Ashland, Virginia to Fredericksburg, Virginia -- 62 miles

Lenny woke at 6 am, sweating and feeling sick to his stomach. It turns out that he had a mild case of dysentery, probably from the Mexican food yesterday. He felt awful, so Lorraine got him a cold washcloth and comforted him. We fell back to sleep and woke at 8:30 am. Lenny was feeling better, so we got on the road at 9:30 am. Today's route retraced the TransAmerica Trail for about 9 miles, then headed north along the Atlantic Coast Trail. Unfortunately, the back country roads did not pass any service stations, so Lenny had to make a few pit stops in the woods!

We stopped in the town of Cedon to buy sodas, and the grocery store manager told us their rest room was out of order. We didn't believe her. Lenny commented to Lorraine that McDonald's considers its bathrooms to be an asset - some people just stop to use the rest room, but others will buy food as well. We thought the route would take us right past the Stonewall Jackson Shrine, but it was on a different road, and we didn't want to go off route. When we reached Fredericksburg, the traffic increased. We met Eric Smucker from Lancaster, PA, who is a freshman at Mary Washington College. He was on his bicycle, exploring the bike routes in the area, and asked us about our trip. He is a practicing Mennonite, and spent two years in Chad as an exchange student after high school.

We stopped for sodas at 7-11, then went to the visitor's center to ask about motels in town. The only way to get to the motels was biking along a 4-lane highway for 2 miles, which was rather nerve-racking. It took us 15 minutes to walk our bikes across one exit ramp coming from Route 95. We stayed at the EconoLodge and did our laundry at the Best Western laundry room, based on a tip from another guest. We ate at Aunt Sarah's Pancake House, and took advantage of their "unlimited side dishes with any dinner." Both of us had 2 salads each, plus breadsticks, and our dinners of fried chicken, pancakes, meatloaf, and mashed potatoes.