Category: Virginia trips
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Newport News / Hampton VA 6/5/2011
I was all prepared to say that Newport News had the ugliest most abandoned looking downtown area that I have ever seen. However, upon further study, I now know that it never was a true downtown. The downtown was and is a company town. Newport News was just a small fishing village when entrepeneurs in the late…
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Portsmouth VA, 3/26/11
Doing an urban bicycle tour of Portsmouth is a conundrum. While Portsmouth has a wonderful stock of old buildings, the whole place is undeniably depressing. It might have been because of the cold and gray weather that day. Contrary to Hampton Roads lore, Portsmouth is not all ghetto. When I asked Norfolk people about…
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Petersburg VA, 3/19-20, 2011
I did this ride with my pal David. We were to ride inbound to Petersburg from the east, passing the plantation houses along the James River. You can really feel the burden of history here, it almost feels like too much. There are historic signs not only about the Civil War, but of the initial Jamestown settlers,…