It was the type of Sunday where we could have laid around most of the day, maybe getting some household stuff accomplished, maybe a remote chance of doing some yard work. It was hot for early October, with the temperature hitting the high 80s.
So when I got a spurt of energy around 11 a.m. and proposed to Col that we take a two-and-a-half hour drive to Reedville, run an hour and then cruise another two-and-a-half home, I expected I would get a big thumbs down. If we were quick about it, we might get out the door by 11:30 and roll into Reedville by 2. We’d get back, I don’t know, maybe 5:30? Probably later. Col, mysteriously, was up for the adventure.
Reedville, in Northumberland County, is on the Chesapeake Bay side of the Northern Neck. The town is situated on a somewhat narrow peninsula within Cockrell’s Creek, although the “creek” is big enough to accommodate mid-sized passenger ships that take tourists to Tangier and Smith Island. While it no doubt attracts some vacationers, it is first-and-foremost a fishing village, the self-proclaimed capital of the Atlantic Menhaden, an oily fish used mostly for bait and fish oil supplements. In the 1600s, Native Americans supposedly taught the colonists to use it as fertilizer. By the late 1800s, the 15-inch fish had turned Reedville into one of the wealthiest towns in the US.
After a pit stop in the town of Heathsville, we arrived at the Reedville dock around 3. I trotted along what is known as “Millionaire’s Row” – a series of Victorian style houses listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I detoured around the Fishermen’s Museum and tacked on another mile by navigating side streets. In some areas, I picked up a rather distinct fishy smell.
Col explored the town with a population of 500 while I ran. After that, we considered eating at the Crazy Crab before settling on homemade ice cream at the popular Chit Chat Parlor. On the way home, we stopped for pumpkins, hit some Northern Virginia traffic, and didn’t make it back to Alexandria until 7:30.
55 runs down, 79 to go.
