Day 3 - June 6, 2013 - Mechanicsville, VA to Mineral, VA

Today's mileage - 59.1

Total mileage - 151

Time in saddle - 6h 54m

Total trip time - 8 hours

Wildlife spotted - Rabbit, fox

This one might be a bit short, we are exhausted and getting ready to be lulled to sleep by the sound of the rain in our tent!

We ended yesterday a bit short of our goal, so we went back and started there this morning.  My parents left to head back to our house after providing support for us for the first few days of the ride - thank you both again, we love you!  So we had to load up the bikes with all of our gear for the first time today.  We haven't weighed the officially, but they are probably somewhere north of 70lbs fully loaded!

The day started fairly uneventfully - traffic wasn't too bad after we got out of the city, and the first 10- 20 miles flew by.  Then we met the first hill we had to walk up!  There isn't much more defeating than flying down a fantastic downhill only to be faced with a wall of climb!  

I guarantee you, the photo doesn't do it justice.  We tackled a ton of hills today, and probably had to walk about 5 of them.  The long, gradual inclines are no problem at all - we shift into the easiest gears, and just spun away.  The short, steep ones are the killers...there isn't a gear that could possibly get those heavy bikes up those hills!  We cursed VA for its hills today, and the next few days will be even worse.  Can't wait!  Oh, and I had that miserable Train song "Meet Virginia" in my head all day...I really don't like Train ;)

We pedaled past Bumpass, VA, skipping the obligatory photo at the post office involving something ass-related - we were coming to a downhill, and there were too many people there, small town hangout i guess!  We pedaled by a lake, which was pretty.

 And then, to add insult to leg pain, it started raining about 8 miles from our destination.  Ugh.  It was chilly rain, and just yucky after we were exhausted anyway!  I won't lie - we walked most of the last mile into Mineral.

The volunteer fire department here lets cyclists camp on their property and provides a 24 hour bathroom - awesome!  We set up camp under their picnic shelter, grabbed a real NY style pizza (the guy has the dough even shipped in from NY!), then headed back to camp to catch some zzz's.  we are about 20 feet from the railroad tracks - hoping no train traffic in the middle of the night!

Thanks for checking in guys!  Talk to ya tomorrow!

 Oh and here's some comedy, read the last line in the picture below if you can, describing ice cream toppings ;)