought I was crazy, not only because of the weather, but because the neighborhood is considered to be very unsafe.  I figured I had seen worse weather and worse neighborhoods, but I didn't make it off campus.  By the time I got back to the dorm, my pants and shoes were soaked with shockingly cold water.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on April 2, 2005]

Hi, folks! I'm safe and sound at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC! It's hard to believe I've completed my three months in the South and crossed Virginia in less than a week!

I only had to ride about 2 miles on the highway today; near Mount Vernon I picked up a bike trail that parallels the Potomac River all the way into town.  I stopped at a place called Gravelly Point for a first view of the Washington skyline, and I wound up watching a mother trying in vain to get her son as interested in the airplanes at Reagan National Airport as she was.

The wind shifted at bedtime last night so that I had to listen to the Interstate and railroad all night... they weren't loud enough to justify wearing earplugs, but the trains were loud enough to wake me several times.  I got up bright and early, irritated by the highway that wouldn't leave me alone even in my sleep.

I woke to the sound of birdsong this morning... that in itself isn't unusual, since my body has gotten used to that sign of approaching dawn... but this time I was wearing earplugs to block the sound of Interstate traffic, and I still heard the birds!

The storm clouds continued to glide overhead all night, but today was dry, and the sky cleared beautifully in the afternoon.  I took time to repack my troublesome bearings this morning -- caught them before they rusted this time.

I rode right through the middle of Richmond, Virginia, because I couldn't find a good way to go around it.  I probably should have given the town more than a passing glance, but I didn't know where to start.

When I saw the rain outside, I was tempted to stay a second night in the cheap motel, but then I felt how warm the air was and decided to ride.  I made great time along US-301 (practically an access rode for I-95)  into Petersburg, and the rain stopped.

Today was gray and sunless, but aside from a little drizzle it stayed dry.  As I rode through Roanoke Rapids, NC, a man and two boys rode alongside me on their bicycles.  They asked me where I was going and where I'd been about 5 times before they were willing to believe my answers.  They had more trouble believing I was bicycling to DC than that I had already ridden thousands of miles... it's the Florida Effect all over again: DC is Far Far Away.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo group on March 27, 2005]

Happy Easter! Just a quick update since I have Internet access tonight.

Today's ride was about an hour and a half longer than it would have been had I not stayed at Amber's last night, but I certainly have no regrets about that!  After a drizzly morning I stopped for lunch in Louisburg, home of the International Whistlers' Convention.  The afternoon was dry but cloudy; I didn't see the sun all day.  Today for the first and only time in North Carolina, people yelled and honked at me; otherwise it was a very polite state!

At Medoc Mountain State Park I warmed and ate the other MRE, a vegetarian dinner, with pepperonis for protein.