Day One Hundred-twenty-seven, 090705 Fairfax, VA

Day One Hundred Twenty-seven, Date Sunday, July 5, 2009
Time in Saddle: 9:08
Distance for the Day: 86.65 miles From Ruckersville, VA To Fairfax, VA
Accumulated Trip Distance: 6153.65 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 622’/422’, Highest: 644’ Accumulated: 3720’
Speeds: Avg: 9.4 mph, Max: 56.6(?) mph
Weather: 72° warming into the low 80s
Expenditures: $

Got up at 5:30am, packed tent and gear away, and ready to roll by 6:21am, heading back to Hwy 23 to continue trip to Washington DC. Clint drove by while I was heading back to the highway and gave one last ‘good luck!’ as he passed by on his way to church. Thanks! And to you and yours, as well!! The road in towards Wash DC became busy, and the road shoulder situation varied from no shoulders to ‘okay’ shoulders, but the traffic and I were always able to work around each other – sometimes I’d hold them up, and other times I’d pull off the road to let them by – it was a give and take scene. The weather wasn’t much fun, with periods of light rain that would get me to pull out and put on my rain gear, only to get soaking wet from my own sweat. Then, the rain would stop for a while, so I’d take off the rain gear and eventually get somewhat dry again, but then it would start to rain, again. It did this about 4 or 5 times throughout the afternoon, but I was able to get mostly dry by the time it stopped doing that in the mid-afternoon. The sky began to look less like, rain and by evening, it actually started to clear. The terrain was undulating, with plenty of hills and dips, but nothing like the BRP, so I didn’t mind so much. I was looking for a restaurant that had wi-fi such as Denny’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, or *someplace*, and I checked a few of these, but couldn’t find any, so I just kept moving on. I ate the food that I was carrying (trailmix, PayDay bars, meat and cheese sticks, the apple and water from Clint’s daughters). I gave up trying to find wi-fi, and instead found a potential in-city stealth camp location behind a large furniture store that was above the street level, with a large parking lot that went around to the back (N38 51.532’ W77 18.111’). There was one man sitting on the curb next to the building talking on his cell phone. I approached him, and asked if he worked there, but he said no, so I rode around to the back of the building and found a good spot to set up my tent. I pulled out my book and began to read it while waiting for dark, when the guy with the cell phone came walking around the corner toward me. I walked over to meet him, and he asked (in somewhat broken English with a Japanese accent) if I intended to sleep back here. I said yes, and added that it would only be overnight, that I’d be gone before sunrise, and that it would be on the sidewalk right next to the building. He said, ‘ok.’ I think he may have been the owner or at least someone with authority, despite my interpretation of our first encounter. He even suggested using some couch cushions that were back next to the dumpster, but I told him I had an air mattress, and would be fine. Good deal. I set up my tent (as there *were* some mosquitoes present), and had a very fine, dry night’s sleep.