~Whereby Coty traces colonial, Revolutionary, and Civil War history, has an accidental ancestral roots encounter, and is blown away by the kindness of strangers...
Miles: 64.5
Random Ear Worms:
10,000 Maniacs - Eat for Two "I eat for two, walk for two.." (uhh.... considering I definitely am eating for one, cycling for one.. I don't know where that came from.)
Just Around the Riverbend - from Disney's terrible Pocahontas movie - I'm blaming YOU Jamestown.
Trail Angels - Willis United Methodist Church
Day 02 - Glendale, VA to Coatesville, VA (with pickup to stay the night in Fredricksburg)
Accommodation: friends of friends!
Miles: 54.5
Trail Angels: Bob and Lou Gramman.. incredible hosts who drove an hour to get me!
Day 03 - Coatesville, VA to Charlottesville, VA
Accommdation: Budget Inn (thanks to my high school bestie, Rhae! So amazing to see her after so many years!)
Miles: 81.6
Random Ear Worm: The Beatles - Lovely Rita (.... I rean really?!?! I probably haven't heard that song in five year at least)
Trail Angels: Michael in Mineral, VA - giving me $10 to buy a treat. So great to meet him and his son
"Excuse me, can I ask you where you're heading?" the mans says (his name is Michael by the way)
"Across the country!" I reply.
"Wow!! That's great. I've always wanted to do the Appalachian Trail."
He then proceeds to open his wallet and hand me ten dollars to "buy myself a treat." I then took some photos with his son and rode away. Michael if you and your son are reading this, I just want to say how much I appreciated talking to you and your enthusiasm. It's for moments like this that I'm doing this ride.
Or this woman in Charles City, where I had a moment of confusion about where to go and stopped to consult my maps. This woman in her mini-van drove by, leaned her head out and with the biggest smile said with genuine enthusiasm, "You can do it!!" It renewed my energy, and I will carry her confidence in me as I ride on into the Appalachians, what is supposed to be the toughest part of the entire ride. And this has happened over and over again in different ways already just three days into my ride. The hospitality at the Willis Methodist Church, who graciously host and provide food for every bicyclist who walks in. The man at the little country grocery who has a bike log for you to sign because "since I can't do the ride I can live vicariously through you all" and then came out when I was getting ready to take off again, handed me a banana "for energy!" The local road bicyclists whose paths I crossed and as I was going by say, "You heading to Oregon?" "Yes!" (because it is too hard to explain while on a moving bicycle about my end of the route deviation to Washington) "Well good luck and HAVE FUN!"
There are so many amazing people out there. Most people are. We are, just in general, too afraid to get to know them and them us. We put our faces in our phones, put our headphones in, avoid contact with the "dangerous" world. It's all fear, perpetuated daily in the news. People just need an excuse to get out of it and it seems like bicycle touring is the way to do that. (I remember when I first got interested in doing this hearing professional bicycle tourer Willy Weirs talk about this.
Which brings me to my point. GET OUT OF THE FEAR BUBBLE! I'm not saying be reckless or don't follow your gut or not be cautious about doing things or encounters with people. I'm just saying that we've got to get out there and do the things we want to do and meet the people we want to meet and not be so afraid about it.
I want you all to meet Shirine Taylor and Tegan, both amazing women bicycle tourers. Tegan is doing cartoons while on her tour and has a series of her own travel adventurers that she finds inspirational. Shirine made the list! They are really amazing and you can see more here: http://www.unclippedadventure.com I've been following Shirine on facebook as whe has been traveling around on her bicycle for awhile now. She is currently in South America. (Check her out here: http://www.awanderingphoto.com
Both courageous and inspirational women!
So in three days I have rolled along through the Virginia Tidewater and Piedmont. Cycling through colonial and Revolutionary War history and on into the Civil War, with historic markers lining the route. My first day of riding I looked around at the rivers, the marshes, the people on the banks with their fishing poles and buckets. And I just thought that tide seemed to move a little slower out here (this could be because I'm on bicycle, but you know...) There just was this wonderfully laid-back swamp feeling. And then I started thinking about an ancestor of mine who I knew had been shipped to Virginia in the early 1700s and I wondered if there was any way he lived in this area.
Images from Williamsburg - they have completely restored the colonial area and actors work as regular townspeople. They stay in character even when talking to you! I even got to be part of a little scene where some people confront the "governor" about an issue with gunpowder....
.....an ancestrial sidetrack......meet George Marjoribanks...
George was part of on of the Jacobite Uprisings of 1715 and was captured by the British, and as punishment was shipped of to America to work as an indentured servant on a plantation. Well Georgey-boy was quite the ladies man and ended up wooing and marrying the plantation owner's daughter and lived out of good life for himself. Several generations later, I was born, him just being on of the many lines of people and their own unique stories that allows me to be walking (or biking!) on this planet right now.
What I didn't know until I looked it up after leaving Yorktown was that GEORGE LANDED IN YORKTOWN, VA ON JANUARY 1716!!
