Conclusion

Dan and I (and Brooke, Dan's girlfriend) arrived at Windmill Point just East of Kilmarnock yesterday at 4:30pm. The end of my ride this summer.

I swam out about 100 ft into the Chesapeake just to make sure I'd really arrived at the coastline. Then Dan started yelling at me to not get the water in my eyes or ears. Or nose. Or mouth.

We'd ridden through two hard downpours that day, but we'd stayed warm.

Dan and I had a great last three days. The riding was frankly unsavory. Traffic all day, and the smells of traffic. But we enjoyed eachother's company. We stayed in Fredericksburg at a canoe rental shop on the Rappahannock River. The fellow that owned the place told us we could shower there if we wanted. It was a hose hooked up to a shower head hung over a few pieces of plywood nailed up at nearly the right height. A tree limb had fallen over the shower shed and looked like it had been there a little while.

The next night we stayed in Westmoreland State Park. There was a pool, which had aroused our suspicions, the park being on the coastline. But when we got down to the pool (100yds from the surf) it all made sense. There were signs all along the beach warning against swimming in the toxic stuff. The pool was a sight. I've never seen so many black kids crammed into a pool. Or white kids for that matter. Dan did a bunch of heroics on the diving board and a group of kids started yelling at him: "Hey, man. Do that again!" Then I got up on the diving board and did a cannon ball, and they lost interest. That night we cooked a huge meal and played cribbage while we smoked our new pipes (new for me). We both got a little sick. Neither of us are very stout smokers. But we made a lot of smoke rings.

After arriving at the coast, Dan's mom and my parents met us and took us out for a classic seafood dinner. Softshell crabs, tuna steak, crab cakes, fresh steamed veggies. It was great.

Pulling out onto Windmill Point didn't feel particularly significant. It was just the end of another day of riding. I was tired. Pedal weary. Ready to be done. But not in a, "man, I'm glad that's over," kind of way. More like graduation from college. A feeling of sadness that it's behind me. A great many wonderful memories. A bigger sense of life. And yet a readiness for what's next.

I hope I can post some pictures in the next week.