Bicycling from Washington DC
Through:
Maryland, West Virginia,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Delaware & Virginia
2007 - August - September
September 4, 2007
Newport News to Richmond VA
Distance: 69.3 miles
Elevation climbed: 780 ft
This morning we left the motel around 7:30 headed for Richmond, VA. We had the choice of two routes from Newport News to Williamsburg VA. One route was highway 123 and the other route was Highway 60. Our motel was located on Highway 123. As we left the motel and approached highway 123 (6 lanes of traffic, 3 in each direction) every traffic lane was full of cars. We headed for highway 60 (4 lanes of traffic, 2 in each direction). When we got to Highway 60 the traffic was much lighter. Most of the route the traffic was able to go around us, without slowing down, just by changing to the left lane. Even when Highway 60 became a two lane road the traffic was able to get around us without trouble because of the gaps in the traffic coming from the other direction.
We reached Williamsburg and had the choice of taking highway 199 which has a sign that says "NO Bicycles Allowed" or continuing on highway 60. I had just decided to stay on highway 60 when a police car passed us and turned onto highway 199. Luck was with us. We came into Williamsburg and had the choice of taking the Colonial Parkway or of just getting on highway 5 when it met up with highway 60. We decided to travel on highway 5 which took us through the center of Williamsburg. We had very little traffic because all the tourists were still in their motels and not on the streets. We eventually crossed the Chickahominy River on the same bridge where we spilled and required stiches, in 2000. We walked the grated portion of the bridge this time.
For the next 40 or so miles the route was fairly level with very little traffic until we were quite close to Richmond. Suddenly I realized that I had not loaded the GPS with the location of our motel and we had to stop and reprogram the GPS. To our great relief we only had to back track 2/10 of a mile. We reached our motel around 2:00 PM. Both of us are tired after a 70 mile day.
George and Jane returned from their day of visiting the Virginia Capitol and Governors home and we walked across the street to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner.
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