Before heading back to Portland by train (pics of that journey coming next!) I spent about a week and a half at the house where I grew up in semi-rural northern Virginia. As you may recall, I had spent a similar time there this past November.
This time I was extra excited, because in addition to spending time with my parents, I had been looking forward all winter to a family reunion at the homestead this spring. Although my extended family is small, we had never had such a reunion… and this time, there was to be a new baby attending from New York! This is the first (and almost certainly will be the only) baby in this “next generation,” since my sister and I have never had kids. But our cousin recently did.
However, although we did have a very brief but enjoyable lunch get-together at the homestead one day, unfortunately the reunion plans fell victim to several illnesses.
First was my own: as I alluded in the last post, I seemed to have picked up a nasty 24-hour GI bug during my time in Richmond. It was quite unpleasant for me for that day and night, but thankfully it seemed to get out of my system quickly. However, within a few days it had made its way into my father’s system too, and took him out for several days. It appears he may have shared it with my visiting uncle, as well. (Word to the wise—GI bugs can remain contagious for up to three or four days once symptoms resolve; take all the precautions you can!)
Meanwhile, the new baby in New York had come down with a cold, and then spread it to both his parents… so that branch of the family didn’t make the trip, and none of us got to meet the baby! (Fortunately, my parents had already met him a few months ago, but I, my sister and her partner visiting from Seattle, and my aunt and uncle visiting from North Carolina will have to wait for a future opportunity.)
So, it was kind of a weird and not-entirely-pleasant time at the homestead.
The good news was that the weather was mostly lovely, and I spent a lot of time outside just resting—in the gazebo, by the pergola, and in the hammock—and that was very refreshing and rejuvenating. And since I grew up from a newborn in that house, I always enjoy “coming home” to it.
(And enjoying my mother’s home cooking! She always makes wonderful vegan meals when I visit.)
On our last day, an Uber driver came out “into the wilds” to pick up my sister and her partner and me, and drove us to the Ashburn transit center. Those two boarded a metro train for DC to continue their train travels to points north, while I bicycled along the W & OD bike trail to visit my friend Michelle in Reston.
It was good to have another chance to connect with her and her two adorable doggies for a night.
The next day, I biked to the DC Metro (it feels like a cool sci-fi cavern in there in the underground parts) to return to Amtrak’s grand Union Station.
There, I would board a train to Chicago (17-hour overnight ride) and then transfer the same day to a 48-hour train back to Portland.
Scenic pics to come!
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I disembarked the train from Richmond into Washington, DC’s beautiful Union Station, and was met directly outside by half of my Warmshowers hosting pair for the next two nights, Jessica. On the bike ride back to her home in Bethesda, Maryland, she led me on a whirlwind tour of some of DC’s iconic spots (though I didn’t really take pics of them, sorry! I had already seen the monuments many times in my childhood). I did get a few pics of some breathtaking wisteria! That’s Jessica on the left in the first pic, talking to another admirer we encountered.
We started out on the popular Rock Creek Trail, then transferred to the one I had been really looking forward to—the Capital Crescent Trail—which did not disappoint with its beauty, especially in the springtime golden hour light.
From that trail I could even catch some glimpses of the iconic C & O Canal Towpath, which runs all the way from DC to Cumberland, Maryland, and then transfers to the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail, which can take you all the way to Pittsburgh.
Many cyclists like to spend about a week biking from Pittsburgh to DC or vice versa on this trail combo. (In 2022, I biked 15 miles/24 km out and back on the GAP trail from Pittsburgh during my year of travels, and was shocked to encounter my Houston Warmshowers host couple out cycling there as well! I had stayed with them three months earlier.)
The next day, Jessica was leading a 35-mile bike ride, but I was feeling tired and ready for a rest, so I spent the day relaxing and doing some Cambly English tutoring in the beautiful home she shares with her husband Henry.
The following day, I set out to meet my parents at our family homestead in Waterford, Virginia, in western Loudoun County. As you may recall, I visited the homestead (which we affectionately refer to as Toad Hall, after the dilapidated mansion in The Wind in the Willows) back in November.
This time, I biked back down the Capital Crescent Trail from Bethesda, and found the trail much more crowded than it had been during the evening two days before. There were lots of folks out walking, and a few cyclists.
I stopped to enjoy some of the DC sights again, such as the (Francis Scott) Key Bridge and the Watergate Hotel, on my way to the Foggy Bottom DC Metro stop.
From there, I caught a train to Herndon, Virginia, then disembarked and began to cycle on the W & OD Bike Trail (which I had ridden in full back in 2019, fulfilling a decades-long dream!)
This time I only biked about ten miles/16 km to Leesburg, where my parents met me and loaded my rig into their car.
