May 11, 2006
Day 1: Yorktown to Chickahominy River: Barefoot Brian and the Soggy Bottom Girls
After snuggling up in blankets and pillows one last time, I freed myself from their grip in the Bousquet's extra bedroom. We said our farewells to everyone but Susan and squished back into the truck for our ride to Yorktown.
Ceremonial pictures at the monument and waterfront followed, with Susan rushing off to work and wishing she was coming with us instead.
I don't know what I was feeling--Yorktown was MUCH smaller than I'd expected, but suddenly everything I'd planned for for months was underway. A quick read of the map and I saved us from going back up the hill from the waterfront. Our first detour!
And within a mile, we stopped for our first potty break and to get Cristey some water. And there was some Pepsi price-gouging going on there at the visitor center.
Then onto the Colonial Parkway, where a few miles later we met John and Janice(?). I'd heard they were leaving the same day, but I knew if we didn't catch them the first few miles we'd probably never see them since they were trying to finish in 60 days. Ouch. They quickly pulled away from us, but at mile 10 we caught up with them again at a roadblock, set up to protect an investigation into a drowning and to keep people from seeing them pull out the body and car from the pond. Waiting was faster and safer than a detour, so we just set up for snack time. I would have made tea for a tea party, but I didn't yet have stove fuel.
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Williamsburg was next on our agenda, as was finding another bike shop for more things Cristey needed. We had some guys ride past us in historic W-burg and I told Cristey it was pretty sad that I checked out their bikes before I checked them out! Ends up the bike shop was closed randomly for the day, but the College Delley sandwich shop across the street was good (a bit delayed as C. searched futilly for the key to her bike lock, but worth the wait). We tried to get info on another shop from a cop at the sandwich place who gave obviously car-like directions which did get us there, but "5 lights down" was more like "3 miles away."
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Anyway, C. got her bike fixed, pump, patch kit, spokes, etc. there, but we were way off course by this point. The shop got us headed toward Jamestown, but we missed the second half of colonial parkway to avoid 4-5 miles of backtracking.
Jamestown is this national park thingy and they wanted 8 bucks to go in. As a history major, I felt obligated to go see it; C. said she'd just wait for me, but we decided to go ask if there was a biker discount or something. I pestered the gate guy with so many questions about what I'd be getting for my $8 that he finally waved us through w/out payment just to get us out of the way. Yes!
The best part of J-town was a volunteer who came and showed us pics of the archaeology that had been done there. The worst part was the hundreds of kids out on field trips and wearing matching shirts that looked like the Fanta logo. We left and tried to see where the replica boats were, but they wanted $11 there, so we just talked to a ranger and skipped it, heading off for our first campsite at the Chicahominy River Park.
After we'd set up camp, Brian, the guy who's been helping C. get geared up for this trip, came out from Newport News to camp and ride with us the next day. It had rained just after we set up camp, but after Brian got there, it came back. And it just kept raining. And it got dark and windy and rained some more while we sat in the open shelter house and listened to Brian's stories while the wind turned the rain into a mist that blew all through the shelter.
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During one let-up, Brian went back to check the camp and came back in a hurry with "We got work to do." Brian's hammock was high and dry, but Cristey's tent was in a lake of standing water. One corner of mine was in a puddle, but everything inside was dry. B and C picked up her tent and moved it to the pavilion, Brian in bare feet to keep from getting his bike shoes completely submerged. So we became "Barefoot Brian and the Soggy Bottom Girls" that evening as we attempted to dry out in the pavilion while Brian did some engineering on Cristey's bags and rack to get everything working properly. Cristey and I ended up sleeping on picnic tables in the pavilion. Everything was a mess, but I was having so much fun. I'm going on a bike ride!
3:35:08, 9.9 avg
Today's ride: 36 miles (58 km)
Total: 37 miles (60 km)
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