Seven Mary Three – "Cumbersome" (1995)

She’s wanting me less 

And I’m wanting her more

Last week, I spent the better part of two days riding the Virginia Capital Trail, a 52-mile-long paved bicycle trail that connects Jamestown (Virginia’s first capital) and Richmond (the state’s current capital).

The VCT traverses an area that is full of history, which explains why the Virginia Department of Historic Resources has placed no fewer than 44 historical markers along its course.

I didn’t stop to read all of the markers I rode past, but a few of them got my attention.

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The first successful English settlement in North America was named Jamestown in honor of King James I of England.

The first group of Jamestown settlers landed there in the spring of 1607.  A second group of colonists crossed the Atlantic and joined them in 1608, and a third contingent came ashore in October of that year.

That third group of settlers included eight German, four Polish, and two Slovakian craftsmen.  Those Poles are commemorated on a historical marker placed at the eastern terminus of the VCT in Jamestown:

Here’s the text of that marker:

Skilled craftsmen of Polish origin recruited by the Virginia Company began arriving in Jamestown aboard the Mary Margaret about 1 Oct. 1608.  Poles contributed to the development of a glass factory and the production of potash, naval stores, and wood products.  Soon samples of their work were shipped back to England.  The workers were so highly prized that they were assigned apprentices so that their skill "shall not dye with them."  Capt. John Smith praised their work ethic in his writings.  Court records indicate that as a result of a labor dispute, Poles were granted full voting rights on 21 July 1619.

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While the Poles were model citizens, the Germans who had come to the New World with them quickly bailed on Jamestown and defected to a neighboring Paspehegh Indian settlement.

That may have been because the colonists were in desperate need of food.  Or it may have been because they were in desperate need of women.

A Virginia Capital Trail rider

There were over a hundred settlers in Jamestown at the beginning of 1609, but only two of them were women.   

Presumably the male-to-female ratio in the nearby Paspehegh villages was much more favorable than it was in Jamestown.

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The Paspeheghs were not particularly welcoming to the Jamestown settlers – although they did sell them some corn in the winter of 1607-08 (when the colonists were starving).

The two groups skirmished repeatedly over the next year.  In one of these clashes, Captain John Smith captured Wowinchapuncke, the Paspehegh chief.  When Wowinchapuncke escaped, Smith retaliated by raiding his village and killing several of his men.   

(The Paspeheghs were a sub-tribe of the Powhatans, whose chief was named Wahunsunacock.  His brother was Opechancanough.  Opechancanough, Wahunsunacock, and Wowinchapuncke don’t exactly fall trippingly from the tongue.)

A Paspehegh and a Jamestown colonist square off

In 1610, the English attacked the Paspehegh capital, killing 70 or so members of the tribe and capturing one of Wowinchapuncke’s wives and her children.  On the way back home, they threw the children into the James River, then shot and killed them.  After arriving at Jamestown, they stabbed the wife to death.

Wowinchapuncke was mortally wounded in 1611, and that was the end of the Paspeheghs. 

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This marker is located about six miles northwest of Jamestown, just before the VCT crosses the Chickahominy River:

Here’s what it says:

Wowinchapuncke was the chief of the Paspahegh Indians when the English established Jamestown in the tribe's territory in 1607.  He consistently resisted the English intrusion, earning both respect and hostility from Jamestown leaders.  Captured and imprisoned at Jamestown, he escaped, and the English retaliated by killing several Paspahegh men.  After the English destroyed a Paspahegh town in August 1610 and executed Wowinchapuncke’s wife and children, he continued to harass the English until he was killed in a skirmish near Jamestown in February 1611.  In 1991, the archaeological remains of a large Paspahegh community near here were excavated.

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A few miles southeast of the bridge that carries the VCT over the Chickahominy River is a marker commemorating the Battle of Green Spring, a Revolutionary War engagement that took place there:

Here’s what is written on the marker:

Nearby, late in the afternoon of 6 July 1781, Gen. Charles Cornwallis and cavalry commander Col. Banastre Tarleton with 5,000 British and Hessian troops clashed with 800 American troops commanded by Brig. Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne and the Marquis de Lafayette.  Believing that the main British force was across the James River, and that he was attacking Cornwallis's rear guard, Wayne soon realized that he was facing far superior numbers.  He startled the advancing British forces by charging them, exchanging volleys, and then withdrawing his troops from encirclement and certain defeat.  Dusk prevented Cornwallis from pursuing the Americans.

Cornwallis anticipated that Lafayette might attack his rear guard once the main body of his army had utilized the Jamestown ferry to cross over to the south bank of the James River.  So he kept most of his forces on the north bank of the river and laid a trap.

American general “Mad” Anthony Wayne walked right into that trap with his 800 troops.  Lafayette could see what was happening from his vantage point, but he and the forces under his command were simply too far away from Wayne to do anything about his plight.

