October 13

I left my Air BNB place at 7:30 am and 47 degree weather.  On the outskirts of Fredericksburg I rode through the Fredericksburg Battlefield.  Very much like the Gettysburg Battlefield park but without all the monuments - just plaques set up along the route to tell you what happened there.
After that it was on to miles and miles of quite country roads.

Passed by a place called Spring Grove Farm:  (no paper mill to be found!)

About 20 miles north of Richmond I met a young lady who was cycling the Transamerica Route.  This year is the 40th anniversary of the Transamerica Route so a lot of people are riding it.  The real route goes from Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia but this girl was riding from San Francisco to Yorktown.  She said it has taken her a little over a month.  That's pretty amazing considering it's about 3600 miles.  So how did she manage that?  Well first of all she is probably in her late 20's.  Second she's riding a lightweight carbon road bike carrying nothing but her phone and one water bottle.  Third she has a van that goes ahead of her carrying all her gear and making reservations for the nights stay.  Still - all things considered - averaging 90 to 100 miles a day - for a little over a month - is pretty amazing.

After 68 miles I arrived in Richmond.  This is Monument Avenue so named because of the monuments to Robert E. Lee and other Southern Civil War notables.  A beautiful Avenue lined with terrific brownstone buildings.

Further up Monument Avenue is the inner city campus of Virginia Commonwealth University.  One of the nicest inner city campuses I have seen:

Finally I arrived at my home for the night - the Richmond Hostel International.  It's too bad there are only 50 or so Hostels here in the United States while there are thousands across Europe.  The next available hostel on my trip south is in Miami Beach - so they're pretty spread out!