Our offsite wrapped up today with presentations from all the division chiefs on what their division did and introducing (now?) their teams. We were done by 10 am. The Austin crew took off for the airport and the rest of us were invited to attend an optional conversation with Rich and Joe. I don't think anyone took them up on the optional session because as I was headed out the front door with my bike, Rich was checking out and Joe was headed out to his car.
My plan was to follow Bike Route 1 back. I rode down to Canal and 2nd, which was certainly where Bike Route 1 southbound picked up, but it wasn't at all clear that that's where the northbound side picked up. I could have backtracked southbound for a ways then picked up the signs for the northbound, but being far too lazy for that I decided to simply retrace my ride from Monday until I picked up the northbound route. A couple of miles later I picked up the route and was happily pedaling my way back into the countryside.
The weather was great except for an on-again, off-again headwind (which wasn't too back except a few times when it got rather strong). I stopped in Ashland for spaghetti and meatballs and fill up the water bottles. US Bike Route 1 and Route 76 parallel for a ways in Ashland, which was interesting.
After Ashland, nothing but farmland, rural homes and trains. I was glad I packed extra water, or I would have had to resort to knocking on doors asking homeowners for water. There were no convenience stores, general stores, gas stations, hotels, motels, etc. I was hoping to find a motel as I got back close to the the "other" Route 1 and I-95, but there was nothing, and I knew there wasn't going to be anything else along the route until I got to Fredericksburg some 20 miles further up the road. So when the odometer hit 50 miles and the clock went past 6 pm I decided I'd better break off from the route and look for accomodations.
I rode back to Route 1 and headed north. I thought that sooner or later I'd hit a crossroad that would have access to I-95 and would stand a better chance of finding a motel.
Now I know you're thinking, why didn't I just look up a hotel in advance. I should have done more research, but I wasn't sure where the Bike Route 1 went exactly and I figured that surely I would have run across some small town somewhere along the route. Shouldn't assume!
Anyway, about 10 miles up Route 1 I hit civilization, a large strip mall with a Food Lion and, just down the road to I-95 a Quality Inn hidden behind several fast food establishments and a couple of gas stations. My milage as I rode up to the motel was 60.9...pretty remarkable as my goal for today had been to do more than 60.
I got a room, dropped my gear then rode back to the strip mall for carbonated water and Chinese, then slept 10 hours.
1 comment:
First of all, I can't believe that you rode all the way down to richmond for an all hands. Remarkable!
Second, you mean you have management who actually wants to talk about process improvement? Good lord who do you work for? Human Beings with feelings and emotions?
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