Sep 14. Finished!! And Now a Few More Pedal Strokes...

               Yorktown Victory Monument

  Yippee! Kay slept well and no more frequent trips to the bathroom. Her energy was not quite back to normal but good enough that we could ride 33 miles comfortably today.  Yesterday we rode on the Colonial National Historical Parkway from where the Capital Trail ends near Jamestown to Williamsburg. Today, we got back on to take it to Yorktown.  Because of its deliberate design to give some of the effect of traveling long ago, it is more isolated, quieter, tree-lined to block sight lines of commercial development and has limited access and lower speed limits to discourage routine traffic. So it was very pleasant to ride. 

Yesterday we traveled for quite a while along the James River, today once we were beyond the Williamsburg area, we traveled along the York River. It's amazing how big the estuary is as it approaches Chesapeake Bay.  We saw a large naval ship, a small working craft (setting crab tracks?) and a tall ship in the river.

    We stopped at the Yorktown beach and touched the water to symbolize our coast-to-coast journey and Kay touched her front wheel to the edge of the water. 

Then away from the beach up to the end of the Trans-American route, the Yorktown Victory Monument, commemorating the victory in the Revolutionary war battle that led to our independence from Britain.  

    As there was no lodging nearby, we now headed to the bridge across the York River.  This bridge is one of only 2 double-swinging bridges in the world.  (we even heard on the morning news the next day that there was a scheduled opening at 7:45.) We were thankful that it had shoulders. Interestingly enough, it permitted bikes but not pedestrians. The toll plaza was on the far side and we didn't see anything about toll for bicycles in the signs. So we pulled up to the most far right toll both to ask if we needed to pay toll and she seemed upset that we were in front of the gate and told us to get over to the side.   

   Once crossed over, we were on the "Middle Peninsula."  Highway 17 to Gloucester was fairly busy and 4 lanes so we were grateful to take side roads with less traffic, even though it added miles to wander back and forth to work our way up the peninsula to our destination.