June 16th, 2019 / (107km/64mi)
We leave relatively late this morning – 9am almost – and when we get outside it’s already hot and muggy. That’ll stick with us for the next few days according to the forecast. Need to start earlier tomorrow – note to self.
Since we’re not 100% sure whether Google Maps is right about the possibility to use some bridges to get across the water – it’s US-17, a two lane highway actually – we take the 20+ km detour via Suffolk to get back to the ferry that’ll get us over to Jamestown again.
Today we’re heading back north(-west) after our little 3 day southbound detour. So from now on it’s riding towards the final destination of this trip again: New York. In between we want to stay a day in Washington, D.C. for sightseeing. We’ll get there in 3 days from now. Having looked into the route up to NYC again in detail, I have realized yesterday that I planned some legs to be too far. So the slack days we had left have been spent on shortening some of the legs and putting some extra stops in. Had I known this earlier, we wouldn’t have spent 3 days circling around in a rather (overall) rather boring spot. We could easily have used one of those days for another day in Washington D.C: I thought I had put that into the plan already, but apparently I didn’t. Dangit! Anyways, too late to change anything. So we simply pull thru now. Yep!
The ride today itself is pleasant, except for the temperature and humidity, but the scenery is nice rural areas: fields, farms, some forests and water from time to time. We’re mainly on backroads and traffic today – it’s Sunday – is light, even with Father’s Day sending lots of people onto the road.
We take a nice lunch break in Smithfield. When we pasted thru here earlier this week on the way south, we only passed some rather uninviting parts of town. Today we depart from the official route and ride a bit into Main Street. It has lots of colorful and decorated houses and even two or three very nice cafes, bakeries and restaurants. An opportunity one shouldn’t let pass – especially since nice bistros and cafés are not an abundance here on the trail so far, I have to say.
After lunch we ride the remaining 40km to the ferry landing. “Pocahontas” gets us over the water to the other side and we disembark after a 10 minute crossing at Jamestown. From here it’s just a stone’s throw now to get to our today’s accommodation: I got a bargain deal to stay in a two bedroom apartment in the Historic Powhatan Resort by Marriott. I’ve paid more money for some cheesy motels on the way. Competition clearly helps 🙂