I wasn’t feeling great, though, which was a sign of some health unpleasantness to come. I tried to chalk it up to the hot sunny day and fatigue after an entire winter of traveling, but by the time I got to the house, I felt exhausted and had little appetite for dinner.
But before all this—and before my parents arrived at our agreed-upon spot in Leesburg—I had the chance to walk around a bit at the “downtown” streets I remembered so well from my childhood. Leesburg has sprawled dramatically since my childhood days in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but the downtown area—with the Tally Ho theater, where I think I recall watching the original Star Wars in 1978, still going strong—looks much as I remember it, including the old county courthouse.
Then I sat on a bench in Raflo Park waiting for them to arrive. That park is new since I moved away in 1990. I had met the (now late) Frank Raflo once, at the Loudoun County Democratic headquarters during my high school years, when I volunteered for my first political campaign, to help elect Virginia’s first-ever Black governor, Douglas Wilder.
And in Raflo Park, right in front of my bench, was a piece of art containing a quote that reminded me of my former partner, now close friend, Johnny: “No Mud, No Lotus.” That is the name of a book by Thich Nhat Hanh, the (also now late) Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist. Johnny had once requested—perhaps ten years ago—that he and I read the book together, he from his prison cell and I from the outside. I enthusiastically agreed at the time, but since both of us are very bad at actually reading books, neither of us ended up actually ordering it… so, unfortunately, that has not yet transpired. But it felt like a sweet little inspirational full-circle moment to see that sign in the park.
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After my lovely visit with my aunt and uncle and their dogs in North Carolina, I boarded the train in Cary bound for Richmond, Virginia.
I was looking forward to some bike and train explorations, and I got them! The train part, especially, had taken me literally months of research and turning over possibilities in my head. It finally came together!
First, I arrived at the home of my first wonderful Richmond Warmshowers hosts, Pat and Steve. They live, with their two dogs, within three miles of the Staples Mill Amtrak station. (Richmond is one of very few cities with two Amtrak stations. One is conveniently located downtown, but the main one that serves all the stations I needed was Staples Mill, pretty far northwest of town, so it was great to find hosts nearby.) Pat and Steve were incredibly warm and welcoming, and had a lovely guest suite in the basement, so it was a perfect place to stay. I chatted with the two of them while snuggling on the couch with their dog Lefty, and then I set out on my bike to explore a nearby park.
The difference in the “neighborhood look” from Florida was striking. A whole different kind of architectural and spring-nature beauty here.
The next day, I set out on my quest to cross two more Amtrak line segments off my map: Richmond to Newport News, and Richmond to Norfolk. This had been a difficult proposition because both lines only run once per day, and both lines—although they run all the way to New York—use trainsets without baggage cars, since they are considered commuter lines. This meant I could not take my rig on them to spend a night or two or three in either of those cities, unfortunately; I would have to do it as a day trip, or else stay in a hotel for a night with no change of clothes and minimal toiletries. (Or stay with a Servas family at a nearby nudist resort in Ivor, Virginia, which I also considered!) The timing of the lines was such that it was an iffy proposition as to whether I could do it all in one day. That was another reason I appreciated staying with Pat and Steve: they were very flexible as to my dates to stay with them. If I were to miss the connection in Norfolk, I could stay in a hotel there that night, and then return to them the following night.
So I departed their house that morning and biked to the Staples Mill station. I boarded the train to Newport News, and the two-hour ride passed uneventfully.
From the station there, I boarded an Amtrak connector bus to Norfolk. That 40-minute bus ride across the James River/Burwell Bay/Atlantic Ocean (not sure where the line is drawn) was a bit stressful for me: we moved along at what felt like a reasonable pace, but then slowed to a crawl, and then a stop, before we reached the water. Apparently this is a normal traffic pattern, but I kept worrying that I would miss my connection in Norfolk. (Hardly anyone would need or want to make the loop I was making, so Amtrak would have no reason to make any effort to sync the two lines, or delay the departure to wait for the bus’s arrival, like they do on some lines that are commonly used in conjunction with each other.)
I was further surprised when, after we started moving again, we descended into a tunnel to cross the bay! Then about halfway across, we emerged from the tunnel onto a bridge. (My father later explained to me the military reason for this structure, but in the moment it just seemed surreal.)
We made it to the Norfolk station with minutes to spare, and I raced my bike the few blocks from the bus drop-off to the train, boarding just in time to make the connection. I was sad not to have seen any of Newport News nor Norfolk, but thoroughly pleased to be able to mark these lines off my goal of riding every mile of track in Amtrak’s network!
The ride back to Richmond was pleasant and uneventful.
