Our ride designation was 1CVWF804. Decoded that's the "1st" group riding the "Colonial Virginia" segment starting from the"West", "Full service" starting on "August 4th". We started in Radford and ended in Williamsburg. The cost of the trip, with a Datsun Lil' Hustler mini-pickup for support, two leaders, Bike Inns for overnight indoor sleeping and food was $195. Add-on costs of $25 for the emergency fund (mostly refunded at trip's end), $5 guaranteed refund plan and $2 for a bike box to use at the end brought the total to $227.
I kept a daily journal during the ride in a pocket-sized spiral notebook. I still have the notebook, so I've transcribed my notes to include on this blog. I don't know why I didn't just create an on-line blog on the internet back then. It would have been much easier. :-)
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| Most of our group - Back: Bill ?, Tom Wolford, me, Kathy Seavey, Larry & Holly Weitz; Front: Anne Blinkley, Katsumi Shimamura, Ellen Friedlander (photo by Sally Seavey) |
Monday, August 2
Left Marion at 9:30 (bus was late). Arrived in Paducah at 10:35 and caught a bus out to Nashville at 10:45. Luggage was put right onto the bus I was on. No problems with transfer. I arrived in Nashville at about 4:00, ate dinner, and walked around downtown until about 8:00. I left Nashville at 8:30 on a direct bus to Knoxville.
Tuesday, August 3
I arrived in Knoxville at 1:00am. There was a 20 min. rest period there and the bus then went on to Wytheville where we stopped at 6:00am for breakfast. I got to Radford at 7:40 and got a cab up to the Bike Inn. The inn is a VFW hall which has a big floor space for sleeping bags upstairs and a basement area, too.
The leader of our group, Tom Wolford, was already here so I talked with him for a while. We went for a ride about 10:30. I had trouble with my chain getting stuck between the sprockets. I found I had the large one turned around backwards. I also wore a bare spot on my rear tire taking a skid going down a steep hill. There are steep hills all over Radford. I bought a new tire here in town for $7.50.
Over 700 people have signed the register here at Radford. Many have written clever sayings & words of encouragement and praise for the others in a separate record. Also there are comments on the pros and cons of the Bike Inns along the trail.
We ate a good dinner at a Lendy's restaurant just down the street here.
Wednesday, August 4 (Shakedown ride, Radford to Christiansburg and return)*
We got up about 8:00, ate breakfast and then came back and discussed biking techniques and safety. We then got some things to take with us for lunch and rode to a small campground about 9 miles from here. It was pretty nice and the owners were real friendly. We aet lunch - peanut butter on whole wheat and fruits and vegetables. One group member is into natural foods and he bought the lunch. It really wasn't bad, though. We sat and talked about Bikecentennial policy.
We started back about 3:30 and it took about an hour. After we got back we all took showers. That really felt good. I think I finally got the front derailleur working. I hope.
We ate dinner at Lendy's again tonight. Everyone in the group seems to be real nice. My pace is about in the middle of the group. There are a couple who don't have much experience at all. I'm not the slowest. There are some really steep hills!! in and around Radford. I guess I'll get used to them about the time we get past them.
We saw a film about Bikecentennial tonight. It was well done & pretty good. The Trans-Am people here had seen many of the places in the film already. The manager of the Inn here has a cat colored just like Midnight (my cat), only about half the size. His name is Meatloaf.
Thursday, August 5 (Radford to Troutville)
We got up about 6:15 this morning, ate breakfast and then started riding about 8:00. The ride today was 60 miles from Radford to Lexington (should say Troutville). It was really pretty. Much of it followed a valley just past Christiansburg. The road outside C'burg was downhill for about 2-3 miles, but not so steep that it was dangerous. It really was a great feeling coasting down. The Bike Inn in Troutville is an old school. It was abandoned for several years and is now used for retarded (apologies for using the terminology of the day) students. For this reason it opens at 4:00pm and everyone must be out by 8:15am. There are only 2 showers and they are in the ladies restroom, so everyone has to shower in shifts.
