Riding to Richmond

Today we made sure to leave early so that we could get to church in West Point. We probably didn't have to leave quite so early since the distance ended up being a little under 25 miles instead of the 40 we'd estimated when eyeballing the map. But it worked out for the best, because when we pulled up in front of First Baptist Church, Lynne, the pastor's wife, saw us riding by. She came out to greet us and welcomed us to their church, and we met her husband Randy. It turns out that both of their kids are cyclists - one is training for a triathlon, and the other goes everywhere on his bike out in California. Anyway, the service was great, focusing on joy, and at the end we were introduced to the congregation. Several people stopped to say hi to us before we left.

We said goodbye to the Williamses and headed on to Richmond. The ride was fairly uneventful; we had the usual turning around as someone in the party decided another route would be better. We did get to meet another cyclist training for a triathlon who pointed us onto the road to Richmond. After talking with him for a couple of miles, we finally got going the right way. We hit a little bit of rain coming in, but we made it to the city. We arrived to stay with the Stricklers, a very nice family who gave us a big meal and the chance to get a little work done. Tomorrow we'll do the usual pre-event canvasing and then hopefully we'll have a good day Tuesday.

~ Tom