Narrative

I never had an elegant plan for the transition from one ride to the other.

Even when the original idea was to cycle to Charleston, I struggled with the concept of taking an Amtrak train from Cumberland to Norfolk VA via Washington DC and then cycling after dark from the train station to the bus station for a circuitous onward journey to Virginia Beach. Arrival would have been close to midnight after around 14 hours in transit. I eventually refined that plan to a scheme to take Amtrak one station down the line from Cumberland to Martinsburg and cycle (in daylight) to the car rental depot there, from where I would drive to Chesapeake (revised from Virginia Beach).

No earlier plan survived either a shortening of the ride to Cumberland, which meant ending on a Sunday rental options were very limited, or a late decision to change the end point of my solo ride, instead, planning to cycle to the "safe haven" of Hendersonville, rather than Charleston.  So, my rides in what I hope is their final format are as shown in the map above.

I shall be taking a commercial shuttle from Cumberland to Baltimore airport (BWI). It will accommodate my bike and, by special arrangement, drop me off at the car rental facility attached to BWI.  From there, I plan to drive to my new starting point of Warrenton VA.  The following, after dropping off the rental in the morning, I plan to begin my solo ride back to Hendersonville TN.