I rode all of today with Katsumi, a 16 years old Japanese boy in our group. He is real nice and he rides about my speed. He does really well with English so the group manages just fine. My front derailleur worked about 3/4 of the time, but gave me problems up a few hills. The route has a lot of ups and downs, but nothing real steep so I made it OK.
We ate dinner at a cafe about 3 miles down the road. To get there our driver, Bill, drove us all there in a little pickup. Nine of us were in the covered bed of the pickup. Bill drives our equipment to the day's destination and then rides back to meet us and ride the rest of the trip.
Friday, August 6 (Troutville to Lexington)
We got up at 6:00 and got ready to ride to breakfast about 7:00. Then Holly discovered her front tire was flat. Tom replaced the tube and the stem tore loose as they were pumping it up. So they did it all over again. We left the Bike Inn about 7:20, but were delayed again at breakfast because there was only one waitress in the whole place. We finally got started about 9:15.
The ride was 40 miles today, and the first twenty were pretty flat so they went real fast. One section after that was a service road beside the interstate. It was up and down all the way, and it really wore me out. The last part followed a river for a long way and it was mostly downhill.
We got to Lexington about 1:15. The rest of the group got in about 2:30. We ate lunch and then some of us went to do laundry. Bill loaded the clothes in the truck and we all rode our bikes over to the laundromat. We got back just before dinner.
Dinner here is prepared by the Bike Inn managers. It was a good dinner and there was plenty of food. It was much more than we could get at a restaurant for our $2.50 limit. After dinner we all went to an old fashioned ice cream parlor. One of our group members, Sally, had a birthday yesterday so they brought out hers with a birthday candle and we all sang Happy Birthday.
At about 9:30 we all went over to a place where they had people playing Bluegrass music. We all sat around and talked and it was really fun. We got to bed about 11:30.
Saturday, August 7 (Rest day in Lexington)
We got up about 7:30 and went down to breakfast prepared by the innkeepers. It was really pretty good and again there was plenty of it. After breakfast a group of us walked down to the visitors center and then took the walking tour of Lexington. We ended up at the VMI museum around noon and then went to lunch. We ate at a little sandwich shop in Old Main Street, a group of small shops downtown.
About 2:00 I went back over to the George C. Marshall museum. It wasn't as good as the VMI museum, but there was a good display telling the story of WWII using lights on a world map. It started raining after I got back. It rained off and on all evening.
We had another good dinner tonight with plenty to eat. After dinner I watched T.V. and packed my stuff up for in the morning. I went to bed about 10:15.
Sunday, August 8 (Lexington to Waynesboro)
We got up at 6:00 again this morning, packed up and then went down to breakfast at 7:00. It was the same as yesterday, but it was still good. We left the Bike Inn about 7:45 and rode to a Kroger store just a quarter mile off the route on our way out of town. It was one that never closes which is good because we were worried about finding anything open on a Sunday morning.
We went over a couple of long steep hills before the route went down to join a river which we followed almost the whole 20 miles to Vesuvius. There were only a couple of steep sections where the road left the river valley temporarily.
We got into Vesuvius about 9:15 and waited for the others to catch up. We weren't sure if we would go up onto the Parkway because of the overcast sky and chance of rain, but when we got there everyone decided to go on up (9:45). I rode up a little way past where it really got steep, but then decided I would be faster and better off to walk up. I walked almost all the way up, but rode the last few feet of the climb. We ate lunch at the top and sat around for a little bit. My shirt was soaked when I reached the top so I changed into my jacket until after lunch. The slowest ones made it up about an hour after we did. We all stayed around for a few minutes and then the first ones in started on across the Parkway.
The view from the Parkway was great and the overcast didn't block the view except in a couple of places. There were many long climbs along the highway, but they weren't steep enough to make me walk. There were also some great downhill stretches steep enough to get going real fast, but not requiring any braking at all.
At Raven's Roost there were some people setting up hang gliders. I stayed to watch and 3 of the others joined me in time to see 3 guys go off the cliff and soar around down to the valley 1800 ft. below. There was also a girl rappelling and rock climbing on around the way. The rock faces and outcroppings all along the Parkway are much like the Giant City area back home.
We did ride through some fairly steady rain for 30-45 minutes, but I didn't bother with my rain gear. I kept warm as long as I was riding. The rain had stopped a short time before I reached Raven's Roost. From there on there were only 2 or 3 climbs and some beautiful downhills. Where we turned off the Parkway at highway 152 to Waynesboro was 4 miles of downhill.
The Bike Inn here in Waynesboro is Fishburne Military Academy, a school for grades 7-12. There are no students here during the summer. Everyone gets separate rooms with 2-3 in each room. There are beds with thick mattresses in each room. I know I'll sleep well tonight. All of the rooms face the middle where there is a large open area. The school here very much resembles the barracks at VMI. The people from the school served dinner at 6:00 in the dining room. There was a lot to eat and there was also a salad bar and soda and fruit drink dispensers just like most college dining rooms. The meal was really good. A little while after dinner we walked up to an ice cream parlor for a snack. We got back around 10:00 and went to bed soon after that.
Monday, August 9 (Waynesboro to Charlottesville)
I got up about 6:00 again today and packed up before breakfast at 7:00. There was a really good selection of things at breakfast and there was plenty of it. I think this was the biggest breakfast I've eaten on the trip. We met to discuss the trail after breakfast and then got started riding about 8:45. We rode at a pretty good pace most of the way today. The first 4 miles were back up to the Parkway, but it wasn't too steep. I managed to grind it all out without stopping. The route down from the Parkway was steep with many switchbacks for about 4-5 miles. Part way down there was a sign which said "Water for bikers". We had all heard about this real friendly lady who stopped all the bikers to talk to them and give them snacks. She gave us cookies and candy things and she also had orange juice and lemonade. I guess she really enjoyed talking to bikers (this was the now legendary June Curry, first recipient of the Adventure Cycling Association's June Curry Trail Angel award).
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| Stopping for refreshments at June Curry's (June is in white top, center of photo) |
After going down the rest of the hill we had rolling hills almost all the way to Charlottesville. From White Hall to C'ville there were some real nice houses all along the road. Every one of them seemed to own a really large plot of land around the house. We got into C'ville about 11:45, in time to eat lunch and then go to the Bike Inn. We messed around there for a while, then I took a shower and we went sightseeing. We went through the Rotunda (at University of Virginia) and then took a tour of the grounds. The whole place was really beautiful and the architecture was really great. After that we went to a Burger King for dinner - the first real junk food I've had on the trip.
We looked at a grocery for things for breakfast, but I didn't find anything I wanted. Then we went back to the Bike Inn and I went swimming at a pool right next to the school gym where we're staying. I got back about 8:45, loafed around for a while and then went to bed about 10:15.
Tuesday, August 10 (Rest day in Charlottesville)
I got up about 6:30 and messed around for a little while 'til about 7:15. Then I started getting ready to go out to Monticello with Sally & Kathy. We ate some applesauce and drank some grapefruit juice for breakfast. We left about 8:30 and rode to Monticello. It was about 5 miles and there was a long moderately steep climb up to it. We spent almost 3 hours there and then went down to Michie's Tavern for lunch. They served a southern style chicken dinner. All you can eat for $3.25. It was really good. While we were there Ken joined us. We went down and saw the grist mill and then rode down to the Virginia Bicentennial Center and saw a film about Thomas Jefferson.
We also picked up some info on the Williamsburg area. After that we went downtown and rode around looking at some of the old buildings and statues. We also looked around the downtown mall - an 8 block section of Main St. that has been made into a mall. It was really nice. We got back to the bike inn about 4:15. I then went to do my laundry and got back about 5:45. I went swimming with some of the others and then we went downtown to get something to eat. We ended up going to Burger King. I finally got to sleep about 10:30.
