Kiki Bikes Across America

Archive for the ‘Virginia’ Category

I got up at 7:30 this morning to the sound of my alarm… started packing up my things and organizing again. George offered to be the chef this morning, so he cooked us all omelets (thanks to the Freed family for letting us stay at their house and shower, relax and sleep, as well as eat pizza and omelets)! Mind you, they weren’t even there, but nonetheless were so nice to let us stay at their house and not have to camp in the humid weather.

We set  off around 9:45 in the morning again – heading for Mineral, VA. We had to meet up with the ACA route again, which was about 5 miles from the Freed’s. We pedaled on and all was going pretty well, none of us were in extreme pain or anything. We started hitting some slight rolling hills today and I could definitely feel the 65+ pounds of  gear that I have packed. Lucky for Chris, he dumped his extra pedals, shoes, and a couple other things this morning so his load was a little ligher. I plan to mail some things home tomorrow and hope that I won’t need them. I have some Heet that I can probably get rid of along with my fleece, another light-weight jacket, some thermal long-pants, and an extra pair of socks, and another pair of shorts. Heck, I’m soon going to only have 2 shirts + 1 jersey, 1 pair of convertible pants, 2 pairs of socks (but I have biking sandals, so don’t wear socks at all during the day (YET)…) and the 1 pair of underwear that’ll last me for 3+ months:) The last was a joke…

So our ride today went pretty well, it was a slower pace than yesterday – we did crank out 88 miles yesterday so it was pretty good for our first day, especially with all the gear we’re carrying! Today we managed 56 miles. No snakes were seen on the roads today – just a few other dead animals. We were going to try and have lunch at Coatesville, but it was apparently a non-existent town or we blew by it so fast we didn’t see it. I’m not sure which happened, so we sat down in someone’s front yard and made oatmeal for lunch and while we were eating the people came home. But they didn’t seem to mind us sitting in the front yard relaxing for a little bit.

Onwards we went, we had another break at a gas station – the guys both got more ice cream. George has now created a rule that he will eat ice cream at any chance possible if it’s between breakfast and dinner. If it’s at dinner, he won’t eat it unless it’s amazingly awesome or something crazy. From the gas station we had another 20 miles or so until we reached our destination. However, within the last 10 miles today we were chased by a big dog. George was leading, Chris following and then me. All of a sudden I notice George takes off really fast. I wonder why, then Chris starts pedaling faster. I look to my left and there’s this huge dog chasing after us, so of course, I started pedaling faster and faster  and eventually we lose the dog after maxing out around 23mph.

About 30 minutes later, we arrive at Fire Station #2 in Mineral, VA – we were welcomed by the firemen and volunteers. They showed us where to store our bikes, the showers, and our banquet hall for where we’d camp out. We showered and then headed out to the town (the one-traffic light town, mind you) to get some food. George ordered a pizza and shared with us and then went went to the BB&T to get some cash. Then back to the fire house for the evening. They had a carnival tonight that goes through May 30th. They had lots of little kiddie rides, food and such. I wound up buying a funnel cake and eating that before coming back to work on this wordpress installation and blogging stuff for my site.

Anyway, it’s now almost midnight so I better get some sleep before I have another riding day. We’re off to Charlottesville where we’ll stay with Jen, a former camp counselor I had when I went to Nature Camp in 1996 in Vesuvius, VA. So that’ll be fun seeing her again and catching up. We also plan to stock up on some food for cooking and Chris wants to shave his head – too much weight he says!

Day 2 – Mechanicsville – Mineral, VA


GPS Stats:
Start time: 9:45am
End time: 4:52pm
57.2 miles
33.6 max speed
12.6 avg speed
04:31 moving time

Computer Stats:
58.24 miles
34.0 max speed
13.0 avg speed
4:29:07 moving time

Total distance to date: 147.16
Snake count: 0 for today, 5 to date
Dog chases: 1 today, 2 to date
Aches/pains: moderate, but not horrible. Just a bit of soreness behind my right knee and my back being sore a bit.. Did lots of stretching throughout the day though.

Torey and I started off the morning with breakfast with our Couchsurfer hosts near Yorktown. We had eggs, bacon, toast, juice, and strawberries. Our hosts were really nice and friendly – from Russia, but have lived here for 7 years now.

We met up with Chris and George at the Victory Monument in Yorktown at 9am and then mom and Mopsie showed up to see us off. We took photos and then dipped our tires in the ocean and then rode off. We knew we had a lot of weight on our bikes when our tires sunk into the sand completely and the rims couldn’t be seen anymore.

Torey, Mom, and Mopsie all trailed along following us – Torey for around 8-9 miles and then Mom/Mopsie for 16 miles. They snapped photos of us biking along. At mile 35 just before Charles City, we stopped at a small sub shop on the side of the road and the guys had subs and I had leftover chicken salad that Mom gave me.

Somewhere between lunch and the end of the day, we were chased by two small dogs – that were speedy as anything. We kept having to yell at them as they got really close to our bikes. We didn’t seem to think they were serious dog chasers – but we were wrong. We lost them after a couple minutes when they got tired and we continued on our merry way.

We then continued on and at mile 60 took another extended break at a restaurant/deli which was shut down and no longer in business. George and Chris found a water spicket out back so we all refilled water bottles and splashed ourselves down to cool off. We got a snack and then Mack, another cyclist doing the Transamerican Trail showed up. George/Chris had met him earlier in the morning at Victory Monument. We hung out there for a bit while a thunderstorm came through and then we continued on towards Glendayle. This is where Mack was staying the night, and for us it was another 20 or so miles past to get to the Freed’s house. We finally arrived after a tiresome 88, almost 89 miles at 6:56pm!We all had our showers and then popped the pizza in the oven and ate around 8:30 or so. Now we’re all heading to be here shortly.

Day 01 – Yorktown, VA to Mechanicsville, VA


GPS Reading (minus the first 3 or so miles):
84.4 miles
28.7 max
13.5 avg
6:16 moving time

Computer Stats:
88.84 miles
Total miles to date: 88.84
29.5 max
13.7 avg
06:28:02 moving time

Snake count: 5 dead on side of road. One really nasty fat one that luckily I didn’t roll over!
Dog chases: 1 today
Aches/pains: very little the entire day. Almost no back pain, miraculously!
Favorite piece of gear: solar panel! I’ve powered two days of the GPS strictly using the solar panel. I haven’t used any AA batteries yet! Keep the sunrays shining when I need them and we’ll be golden!