General “Mad” Anthony Wayne

Wayne ordered his men to fix bayonets and countercharge the numerically superior British army.  It was a high-risk, high-reward tactic, but it worked.  Wayne’s attack put the British on their heels long enough for Lafayette to arrive with reinforcements.  The Americans were able to retreat in an orderly fashion, and Cornwallis chose not to press his advantage because it was getting dark.

Cornwallis ferried the remainder of his army across the James River, and made his way to Yorktown, where George Washington’s Continental Army – assisted by French troops and the French fleet – eventually surrounded him.  

With no hope of reinforcement or resupply, Cornwallis surrendered to Washington on October 19.  His surrender essentially ended the Revolutionary War.

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Jason Ross and Jason Pollock formed Seven Mary Three when they were students at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA – which is just a few miles from Jamestown.

Ross and Pollack got the idea for the name of their band from the old CHIPs TV show.  Seven Mary Three was the radio call sign for Officer Jon Baker – who was portrayed by Larry Wilcox.   

The call sign for Officer “Ponch” Poncherello – who was played by Erik Estrada – was Seven Mary Four.

Bruce Jenner on “CHIPs”

I bet you didn’t know that when Estrada held out for a bigger share of the show’s profits during its fifth season, he was replaced by Bruce Jenner.  (Estrada returned to the show after missing seven episodes.) 

Click here to listen to “Cumbersome.”

And click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Empir3 (feat. Pit Bailay) – "Ride Like the Wind" (2016)

Gonna ride like the wind

Before I get old

(Oops . . . TOO LATE!)

In 2015, two women who like to bike started the Cap Trail Bike Shuttle, which enables Virginia Capital Trail riders like me to ride the trail one way rather than having to turn around and ride back along the same route.

I arrived too late to use that shuttle service on the first day of my recent two-day ride on the Virginia Capital Trail (“VCT”).  So I rode from Charles City Courthouse to the Chickahominy River bridge, turned around, and rode back the way I had come.  

But on day two of my ride, I arranged for the shuttle service to pick me up at Charles City Courthouse – where I left my car – and drive me to the western end of the VCT in Richmond.  That way I could take a nice, long one-way ride rather than having to double back.

Cheyenne Burnham, one of the co-owners of the shuttle service, drove the 30 miles from Richmond to Charles City Courthouse in an empty van in order to pick me up and drive me back to Richmond – all for $24.

The Cap Trail Bike Shuttle van

Once she dropped me off in Richmond, she was picking up a group of four riders going the other direction.  If I had been her, I might have told me that I could either ride with that group or go pound sand.

But she didn’t do that.  I wanted to begin riding a little earlier than the gang of four, and I wanted to ride east to west rather than west to east – and she accommodated me without complaint.

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The Richmond trailhead of the VCT – which was near milepost 51 of the trail – was just a stone’s throw from Tobacco Row, a group of cigarette factories and tobacco warehouses that have been converted into apartments, condominiums, and offices.

The smokestack of the power plant that ran the machinery at the Lucky Strike factory has been preserved by the developers of that building:

The figure who appears to be hiding behind the building’s parapet is “Connecticut,” a larger-than-lifesize fiberglass sculpture of a Native American that was originally installed at the stadium where the Richmond AAA baseball team plays:

That team – which was called the Braves – was an Atlanta Braves affiliate for many years.  But when the team became a San Francisco Giants affiliate and changed its name to the Flying Squirrels, the statue was moved to the Lucky Strike building.

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I had a nice view of a three-mile-long trestle owned by the CSX railroad from the VCT trailhead.

The elevated railroad that once ran along the Lower West Side of Manhattan has been converted to an elevated park known as the “High Line.”

The “Low Line” trestle

The Richmond trestle is still being used by trains, but the ground-level space below the trestle is being converted into an long urban garden and hiking/biking trail called the “Low Line.”

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Once the VCT leaves Richmond and its suburbs behind, there are almost no places to get food or drink until you get to Charles City Courthouse – which is over 30 miles from the Richmond trailhead.  

So I stopped after only six miles to grab a sandwich at Ronnie’s BBQ, a no-frills barbecue joint that’s just off the trail.

I was tempted by Ronnie’s ribs, but I didn’t want to eat too much – after all, I had almost 25 miles left to ride – so instead I ordered a small pulled pork sandwich without side orders.  

Just I was about to leave Ronnie’s, I saw this delightful little work of art:

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My map indicated that there was a convenience store at the halfway point of my ride, but it turned out that an antiques-and-art store had taken over the convenience store’s space.  

Fortunately, that store did sell a variety of cold drinks, so I was able to sit down with some orange juice and a few art books and gave my rear end a break:

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The final hour of my trip took me through woods and past farms – including a couple of cotton fields:

After I reached Charles City Courthouse, I once again headed for Cul’s Courthouse Grille for a post-ride beer.

Here's the tale of the tape for my second day on the VCT: 33.6 miles covered at an average speed of 12.8 mph.

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My next stop was Final Gravity Brewing, a microbrewery located in the Lakeside neighborhood of Richmond.

Final Gravity shares space with a home-brew supply store called Original Gravity.  (Original gravity is a measurement taken before fermentation begins, while final gravity is a measurement taken after the brewing process is complete – so the different names for the brewery and the homebrew supply store make sense.)