Wednesday, August 11 (Charlottesville to Ashland)
We got up at 6:00 again and packed up to get ready to go. Some of the others had bought food for breakfast so they ate in the Bike Inn. Sally, Kathy, Ken & I went to a little grocery about 7:30 and bought cereal, milk and orange juice for breakfast. We took route 250 out of C'ville and rode on it for over 40 miles. It was continuous rollers almost all the way, but they were short and not real steep. The biggest problem with today's ride was it was terribly hot, especially on that wide black asphalt highway. After the 40 miles we turned off onto some county roads to Ashland.
It was still hot, but the roads were sometimes shaded. There really wasn't any traffic on 250, though. We got into the Bike Inn about 4:00 and the first thing I did was take a shower. The Bike Inn is Gamma Chi Alpha fraternity of Randolph Macon college. It's a small Methodist men's college here in Ashland. We ate dinner at 6:00 at the university cafeteria. They had chicken and you could have all you want of the vegetables and other stuff except the chicken. They also had a bunch of different flavors of ice cream which everyone really loved. The Amtrak route along the east coast runs right by here & we've seen about 6 trains in about 4 hours including a big Auto train heading south.
In making our ride today we skipped Mineral which was supposed to have a really terrible Bike Inn and we did a double day on here to Ashland. The total mileage was somewhere around 70 miles. It wasn't bad except for the heat. The good thing is that we'll get into Yorktown a day early. After dinner I walked around town for a while. I came back, looked at my map for the next day, and went to bed about 10:30.
Thursday, August 12 (Ashland to Charles City)
I got up at 6:30 and got my stuff together. We all went over to the university cafeteria for breakfast at 7:15. It was another excellent breakfast with a good selection & plenty to eat. We got on the road just a little before 9:00. The route today was relatively flat the whole way. The only problem with today's ride was that it was 60 miles and it was even hotter than yesterday. We all stopped together at a grocery store on Highway 60 for lunch about noon. We ate lunch and then went on again. We made pretty good time all the way despite the heat. Katsumi & I stopped at Shirley plantation about 2:30, but Ellen decided to go on. We toured the house ($1.00) and it really wasn't worth it. We didn't get started again until 4:00. We were still about 10 miles from Charles City so we didn't get in until 5:00. The others were already there because they didn't stop. When I got in, I took a shower and then swam for about half an hour. That really helped to cool me off.
The Bike Inn is a community center out in the middle of nowhere. It is kind of old and is pretty dirty. The water in the pool is so cloudy you can't see anything underwater. We went to dinner a little after 6:00. The place was a little restaurant with a pool table on one side and about 5 or 6 small tables. Our group were the only ones in the place when we went. The dinner of chicken, potato salad and green beans was pretty good and it was only $1.50. After dinner we came back and played basketball for a while with 3 guys who were here. The gym floor is really dirty, but that is where we slept. It took me about 2 or 3 hours to forget about all the mosquito bites I had despite my using Cutter's all over. We went to bed about 10:00.
Friday, August 13 (Charles City to Camp Chickahominy outside Williamsburg)
We got up about 7:00, got packed and then rode back out to Highway 5 to a grocery to buy breakfast. Ellen, Katsumi and Andy bought their food together so they could go on ahead. The rest of us bought breakfast together and ate it beside the store. We got started about 9:30 towards Williamsburg. We rode for just a little over an hour and then stopped at a Holiday Inn camp just across the Chickahominy River. We stayed for a few minutes and then rode the last 6 miles to Camp Chickahominy. We got in to the trailhead about 11:30. The Bike Inn there is a bunch of tents in a scout camp, just like the camp back home. The wall tents here have floors and cots, but there are so many people coming we had to have a cot outside or the floor inside the tent.
