When I finished writing down the information, Dawn tugged at my elbow. “While you were browsing, I found someplace better to eat.” On the way in, we’d seen a trailer in the parking lot serving barbeque and had planned on eating there, but Dawn now dragged me over to the indoor food court to a place called Granny’s Home Cookin’. They had jalapeno poppers on their menu, and Dawn was craving them.

“Sorry,” the cook said, “we got no poppers right now.”

Instead, we settled for a couple of chicken sandwiches and a side of fries and sat down at one of the long wooden tables. “They need to take poppers off the board,” Dawn grumbled.

“But that’s how they draw people in,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s how they got me.”

Our chicken sandwiches were delicious, and Dawn was quickly back to being her bubbly self. Dawn can be a little bit of a grump when she’s hungry. Bless her heart.

Reenergized, we left the Virginia Bazaar and hoofed it over to Route 1. Once there, we turned north and headed up to Thornburg. It was 10 miles from the bazaar to Thornburg, the longest distance Dawn has ever walked in her life (congrats!), and the completion of that leg left just one more for me before I reached Fredericksburg. I hiked the last 11 miles by myself and paused at the green sign welcoming me to the city. I’d made it all the way up from Richmond and was looking forward to the next phase of my journey: exploring Fredericksburg. But that will be a story for another day.