The Original Gravity side of the building stocks every piece of equipment a home brewer needs, plus a variety of grains, yeasts, and hops:

I prefer to cut out the middleman, so I went to the Final Gravity side of the building and ordered a flight of four beers:

The next stop was home on the Maryland side of the Potomac.  I-95 between Richmond and D.C. is often jammed with traffic, and the American Legion Bridge into Maryland is stop and go at almost any time.

But the traffic gods smiled on me that night, and I cruised home with nary a slowdown.

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Christopher Cross’s 1980 hit, “Ride Like the Wind,” has been covered by a number of artists.

The video for the EDM cover version I chose to feature today has hot babes in bikinis riding skateboards.  ‘NUFF SAID!

Click below to order the song from Amazon:

Christopher Cross – "Ride Like the Wind" (1980)

And I've got such a long way to go

To make it to the border of Mexico

So I'll ride like the wind

Larry Skalak was born in 1952 – the same year I was born.  He died in 2014 as he was preparing to depart on his sixth transcontinental bicycle trip.

I’m a pretty active guy, but I’m no Larry Skalak, who climbed several 14,000-foot peaks, hiked a number of long and strenuous trails, and biked 80,000 miles in the last eight years of his life.

Yes, I said Skalak biked 80,000 miles in eight years.  That’s almost 28 miles a day, 365 days a year – spring, summer, fall, and winter – all after he had a total hip replacement in 2006.  (A lot of people don’t drive 80,000 miles in eight years.)

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I learned about Skalak when I encountered the “Larry Skalak Memorial Fixit Station” while riding my bike on the Virginia Capital Trail recently.  

The Larry Skalak Memorial Fixit Station 

The Virginia Capital Trail – let’s call it the “VCT” – is a 51-mile-long paved trail that connects Virginia’s three capital cities: Jamestown (1607 to 1699), Williamsburg (1699 to 1780) and Richmond (1780 to the present).

The VCT parallels Virginia State Route 5, which provides access to a number of James River plantations, including Shirley Plantation (which was established in 1613) and Sherwood Forest (which was owned by two different U.S. Presidents – William Henry Harrison and John Tyler).

Sherwood Forest

I started my ride in Charles City, Virginia – population 133 – which is the county seat of Charles City County.

After checking out the old courthouse (which was built in the 1730s and utilized until 2007, when a new courthouse was constructed), a tiny visitor center, and a monument to Confederate soldiers, I hopped on my Trek 7.3 hybrid and headed east.

The old Charles City courthouse, visitor
center, and Confederate monument

It was a balmy fall day, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky – a perfect day for biking.  The VCT, which was completed only recently, is well-maintained and relatively flat.  It was easy for me to maintain a 15 miles per hour pace on most of my ride. 

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I knew that riding from Charles City all the way to the beginning of the VCT in Jamestown and back – a distance of some 40 miles – was biting off more than I could chew, especially since I didn’t start riding until about 2:30 pm.  So I turned around just after I crossed the Chickahominy River bridge, which was 14 miles from my starting point.

I stopped for a late lunch at the Sandy Point Superette, which was conveniently situated about midway between that bridge and Charles City.

Dining al fresco on the VCT

I had brought a sandwich and some Sun Gold cherry tomatoes from home in my silly new Osprey biking backpack, so all I needed to buy was a Dr. Pepper.

At the end of my ride, I checked my odometer and learned that I had covered 28.2 miles at an average speed of 13.9 mph.

Then I put my bike in the car and walked across the street to Cul’s Courthouse Grill, which had about a dozen craft beers from Virginia breweries on tap. 

Cul's Courthouse Grille

I enjoyed a Legends Oktoberfest and picked my server’s brain about which of the Richmond area’s 20-plus breweries were worth a visit.

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After checking into my hotel and taking a quick shower, I headed for the Hardywood Park brewery.

When I arrived at around 8:00 pm, the joint was jumping – especially the bocce courts outside the tasting room:

Bocce under the lights at Hardywood

Hardywood’s brewery was full of beer being aged in barrels:

Here’s a list of the barrel-aged beers that Hardywood is releasing in the near future:

Every summer, Hardywood makes a pale ale especially formulated for Capital Trail riders:

Unfortunately, they were sold out of it when I visited.

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My second stop was Triple Crossing Brewing’s brewpub in the Fulton neighborhood, which offers brick-oven pizzas as well as some very interesting beers.

The Triple Crossing brewpub features some happening murals:

The Triple Crossing cans are pretty snazzy, too.  Here's the Radiohead-inspired Paranoid Aledroid pale wheat ale:

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In the next 2 or 3 lines, we’ll ride the western half of the Virginia Capital Trail and visit a couple of other Virginia breweries.

In the meantime, enjoy this SCTV video featuring Rick Moranis channeling Michael McDonald, backup singer sans pareil:

Here’s “Ride Like the Wind,” which was a #2 hit for Christopher Cross in 1980:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: