Woodbridge, VA to Fredericksburg, VA
75 miles
High point: Courteous motorists
Low point: Hunting for provisions
Awards: 1st road rash of the trip: ML
Famous last words: “I’m sure there’ll be another grocery store up ahead”.
Day 2 turned into an epic day mileage-wise at 75. The planned mileage was only 62, but a combination of navigational errors and mistakes on the map (yes, really) added unintended distance to the route. End-to-end shopping malls started the day, gradually giving way to subdivisions, which in turn gave way to a short stretch of farmland, hanging on for dear life. The encroaching development was evident; billboards with “10-acre lots available” were frequent and a few newly-built mega-homes mingled with the old barns.
Following this stretch, we came to Fredericksburg, steeped in Civil War history (Battle of Fredericksburg anyone?). The route took us directly through one of the battlefields and we couldn’t help imaging what it would have been like to be a soldier of that era in a trench with a musket. Turns out General Lee is a popular guy around here. Friends and family you’re all getting Confederate key rings as souvenirs.
Our long day ended eventually at the Fredericksburg KOA, which was quite spendy for camping, but the only thing available camping-wise, and less expensive than a hotel. Unfortunately, we had unknowingly passed the only real grocery store on the route north of Fredericksburg, and had nothing for dinner. We passed on the Mac and cheese with canned peas from the KOA “store”. Since one of us didn’t want s’mores for dinner either, ML added another 13 miles of riding to the Food Lion for provisions. The day closed with a thunderstorm accompanied by torrential rain. Lucky for us, it waited until we had gone to bed, and the tent held up just fine.
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