Pretty tough day here

Cree says:

Oh man, oh man. What to say about today. I can’t believe we were in Washington DC this morning, it seems like such a long time back; most days feel completely odd and disorienting in that sense. The wind was the major component I picked up today. Unfortunately it was strong and against us for most of the day. I’m not sure how it pushes against Dad, however I feel it pulling me every which way and slowing me down (so, so discouraging). 


I spent most of my day contemplating “mind over matter” and how crazy powerful, how influential, one’s mentality is.  Every day that we are out there on our bikes, there’s point A and B and nothing more than movement in between. However, I feel like the mentality of the trip is where it gets interesting. The long (grueling) days, the middle-of-the-trip slump, and many other small “what the heck” moments makes me think about how telling our thoughts are. This may be making no sense at all to anyone other than Dad, but in the most basic sense “How incredible it is that we just tell our bodies what we gotta get done, and it gets done (obviously within physical reason to an extent)”. I can’t wait to get back to school and continue learning about mental health!!


He says:

This was the most challenging day we've had (I had a few of these the first time around going across country and these are tough).  There are four basic things that affect the day.  Physical, Mental, Weather and Safety. Usually there are two, maybe three of these things going on that affect the ride, but rarely all four at the same for a long stretch of the day, we had about 3 1/2 hours of all of these hitting us today.  We had strong head winds and 93 degree'ish from 11:00AM on. We had some "soft" legs from a day off ( and 700 miles). We had a really challenging route today. Both the cycling maps and google maps had pretty much the same route from Arlington to Fredericksburg, so there was some trust that it would be half way decent. Remember, we are here writing this out, so all is good. But the roads in VA are tough. Basically a double solid yellow line ( no passing) all the way and no bother of painting white lines on the side. I think some of the Irish roads I drove on last year were actually wider.  Again, we are here and Creean's lesson was road trust.

We grabbed the subway out of eastern VA just to get a good start and same the legs. Would our way through Centerville Va and headed south through Manassas (home of the first major battle of the Civil War).  Wrapped around the west side of what I think is the Marine training base of Quantico.  Then finally got back to US highway 17 for an easy 4 mile ride into the north side of Fredericksburg for the evening.

We'll stick closer to US highways here in VA from now on for sure. 


Stats:
Miles - 67.5 (765 total)
Calories - 3,229  (37,512 total)
Time - 7:00 (92:00 total)
Total Climb - 2,851 feet (28,967 total)
Arlington VA - Fredericksburg VA
Quality Inn Room 217

Quickway Japanese Hibachi ( chicken/beef/shrimp hibachi and Bento box)


Early out at 7:00AM!

Quick 8 miles on the train to get out of city traffic (safety first is what we thought)

Still had some city cruising around

Last of the fun for the day here... little did we know.

Some sort of battlefield we past, just not sure which one it was.

A rare sighting today...a shoulder of the road

Big lot...check.  Big house...check. Badminton set....check.
Bad ass $39 canopy over the home made deck....CHECK.

Believe it or not, this was a great part of the road today.

Safe haven of a bridge.

1:00 break time at 7-11. I'm suddenly a huge fan of 2 for $2 ice cream snickers!

This year's VBS themes are Shipwrecked for Jesus ( seen in the northeast) and Discover the God of the Universe

20 miles of this road today with cars. Virtually all were kind to us getting around.

Safely back to 6 lane highways which believe it or not are way safer.

Safe and sound at the Quality Inn

Today's route.