Capital Trail Bike and Swim-8/9/11

The Tuesday Group met up on a hot, humid, sunny morning at Chickahominy Riverfront Park to start our day together. Clocking in were Carl, Bob S, Sandra, Brian (who had already ridden 13 miles all the way from home on his way cool brand new bike!), Vic and Margaret, Ellis and Marti and Phyllis. We admired Brian’s bike for awhile, took the obligatory pre-ride photo and hit the road. We created our own breeze as we cruised along the Capital Trail which was good because all of the shade was on the other side of the road! But as the day warmed, the humidity seemed to abate and by the time we reached Jamestown Settlement, it was quite pleasant. We spent a few moments at the Settlement to catch our breath, refill our water bottles and empty our bladders. Then we were back on our wheeled steeds and headed for Historic Jamestowne. We circled Jamestown island via the 5 mile loop, stopping to view the James River and the Surry Power Plant cooling towers from Black point. Then back to the Settlement for another water break before the return trip on the Capital Trail. Bob and Carl split off from here to do some geocaching while the rest of us headed for lunch. Our trip back was a wildlife extravaganza as we met several does close up and personal-a couple from one of the bridges, several in a field a hundred yards away and a couple in the grass adjacent to the trail and one (possibly with a fawn) crossing the trail right in front of us. They seemed completely unafraid. We took a detour on the path to Jamestown High School and stopped at the Williamsburg Community Chapel where Brian and Sandra bought lunches from the reasonably priced gourmet cafe. (This will be a future lunch stop on our next trip!) We then rode back to the Park and ate our viddles before changing into our bathing suits for a swim. Vic got us into trouble right away by diving into the NO DIVING ALLOWED pool! He hadn’t noticed all the signs with the big red circles and slashes overlying a diver. The lifeguard really hollered at him! But as you know, nobody can stay mad at Vic for very long and he didn’t get put in time-out or anything like that. The pool was beyond PERFECT! Very few (little) kids this time and they had this giant hydrant/hose power spray thing that shot this awesome shower of cool water back into the pool. We had lots of fun battling the power washer. After an hour and a half playing in the water we dried off and purchased our 90 cent large size ice cream sandwiches. A perfect end to a perfect day!