Day 3: Newport News, VA to Glendale, VA, or "Beans, Beans, They're Good For Your Heart"

Miles today: 68. Total miles: 223. Avg speed today: 13.4 but felt like 1.34.

Made pancakes this morning- was kinda fun, but took kinda forever. Don't think we'll be doing that again for a while. Ended up riding through historic Williamsburg which was nice. Quote for the day is from a little kid who as we rode by exclaimed, "Wow! That one's got TWO drinks!" Funny how the most remarkable thing to him about what we're carrying is the second water bottle cage.

More hills today, in which the derailer trouble I've been having became a factor. A very frustating one, to put it mildly. For lunch, stopped at what the map indicated would be a grocery store, and turned out to have available a lot of expired canned goods and a single can opener that lasted about 1.1 cans. A blonde in a baseball cap very generously offered to bring a working one back from her house up the street. Another very important way we benefited from the help of strangers: tonight we're staying in "The Hut", an outbuilding of a church that hosts Trans-Am cyclists quite frequently. They made us feel more than welcome, like we belonged there really. I wish we could have told them just how much we appreciated their hospitality. One last thing- if anyone could forward this letter to the town of Williamsburg it would be much appreciated:

Dear Williamsburg,

Please use asphalt next time instead of that rocks-in-cement bullsh!t. A thousand cyclists will thank you.

Love, Mallory.