Day 1: Williamsburg, VA to Yorktown, VA and return

Sunday May 20, 2012,  13 miles - Total so far: 13 miles*
    * Miles ridden on the TransAm route
    Odometer miles - 27.3miles (total ridden since 5/20/2012)

Wheel dipping in the (almost) Atlantic

Today we rode from our motel in Williamsburg along the Colonial Parkway to Yorktown.  We visited the Yorktown Victory Monument and then went to a small beach in Yorktown for the traditional wheel dipping to start our ride.  Technically we dipped our wheels in the York River, not the Atlantic Ocean, but it was a beach with waves and salty or brackish water so we all agree that it qualifies.

Our group - all together and ready for the first ride (10 riders plus 2 leaders)

The Yorktown Victory Monument

Dipping my rear wheel in the (Atlantic) - York River

Neat ship sailing under the bridge at Yorktown

After a bit of sightseeing around Yorktown we were treated to a great lunch at the Grace Episcopal Church by the pastor, his son and some of the members.  They provided way more food than we could eat and it was all very good.  Many thanks to them for their hospitality.

After lunch we rode back to our Williamsburg motel.  Total riding distance was 27.3 miles on my odometer.  I'm counting it as 13 in my total since that's the distance ridden from the route terminus in Yorktown.  I'm interested to see how many total miles I put on my bike compared to the actual route distance.  I expect that with some riding around on errands, side trips and layover day rides I'll end up a bit over the advertised distance.  To make it easier to track the total, I zeroed out my odometer last night.  I plan to report both the route distance and total odometer miles in the header of my blog each day.

I made one addition to my bike last night to kick off this TransAm ride.  Sometime in the past year while I was going through my old papers and souvenirs from my Bikecentennial '76 Virginia ride I found a decal which I had received.  I brought it with me and last night "christened" my bike with the new decal.  I was surprised that the adhesive still seemed to work fine after 36 years.

A new decal for my bike