The following afternoon, I said goodbye to Pat and Steve and the doggies, and set out from their northwestern location to the home of my next Warmshowers hosts, out on the eastern edge of town. The ride between them was beautiful.
Lauren, one of my new hosts, met me partway at a lovely park, and we took a goldenhour stroll.
She led me across a really cool bike and pedestrian bridge, which sadly the photo doesn’t do full justice. It was very swoopy and cool!
When we arrived at their house, they were having a family celebration for her husband Alex’s birthday. His mother and their 6-year-old son had made a very elaborate mountain-biking-themed cake for him! I was thoroughly impressed.
The next day, I set out to ride the Virginia Capital Trail. It is a very long trail, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to do the whole thing, but I first headed back in toward town, and reached that end of the trail.
I sat in the pedestrian plaza by the water and just soaked in the relaxing sunshine.
Then I made my way back out, continuing as far as I could into the countryside. The weather was perfect for such a ride, and the season made it breathtakingly beautiful.
Possibly the coolest part of all? After at least an hour of just lounging on various sunny benches in Dorey Park, I had set out on my way back to the house when I crossed a bridge on the trail just in time to see a small lizard scurrying away(!) Although I didn’t have the opportunity to stop and really connect with this lizard like I had with the ones in Florida, I had now experienced my first-ever Virginia lizard sighting, after having lived in that state for 15 years!
Now I’ll see if I can manage to find a lizard in the wild in Oregon this summer… (I’ve heard there are alligator lizards there, but I’ve never seen one. Maybe now that I have been “primed” by all the lizard connections this winter, it will finally happen?)
Then there was one last bit of magic on my way back: I got to ride on Darbytown Road.
Locals will tell you—correctly—that this is not a good road for cycling. There are no bike lanes, and drivers take the twists and turns uncomfortably fast.
But this road—which I had never seen until that day—had a special meaning for me.
Growing up in then-rural western Loudoun County, in northern Virginia, we had a neighbor family, the McLeans, who moved in when I was in second or third grade. Laurie, the youngest of three daughters, was just a year younger than me, and we became friends.
I only briefly met her older sisters, Kathy and April. But many years later—when I was in my thirties, living in Portland—I somehow learned that April had become a singer-songwriter. I went online and found some of her songs. Her latest album at that time was called Darbytown Road, and the title track—a song to her mother—brought me to tears when I heard it. (I tried to find a link to share it with you, but that song doesn’t seem to be available unless you buy the whole album for $5.)
So, it felt like a cool full-circle moment to me to ride on this road. (I had forgotten that the McLeans had lived in Richmond before they moved to Waterford.)
I hummed the song to myself as I pedaled along.
And even one more bit of magic: my next turn, after Darbytown, was onto Oregon Street!
My time in Richmond was rich indeed.
Next up: the DC area and Bethesda, Maryland!
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Schedule a free one-hour video or phone call with me!
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This will be a short post, mostly just some pics from my fun time visiting my aunt and uncle and their two dogs near Raleigh, North Carolina.
I took the overnight train from Orlando, and arrived in the morning to the Cary station, where my uncle picked me up.
The next day, he took me to Raleigh’s Dix Park, named after Dorothea Dix, a social reformer who advocated on behalf of poor mentally ill people. It was a beautiful spring day to be out in that spacious place.
The park is host to one of Danish artist Thomas Dambo’s many installations of troll sculptures, made from recycled materials. (I had known about the Portland-area troll for a year or so before I began my travels this past fall, but I hadn’t found the time to get out to the west side of town to see it. Watch for a future post, though!)
Four of the five trolls in this park were hidden in wooden areas, which made them fun to discover.
Most of the rest of my four days with my aunt and uncle were spent quietly, catching up and talking about my travels, the dogs, my aunt’s beautiful art, and the like.
One extra cool bit of magic: I saw an anole at their house! I’ve visited my aunt and uncle a number of times over the years, including this past fall—and I did know from my aunt’s Facebook posts that sometimes they see anoles there—but I had never personally encountered one.
After all the “lizard magic” I experienced this winter in Florida, it was really cool to see this one on the front fence. I even dared to dream that I might see a lizard in Virginia, though that seemed extremely unlikely. (Both Virginia and Oregon apparently are home to a few native lizards, but in all my time in both states—the vast majority of my life—I have never seen a lizard in the wild.)
Next up: a beautiful bicycle trail in Richmond, Virginia.
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Schedule a free one-hour video or phone call with me!
Want to be notified of future blog posts? Use the green “sign up” button to subscribe!
Want to support my vision financially? I am in a continual process of manifesting a “salary” for the unconventional work I do in the world. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a fairy godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my godfunders, patrons, and supporters!)
