A short ride from Short Pump leaving at noon and arriving on the west side of Richmond around 1:30pm because we were meeting James Gardner here for the night near his Amtrak Station from Geenvillle, NC. 
A cloudy warm and muggy day for our 11 mile ride to the west end of Richmond. Most of our ride was on Three Chopt Rd. If you're curious about the name, this road was a colonial times East-West route across Virginia that was marked with 3 notches axed into a trees along the way, called "Three Notched Rd" or sometimes "Three Chopt Rd". Now we both know!!
Hard to find inexpensive hotels in larger cities, we found this Quality Inn just north of the Museum District. I expect the hotel and the neighborhood had seen better times 30 years ago but the rate was reasonable and the rooms were nice. 
Just as we were finishing up a light, late lunch across the street from the hotel, James comes riding up on his bike from the Amtral Station, about 5 miles away. James, now living in Greenville. NC is a colleague and longtime friend. We met at Arizona Public Service in Phoenix after graduating from engineering schools. He's going to ride the last week with us to the Outer Banks. 
After grabbing some tall boy beers from the 7-11 we hung out under the light clouds at the hotel pool, I'm trying unsuccessfully to work out my cycling/farmer tan before hitting the beaches in a week!!
Walking about 2 miles to Joe's Inn for dinner, on nearby Monument St., we got to see how the street got its name. Here is one of several monuments along the parkway, this one was dedicated to Stonewall Jackson. Richmond, the capital of the confederacy, still has roots to its past, like much of Kentcky and western Virginia we've cycled through. ⚔
We all were clearly eating as if we had a 65 mile ride today instead of just 11. Some habits will have to change over the next week for sure or I'll need to get a fat tire bike to go with my new spare tire that I'll have soon!!
One last architectura/cultural note, we found an interesting murial "Feel the Bern" on a large building next to our hotel. After seeing all of the Trump "Make America Great Again" posters across Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and now Virginia this is the first Bernie Sanders sign I've noted. And Angela and I can't recall any Hillary Clinton signs throughout our travels. Not a scientific poll at all but it sure points out the interesting times we are living through. Let's hope the end result is a good one for our country. 🇺🇸
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