We sat around for a while & then about 2:30 a bunch of us went for a swim in the lake. It was just like back home complete with raft & horseflies. We swam for about an hour and then went back to the campsite. We all went back, got dressed and then went down to the Williamsburg Pottery which is about a half hour ride from the camp into Lightfoot. We spent an hour there and then ate dinner and rode back to camp just before dark about 8:15. We all sat around a campfire for a little while talking. I went to bed a little past 10:00 after I had coated myself with Cutter's. I wasn't bothered that much by mosquitoes.
Saturday, August 14 (Shuttle bus to Williamsburg)
I got up about 5:00, got my things packed and then went down to the showers to shave & wash up. We had breakfast on a meal plan about 7:00. The eggs were watered way down and the pancakes weren't that good. There also wasn't very much to eat. We rode the shuttle bus to town at 8:00. The guy let us off at the information center with all our stuff. We got a guest home in Williamsburg through the lodging desk. Sally & Kathy & I got a room for three for Sat. & Sun. nights. They made one trip with part of their things and then came back & we loaded up all the rest of the stuff except for my bike box. We got settled and then I walked back over to the information center and carried my bike box back. After I got back I took all my dirty clothes and did laundry. Then I ate lunch, so I didn't get started seeing Williamsburg until about 2:30. I spent about 3 hours looking around town and then I came back and we all took showers.
We met all the group for dinner at 6:30. It turned out that the Chinese restaurant where Tom made the reservations was in the same block as our room. We presented Tom & Bill with T-shirts with their name & the trip code on them. After dinner we went to an ice cream parlor& then we went down to a table in the Market Square area and sat around talking until midnight. It was 12:30 before we got to bed.
* Comments in italics are things I added as I posted this blog on-line.
[That's the end of my written journal. At the back I have lists of photos taken in 6 rolls of film. On the last page I have phone numbers for my great-uncle Allan Farlow who lived in Vienna, Virginia and Busch Gardens. There are also some apparent departure/arrival times which I assume are for the Greyhound bus from Williamsburg to Washington, D.C.
What follows is what I remember about the rest of the trip, recorded >34 years later, 12/3/2010.
Sunday, August 15
On Sunday I rode my bike down Colonial Parkway to Yorktown and across the river on an open grate bridge to Gloucester.
Monday, August 16
I think Sally & Kathy also stayed over on Sunday night and left on Monday morning. I remember I got up and packed my bike in the box, then got a cab to take me down to the bus station.
From there I rode a Greyhound bus up to Washington, D.C. Looking at the times in my journal I probably left at 9:45 and arrived at 1:45. I was able to leave my bike in the baggage area at the bus station for a couple of days (definitely long before 9/11). I think I locked more stuff in a locker and then walked with a small suitcase to the Old Senate Office building to Allan's office. I remember the entry guard had to open up and inspect my small suitcase while I waited for Allan to come meet me. We visited for a bit and then I went out sightseeing around Washington for the afternoon.
I met Allan back at his office at the end of the day. We went over to a nearby restaurant and sat for a while waiting for rush hour traffic to clear. Then Allan drove us out to his home in Vienna, VA.
Tuesday, August 17
I got up and with maps and based on discussion the night before I drove by myself in a car belonging to one of Allan's daughters (a small blue Vega, I think), into Washington, D.C. I think I bought a Tourmobile pass to get around the Washington mall area for the day. This was my first time ever in Washington, so I saw all of the major monuments. At the end of the day I drove back to Allan's in Vienna.
Wednesday, August 18
I don't remember if I spent two days in Washington or just one, but on my last day I rode with Allan in to Washington where he dropped me at the bus station and I caught the Greyhound bus home. I got my bike from the baggage area and loaded it on with me.
I think the route I took home went from Washington to Pittsburgh, a probable bus change there to a bus to Indianapolis which probably continued on to Effingham, IL. There I transferred busses to one which took me home to Marion.
I probably left in the morning on Wednesday or Thursday and arrived home the next morning in Marion.
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