Days 1-4: Tales From The Rebel Motel (Yorktown to Louisa, Days 1-4)

We are sitting in Room 107; A dingy room in a dingy motel. The Rebel Motel, in Louisa, Virginia. On the TV: hippos spraying dung. On the bed: planning tomorrow's trip to Charlottesville. On the laptop: finally creating this blog.

We've ridden for the past 3 days, and today we're taking a break to rest our sore thighs. And our sore calves. And our sore buttocks. Tony rubbed BenGay on his. Aaron finally revealed to us today that he decided to pack his laptop, and now we will reveal to you what has happened to us so far on our journey across the US.

DAY 1: Yorktown, VA to Charles City, VA (48 miles)
DAY 2: Charles City, VA to Mechanicsville, VA (38 miles)
DAY 3: Mechanicsville, VA to Mineral, VA (66 miles)
DAY 4: REST DAY in Louisa, VA (6 miles)

Our trip began on Saturday June 14th in Yorktown, VA, one of the corners of the Colonial Triangle - along with Jamestown and Williamsburg - on the Virginia coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Our goal is Astoria, Oregon, 4250 miles away. We planned on waking at 5am, breaking camp and eating breakfast with Anna and Guillermo's mom and Guillermo's girlfriend Tiffany - both of whom drove us down to Yorktown and camped with us to see us off (thanks again!) - and then pedaling off by 7:30 or so. In general we plan on being on the road by 6am to take advantage of the cooler temps, and to avoid the afternoon thunderstorms. Let's just say that hasn't worked out so far. Packing and preparing the bikes has taken much MUCH longer to do than anticipated. We awoke at 6am the first day and were on the road by 10am. It's not a great start, but it's a start.

We planned on dipping our tires in the Atlantic, and upon arriving in Oregon dipping our tires in the Pacific. However, our bikes were so heavy (Anna can barely lift it onto the curb) that we decided to just roll them onto the pier, above the Atlantic, and start from there. Close enough for jazz! We pedaled up the road approximately 0.2 mile and were lost for the first (not last) time on the trip. We decided to make a left to Rte 17, but when we got there we promptly found ourselves staring at the Atlantic again. We turned around.

We followed the Colonial Parkway towards Williamsburg. It's a very pretty road made of exposed aggregate pebbles, giving it a more rustic feel. A wide road with overhanging trees. Perfect for biking. We made so many stops though, that after 3 hours, we had only biked about 1.5. The other hour and a half was spent stopping, drinking water, looking at the map, waiting for the others to catch up, or eating hot goo. Logistically we still had many things to learn.

Lesson 1: always stay 2 or 3 steps ahead on the map. Sounds obvious enough, but we had to learn it.

Lesson 2: inform the others of the next 2 or 3 steps on the map. Some of the more physically prepared of us like to bike ahead without knowing the next turn, and end up waiting on the side of the road for the others to catch up.

Lesson 3: when stopping for, say, a quick picture, tell the others to keep riding and just catch up with them in a minute. Otherwise it precipitates a full-on 20 minute break. That's why our time was spent bicyclying only 50% of the time.

Lesson 4: set a reasonable mileage goal for the day. We hoped to make it to Ashland the first day, 80 miles away. After 45 miles we decided to stop in Charles City. Charles City is not so much a city as it is a gas station and general store. I think this will be a theme of the trip, since we are biking through rural America.

Lesson 5: plan where you will sleep early in the day, or even the night before. At the general store that is Charles City, we were trying to find a place to camp or a room to rent. Luckily, Mary Lou Gillam, who works at the general store, used to run a Bed & Breakfast out of her house and accomodated many cyclists. She offered to let us camp in her big, horsefly-ridden backyard. Sounds good!

At the camp in Charles City, we ate Mac & Cheese with tuna and showered using Mary Lou's garden hose. Mary Lou came out to greet us while Aaron was showering and caught an eyeful of Aaron (she told us later we could come back any time we wanted). Tiffany met us that evening to camp with us one last time, so we had company again which was nice. Then, we noticed the sky turn grey so we set up our tents as quickly as possible. Just in time too!





In the morning we packed up and said goodbye. Anna and Aaron woke up at 5am and were done packing by 9:45. They decided they were carrying too much weight so they looked through their stuff for things they could send back with Tiffany. It involved unpacking each individual item, rating it from 1-10 on the value scale, then packing it up again. They gave her two mini-notebooks to send home.

We rode and rode, stopping at a gas station to fill up. We had Hot Fries, Slushies, and Snickers. That was enough to get us near Mechanicsville, but we lost steam at that point. We had biked only 35 or so miles but the Mac & Cheese with tuna from the night before proved to be insufficient sustenance. Biking for hours a day requires many MANY calories. So, we stopped in Mechanicsville, which is not even as far as Ashland (our original Day 1 goal), ate hot wings and chicken burgers and booked a room at the Holiday Inn Express. At the Wal-Mart, Tony suggested we buy a gallon of neopolitan ice cream. "We can eat as much as we want, and then throw away the rest!" And we did.

Long bike ride make Anna hungy.

Our Firestation Camp.

Unpacking and repacking every item.

Monday morning we got an earlier start. Our goal was to make it to Mineral, VA, about 60 miles away. For the first time on the trip, we achieved our goal! We passed through Bumpass, VA along the way (rhymes with "compass").
We stayed the night at the Mineral Volunteer Fire Department. They are used to cyclists coming through, and they let us camp outside and use their amenities. Very nice people. They have a journal for bicyclists to write entries, and Guillermo and Tony took the liberty of describing the trip from Mechanicsville to Mineral in their over-dramatic fashion:


















After this exhausting day, we decided to take a rest day on day 4. The nearest motel was in Louisa, VA, 6 miles away. That is where we are now. Funny, our first day without a shower is today, on a rest day in a motel. Not because we're too tired or anything. The motel is just that dingy. The bathroom lights and the vacancy sign both flicker, and a sketchy Oldsmobile circles the parking lot. We can live without a shower for a day...