I am currently laying in my tent at a campground in Ashland, VA. It's 6:08am and I've hardly slept a wink from the heavy thunderstorms that rolled over us all night. These same storms interrupted our ride yesterday as we tried to make it to Bumpass (lol).
The first two days of the tour have been interesting. For one, we didn't get our bikes back from Amtrak until 11:30am on Sunday--and they weren't assembled and ready to go until 1:30pm. We were lucky in that our friend from Tallahassee, Rachael Thompson, was driving up to DC the same weekend. She helped us get our bikes (she even had her bike rack that I gave her a year ago) and stuck around to send us off! Having such a late start put us at our first destination (Willis United Methodist Church in Glendale) at sundown, but fortunately when we arrived we were greeted with warm showers and a huge pasta dinner.
The ride so far has been absolutely beautiful. After leaving the Atlantic coast, we biked past huge fields of golden grain and seemingly endless rows of corn. A paved bike path on the John Tyler Memorial Highway gave us a pleasant ride for nearly 30 miles I'd say. On the second day (yesterday), the roads became a bit more hilly as we passed through Mechanicsville and the thunderstorms (and some hail!) started during our lunch in Ashland. Though it's been quite beautiful, it has also been very hot and the effects on our health are quite clear. We are learning as a group that we need to make a concerted effort to leave earlier and beat the heat. There are a lot of adjustments to make and many things to consider before one can simply bike 60+ miles a day and drag along 30 pounds of gear with him/her. We are getting the hang of it and I feel confident that we will be able to maintain said pace by the end of the week.
Also, did you know that Ashland is also the (self-proclaimed) "Center of the Universe"? Pretty bold if you ask me.
- Chris
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