Discovery Ride - Cycling Across America 2002

This was a short day and a long day all wrapped into one. My Mom, Kelly and I drove from my home in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania to Yorktown, Virginia this morning. We arrived at the Yorktown Victory Monument in Yorktown around 2:00pm where we met Jane Johnson (a family friend we met when we lived in Marinette, Wisconsin), her mother, and Dave and Charlotte McGinnis who we met when we lived in Watertown, New York. I had not seen any of them for many years.

Jane gave me a U.S. Flag patch that my friend and her son, Charles, wore on a Boy Scout uniform when he attended the World Scout Jamboree in the late 1980s. I will sew it onto the backpack on my bike in Charles' memory —he passed away when we were in high school.

We did the obligatory pictures at the Victory Monument and the traditional dipping of the rear wheel in the Atlantic Ocean. I cheated a little bit since it was actually the York River but it is brackish and at sea level. If you are not familiar with this tradition, coast-to-coast cyclists dip their rear wheel in the Atlantic Ocean at the start of the ride and dip the front wheel in the Pacific Ocean at the end of the ride. This symbolizes connecting the two oceans with the bike.

We all ate at Nick's Famous Seafood Pavilion under the bridge on the Colonial Parkway. It's a nice restaurant with some really good spaghetti. Jane had a dog with her who she is training as an assistance animal. It sat under the table very quietly while we ate.

I made the short ride to Williamsburg along the Colonial Parkway. The Colonial Parkway is a very unusual road - the surface is very rough and there are no lines. It winds through a heavily forested area along the coast and connects Yorktown with Williamsburg. One guide I read mentioned that this is the roughest road on the entire TransAm. I'll just have to see about that.

I rejoined my Mom and Kelly in Williamsburg and we walked around for a while. They saw me off and I rode on to Jamestown where I camped for the night. The campground office was closed when I arrived and they didn't have a self-service pay station so I just went in and set up for the night. There are very few people at the campground. I suppose in the height of the tourist season this place can be packed. The campground facilities were quite poor. The bathhouse near my tent wasn't open so I walked around to find another one. The one I finally found was extremely dirty and in disrepair but I did get a shower in. I hope they get cleaner!

So this is what bicycle touring is like...

Food: McDonald's hot cakes & sausage (392 Cal.), 3 L H₂O, 1 Little Debbie oatmeal thing (350 Cal.), 1 apple almond crisp freeze dried food (bland) (520 Cal.), small serving of spaghetti (450 Cal.) TOTAL: 1712 Cal.

Lodging: Free