Day Two – Mechanicsville to Charlottesville

The alternative title to this post is “How to almost ride an accidental double metric century”. When I was creating the route, I used the ACA maps to determine the actual roads we are going to take as well as the distances between points. Apparently when I was doing the math for stage 2 I dropped ~20 miles from the route. It was already going to be long (97 miles) but when I actually went to put the route in to our GPS’s, I realized it was more like 117. Yikes. So, armed with the knowledge that our century had turned in to a double metric, we started our day.

It was raining at the start… We got all decked out in our rain gear after looking at the radar.

Turns out, we didn’t need it. After about an hour the rain ended and the temps were rising.

Thanks to the Beaverdam VA Ruritan Club for letting us borrow their parking lot for lunch. As you can see, it was clearly not raining at lunchtime.

Most of the ride looked like this:

Lots and lots of farmland. Corn, wheat, and some beans. Also, the cicadas had done a number on the trees in this area with lots of dead branch tips where the bugs have laid their eggs. Oh, and I almost hit a turkey at 30mph. I had to duck to avoid it. If I had half a mind, I would have grabbed it for dinner.

The day ended in an epic rainstorm coming in to C-ville. The last of the ride was “completed” in the MCC where we were safe from lightening, wind, and the impressive sideways rain. As JP put it, there was enough lightening that it looked like Castlevania. Crazy.

Tomorrow we climb up into the George Washington National Forest along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It should be a punishing climb. Wish us luck.

Day One – Yorktown to Mechanicsville

Welp, we finished Day 1. It was not without its drama, but it was very successful. For the most part we followed the ACA TransAmerica Route… tho my Garmin 810 sort of flipped out for a while and started navigating on the shortest path vs following the route I had put in. Luckily I think it only cost us 1/4 mile extra.

We started out at the Yorktown Victory Monument. As someone pointed out it may actually be brackish and not technically Ocean. That said, ACA considers it the ocean, and frankly I’d like to see _you_ ride through the tunnels in Norfolk.  😉

To be clear, we absolutely did NOT miss the first turn of the route and nearly get lost in Yorktown. Nope. Didn’t happen.

While we were out riding, the Potter part of the support team hit the Berkeley Plantation. Berkeley is the site of the first official Thanksgiving and the birthplace of William Henry Harrison (“I died in 30 days”).  Beautiful grounds, and a neat bit of history.  And as you can see, Bobby is a fan of perspective.

Anyhoo, it was pretty warm today. Average time of around 82 but definitely punching up to 90 around the end. Mostly flat, tho the initial part on the Colonial Parkway is pretty darn bumpy. Seriously, it was 20 miles of teeth chattering, butt numbing cement road. We were happy to be off of it. The rest of the day involved almost no shoulder at all, but thankfully Virginia drivers are (for the most part) polite and gave us lots of room.

A front is rolling through tonight and should drop the temps a bit for tomorrow. Time to shower, eat, prep for tomorrow, and sleep. W00t. Day 1 is in the books.

 

Everybody’s Riding

So, we’re definitely not the only group of crazy people trying to ride across the country right now. There are a number of other groups you can follow who are WAY more put together and organized than we are.

First off, there’s the Tour Divide. This is a self supported mountain bike race from Banff to the Mexico border along the Continental Divide. The trail the racers follow is the longest continuous mountain bike trail in the world. Side note: my oldest son, Terran, and I hope to compete in the Tour Divide next year.

Next, it’s Race Across America time. RAAM is pretty hard core (clearly) and I’m always humbled when I see RAAM riders. Usually when we’ve been driving home from the Garrett County Gran Fondo each year we’ll see a few of the RAAM leaders cruising down MD 144 on their way to the coast. Puts rides like the GC Gran Fondo in to persepctive.

And finally, Spokes. It’s a group of 8 MIT students riding from San Fransico to DC and teaching all kinds of classes along the way. I think that’s something JP and I had dreams of doing when we started Cycle OverRide but the realities of scheduling got in the way. The Spokes crew looks to be doing awesome work and really reaching a lot of kids. We wish them the best of luck.

Down to the Wire

Well, we start riding in 5 days. Life is getting serious now. In a few days, even Amazon Prime won’t be able to help us get ready *gasp*.

That said, the Mobile Command Center got dressed up today.

And the jerseys arrived too.

I’m not sure how fast we’ll be, but we’ll look damn good riding. 😉 See you in Yorktown.