So without knowing it, as I did the ceremonial bike dip into the shore waters at Yorktown, I was dipping into the very same town that George first stepped onto North American soil so many years ago........
And now as i bike across the country, I am also following in another side of my family, the Ferrells from Knoxville, TN, who like so many families decided to take a chance on a new life and set out on the Oregon Trail, settling outside of Portland... only to find it didn't suit them for some reason AND WENT BACK TO TENNESSEE...! So here I am now in a weird way tracing a lot of family roots across this country!
just one of the plethora of history going on here..
And then I ride and I observe people in daily motion - mowing lawns, gardening, feeding the horses, sitting on the porches...LIVING their lives! I see animals and birds... and dead animals on the road (oh oh oh I seriously failed in the turtle saving department. It is an unwritten rule that every touring bicyclist must help turtles cross the road. I'm afraid to say I arrived at one section too late. Dead turtle crushed right down the middle.... I almost got to make up for it today, but when I got off my bike to help the poor fellow out, he scuttled on back from wence he came...)
Other observations from the road:
The number one thing people seem to like to throw out their car window is Bud Light Also a surprising amount of diaper diapers.
Oh and whenever you want to pull into a driveway for a rest it seems to be a rule that it will always be in the sun.
On not so highlight I do want to write about.
Today as I had just finished a steep climb I was fortunately just pulling into a driveway for a break as a big truck drove past by with a big rev of their engine and the guy in the back leaned his head out the window and yellow, "Get of the road, bitch!"
Yeah well, same to you asshole. (said ala Meryl Streep in Postcards from the edge ("they're blanks asshole")
So yeah, that was a low point as I had already rode 65 miles and was starting to feel it and the heat. But I took it in stride and actually was quite pleased that I would get to blog about it :-)
But other than that, the people both on and off the roads have been incredible. The amount of vehicles that slow down behind me, waiting for a safe place to pass and then waving as they go by far outnumber the not. The people taking care of their lawns that smile and say "Good luck on your trip!" as I pass by. Virginia has been pretty incredible in the hospitality department.
Like my second night, my friend Carol's brother (who I had never met drove an hour to pick me up so I could stay with him and his wife, where I got to attend a great house concert! It was weird to all the sudden have my music community intersect with with this bike trip, but there it was!
But now I'm deep into the foothills.. (oh my god, the last ten miles of todays long haul were BRUTAL!) I will admit he last climb into Charlotsville that took me past Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate made me cry a little inside. Tomorrow I officially go into the Appalachians... and will do what some say is the toughest climb of the entire ride. Wish me luck!!
MORE PHOTOS
I have to admit I got a little emotional looking at this sign. I am finally here doing it!
Day 01 - Yorktown, VA to Glendale, VA
Accommodation: Willis United Methodist ChurchMiles: 64.5
Random Ear Worms:
10,000 Maniacs - Eat for Two "I eat for two, walk for two.." (uhh.... considering I definitely am eating for one, cycling for one.. I don't know where that came from.)
Just Around the Riverbend - from Disney's terrible Pocahontas movie - I'm blaming YOU Jamestown.
Trail Angels - Willis United Methodist Church
Day 02 - Glendale, VA to Coatesville, VA (with pickup to stay the night in Fredricksburg)
Accommodation: friends of friends!
Miles: 54.5
Trail Angels: Bob and Lou Gramman.. incredible hosts who drove an hour to get me!
Day 03 - Coatesville, VA to Charlottesville, VA
Accommdation: Budget Inn (thanks to my high school bestie, Rhae! So amazing to see her after so many years!)
Miles: 81.6
Random Ear Worm: The Beatles - Lovely Rita (.... I rean really?!?! I probably haven't heard that song in five year at least)
Trail Angels: Michael in Mineral, VA - giving me $10 to buy a treat. So great to meet him and his son
My friends and I are ready!
What can I say about these first three days of riding? I've seen (and felt) the ways the earth is shaped, it's contours, it's ups and downs, the environment and gradual change in the foliage.... until all the sudden here I am sitting right up against the Appalachians, after having done 81 miles to Charlotsville where I get to have a hotel date with my high school besty, Rhae, who just randomly happened be in town!
HIGHLIGHT
In Mineral, VA I was just getting ready to get back on the road, waiting for traffic to clear when a man and his young son come up to me.
"Excuse me, can I ask you where you're heading?" the mans says (his name is Michael by the way)
"Across the country!" I reply.
"Wow!! That's great. I've always wanted to do the Appalachian Trail."
He then proceeds to open his wallet and hand me ten dollars to "buy myself a treat." I then took some photos with his son and rode away. Michael if you and your son are reading this, I just want to say how much I appreciated talking to you and your enthusiasm. It's for moments like this that I'm doing this ride.
