Along the Midlothian Turnpike

Nice low key weekend in the Richmond, VA area. Spent the weekend here, took some time to do a little exploring along the Midlothian Turnpike. Wanted to take a look at it, basically its my backyard, but have been wandering on my weekends here more downtown and also around Petersburg. Plus, my wife Patty will be spending a weekend here with me at the end of the month, and there is a quilt shop in Midlothian that she wants to see, and I thought it a good idea to find that. Turned out to be fairly easy, the quilt shop is behind Crab Louie's in a bright yellow building, and looks like a good size place.
On previous visits I went to the Midlothian Mines which is sort of neat; something remarkable about very old abandoned ruins; and have been to the big mall just past 288. This trip I went to Lowe's (for research on a project I am working on back in North Carolina), and took a tour of the Chesterfield Towne Center which was a return trip. Made a first visit to Hooters; hoped they would have another bike show, but no such luck this visit but enjoyed a tasty barley malt. Rode up to the big mall after finding the quilt shop, passing a string of strip malls. Again have been to a few of those (really liked the Richmond Music Center in one of them) but relatively nameless commercial sites. A string of car dealerships from one end to the other.
At the big mall, many of the buildings are empty, but a few places of interest in there. Stopped for lunch at CiCi's Pizza. I like it, and even like the "Welcome to CiCi's" greeting you get at all of those. Cheap eats and sometimes some really good surprises in there. Went by Books A Million for a while, nothing like a bookstore.
Drove on up, went past some country roads. Came across a Civil War sign, so turned down a very twisty road found an old Confederate graveyard. Out of the 250 or so graves, only 92 were identified. Nice little monument there, find a great many of those sort of things here. Circled around and got back on 288, rode back down Midlothian Turnpike and back to the apartment. Rented a movie at Blockbuster before going to the apartment; Watchmen was pretty interesting with some great music and a rather different sort of story. Have to say I enjoyed it, not your typical superhero movie at all.
Today have pretty much stuck close to home. Did get the laundry done at the laundrymat; one of the joys of apartment living. Always an interesting group there though; its a real multicultural experience. Cleaned the apartment here, and have been watching X-Games and the occasional drizzle outside under very cloudy skies.