Day 13: Waynesboro VA to Charlottesville VA

It was a short ride today but since there was rain in the forecast for early afternoon we were gone by about 8:30.  We spent the first few miles exiting the city via a different route than the entry yesterday, and then climbing uphill for a few miles.  View from the top of our climb.

Downhill to our turn off the main highway to a windy, fun, continuing descent.  It finally leveled out to our usual country road rollers.

 No real big challenges on the second half of the ride.  Kind of nice for a change.....

We came into Charlottesville through the University of Virginia area.  I love the vibe of university towns and am always especially interested in those that have good basketball teams.  

We're staying in quite a nice hotel - Residence Inn by Marriott.  It's a bit more upscale than we're used to, but apparently WomanTours had a bit of trouble finding one that had availability to house us all.  Oh well - I'm going to enjoy my little suite for a few days (tomorrow is a rest day).  

After settling in and cleaning up, I took the free trolley back to the University grounds.  Headed to the bookstore and managed to walk out without buying any books (although it was tempting!).  I also managed to avoid buying any souvenirs - I really don't need anything and I really am not fond of orange........  Although a light rain had started, I wandered around the grounds a bit; so much history!  Beautiful......

Then - back to the hotel and off to the pedestrian mall in the historic downtown area.  Oh - the advantages of being in to the destination city at an early hour and a short ride to have the energy left to get out and explore.  The first picture is part of the city hall building.

Looking forward to not having to ride in the rain tomorrow....................

Stats for the day:

Distance:  36.98 miles / 59.51 km

Elevation (Garmin):  2827' up, 3753' down / 862m up, 1144m down

Elevation (RWGPS):  828m up, 1097m down

Weather:  6C - 12C.  The day was overcast and rain was forecast to start around 1.  Most of us got in around noon.  Sure enough the rain started at 1-ish, and I don't think anyone got wet.  A bit of headwind, but not too bad.  Our route was a bit twisty so we were sometimes against the wind and sometimes with it.  It was actually a pretty comfortable temperature for riding.