Or this woman in Charles City, where I had a moment of confusion about where to go and stopped to consult my maps. This woman in her mini-van drove by, leaned her head out and with the biggest smile said with genuine enthusiasm, "You can do it!!" It renewed my energy, and I will carry her confidence in me as I ride on into the Appalachians, what is supposed to be the toughest part of the entire ride. And this has happened over and over again in different ways already just three days into my ride. The hospitality at the Willis Methodist Church, who graciously host and provide food for every bicyclist who walks in. The man at the little country grocery who has a bike log for you to sign because "since I can't do the ride I can live vicariously through you all" and then came out when I was getting ready to take off again, handed me a banana "for energy!" The local road bicyclists whose paths I crossed and as I was going by say, "You heading to Oregon?" "Yes!" (because it is too hard to explain while on a moving bicycle about my end of the route deviation to Washington) "Well good luck and HAVE FUN!"
There are so many amazing people out there. Most people are. We are, just in general, too afraid to get to know them and them us. We put our faces in our phones, put our headphones in, avoid contact with the "dangerous" world. It's all fear, perpetuated daily in the news. People just need an excuse to get out of it and it seems like bicycle touring is the way to do that. (I remember when I first got interested in doing this hearing professional bicycle tourer Willy Weirs talk about this.
Mandatory photo in Bumpass, VA. Fortunately my amazing Brooks Saddle is keeping me happy
Which brings me to my point. GET OUT OF THE FEAR BUBBLE! I'm not saying be reckless or don't follow your gut or not be cautious about doing things or encounters with people. I'm just saying that we've got to get out there and do the things we want to do and meet the people we want to meet and not be so afraid about it.
I want you all to meet Shirine Taylor and Tegan, both amazing women bicycle tourers. Tegan is doing cartoons while on her tour and has a series of her own travel adventurers that she finds inspirational. Shirine made the list! They are really amazing and you can see more here: http://www.unclippedadventure.com I've been following Shirine on facebook as whe has been traveling around on her bicycle for awhile now. She is currently in South America. (Check her out here: http://www.awanderingphoto.com
Both courageous and inspirational women!
.....an ancestrial sidetrack......meet George Marjoribanks...
George was part of on of the Jacobite Uprisings of 1715 and was captured by the British, and as punishment was shipped of to America to work as an indentured servant on a plantation. Well Georgey-boy was quite the ladies man and ended up wooing and marrying the plantation owner's daughter and lived out of good life for himself. Several generations later, I was born, him just being on of the many lines of people and their own unique stories that allows me to be walking (or biking!) on this planet right now.
What I didn't know until I looked it up after leaving Yorktown was that GEORGE LANDED IN YORKTOWN, VA ON JANUARY 1716!!
So without knowing it, as I did the ceremonial bike dip into the shore waters at Yorktown, I was dipping into the very same town that George first stepped onto North American soil so many years ago........
And now as i bike across the country, I am also following in another side of my family, the Ferrells from Knoxville, TN, who like so many families decided to take a chance on a new life and set out on the Oregon Trail, settling outside of Portland... only to find it didn't suit them for some reason AND WENT BACK TO TENNESSEE...! So here I am now in a weird way tracing a lot of family roots across this country!
just one of the plethora of history going on here..
And then I ride and I observe people in daily motion - mowing lawns, gardening, feeding the horses, sitting on the porches...LIVING their lives! I see animals and birds... and dead animals on the road (oh oh oh I seriously failed in the turtle saving department. It is an unwritten rule that every touring bicyclist must help turtles cross the road. I'm afraid to say I arrived at one section too late. Dead turtle crushed right down the middle.... I almost got to make up for it today, but when I got off my bike to help the poor fellow out, he scuttled on back from wence he came...)
Other observations from the road:
The number one thing people seem to like to throw out their car window is Bud Light Also a surprising amount of diaper diapers.
Oh and whenever you want to pull into a driveway for a rest it seems to be a rule that it will always be in the sun.
On not so highlight I do want to write about.
Today as I had just finished a steep climb I was fortunately just pulling into a driveway for a break as a big truck drove past by with a big rev of their engine and the guy in the back leaned his head out the window and yellow, "Get of the road, bitch!"
Yeah well, same to you asshole. (said ala Meryl Streep in Postcards from the edge ("they're blanks asshole")
So yeah, that was a low point as I had already rode 65 miles and was starting to feel it and the heat. But I took it in stride and actually was quite pleased that I would get to blog about it :-)
But other than that, the people both on and off the roads have been incredible. The amount of vehicles that slow down behind me, waiting for a safe place to pass and then waving as they go by far outnumber the not. The people taking care of their lawns that smile and say "Good luck on your trip!" as I pass by. Virginia has been pretty incredible in the hospitality department.
But now I'm deep into the foothills.. (oh my god, the last ten miles of todays long haul were BRUTAL!) I will admit he last climb into Charlotsville that took me past Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate made me cry a little inside. Tomorrow I officially go into the Appalachians... and will do what some say is the toughest climb of the entire ride. Wish me luck!!
MORE PHOTOS
My first night on the road. The amazing Willis Methodist Church in Glendale
This looks like my kind of place!
Typical lunch... peanut butter and baguette
I'm not so sure that would be my kind of church...
Woo! Got to see my dear high school friend, Rhae in Charlottsville
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