And He's Off

As of October 9, 2013, Dad had completed 249 miles of riding and it was hard work. 

The train ride was uneventful.  He went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner with my mom before he set off, and then after he boarded the train, he found out that he was scheduled for an 8:30 steak dinner.  Not one to pass up a good meal, my dad had two dinners that night.

He didn't sleep well the first night as he was adjusting to his new surroundings and the constant movement, but by the second night he slept soundly.  Bill was impressed with the sleeping car lounges.  If you have an Amtrak reservation for a sleeping car, you can enjoy the amenities in the lounges at larger train stations like Chicago and D.C. They are similar to first class lounges you would find at airports with snacks, drinks, and places to rest.  He was fortunate enough to use the lounge in D.C., even though he only had a coach ticket from D.C. to Richmond.  That made him happy. 

Union Station Chicago

Ocela Station D.C. - Sleeper Car Lounge

Dad met several people during meals on board the train who were on their first Amtrak trip.  All of them were impressed with the experience and one traveler who was a doctor said it was a reminder that life is about the journey, not the destination. 

The train into Richmond, Dad's final train stop, was about 50 minutes late.  Amtrak held the train for about 1/2 hour for the passengers who were late from another train, and then the train got stuck behind another slow train and couldn't make up the time.  Dad wanted to be at the motel before sundown and was frustrated that he couldn't make it there on time.  It didn't help that he couldn't find his bike tool once he arrived and then he had to take extra time finding helpful people to assist him with getting his bike ready for riding. 

Also, the train station guy gave Dad wrong directions to the motel, which added several miles to his trip, but at least it went by a bike shop, so that dad was able to add air to his tires and buy a bike tool, saving him from doing it the following morning.

By the time all that was done, Bill had to wear his headlamp the rest of the way to the motel because it was dark. This was the second time ever that he had to wear the headlamp since he usually plans his rides for daylight (the first time he used the headlamp was on his 1st cross-country trip in 2000).

So, Bill's first official day of riding was on October 5th, from Richmond to a campground 73 miles away.  The first 10 miles of the trip was just to get to the starting point, and since he wasn't paying attention, he missed a couple turns.  He is paying closer attention to his maps now.  A good part of this ride was a duplicate of his 2010 ride, but in 2010 he was at the end of the ride, when he was strong, fit, and happy to be at the end of his journey.  This time, he hasn't had enough time in the saddle to get fit and is just starting out, so it is a different experience.

Lunch Spot - Had dinner here in 2010.

Bill rode by these cannons in 2010.

Bill rode by this sign in 2010.

On his way to the James River ferry on October 6th, Bill met a group of cyclists waiting for the ferry as part of their Sunday morning ride.  One couple he met was from Florida.  They had started their cycling trip in Maine and were riding to Key West, like Dad, but they were taking different short cuts and staying in motels, so Dad doesn't think he will see them again.  During the 57 mile ride that day, there were strong headwinds almost the whole time after crossing the river and his average speed for the day was 9.6 miles/hour.  His thighs were sore that night.

Dad with couple riding from Maine to Key West.

Dad on ferry.

Cotton Field

Swamp

Monday, October 7th, was more of the same.  Dad had 20 miles of strong headwinds, followed by 30 miles of crosswinds, 10 miles of tailwind (finally), and the last 10 miles were variable winds.  It was a long and grueling day.  Later in the day, some people he met said that it was going to rain any minute.  Dad got to his tent pitched and was out of the shower right before the heavy rains came.  That left him with no opportunity to cook his dinner, so he ate cold bean and franks, crackers, and drank a warm bottle of V8.  The storm blew wild winds and rained all night.

Atlanta Intercoastal Waterway - Dad will cross this many times on this trip.

Entering North Carolina

Fortunately, the rains stopped the next morning.  After finishing a can of ravioli for breakfast, which was supposed to be dinner the  previous night, Dad finally enjoyed some tailwind, but went slowly because he was tired.  He planned to stay in a hostel in Kitty Hawk, but since that was only 39 miles into his ride that day, he kept going to Kill Devil Hill, just several more miles farther away.  The big event of the day was crossing the bridge to the outer banks since he had to stay focused.  There was only a two-foot shoulder, heavy traffic, and headwinds gusting from the left at about 25 - 35 miles/hour.  Every time a large truck passed, he would get pushed to the side and splashed and then pulled back into the road after the truck passed.  Dad was jittery during this 3-mile stretch.  There was a kind man in a pick-up who pulled up next to him and offered him a ride.  Dad declined because his touring bike is heavy and it would weigh down the pick-up; plus, it was a two-lane road, which means he would have had to stop traffic to load the bike.   Thankfully, many drivers pulled over or slowed down while passing Dad, which he really appreciated.

25 - 35 mph Winds and Rain

Carolina Outer Banks - Storm planned all week. Flood advisory in effect.

 

We talked on Wednesday, October 9th, which was one day earlier than his planned rest day because there were sheets of rain and poor visibility.  He was surprised to find that he didn't have to clean his bike too much since he left it out in the rain and it got a good rinse.  He changed his slowly leaking tire, read the paper, repacked his panniers to make them more evenly weighted, and enjoyed an invigorating walk to lunch.  Hopefully, the storm passes quickly and he can enjoy some nice weather and tailwinds in the days to come.

High Surf Advisory

Storm Surf
 

To Chicago By Train

Bill got started on the evening of Tuesday, October 1st.  My mom dropped him of at the Fullerton Amtrak Station and off he went.  Once I get a chance to talk to him, I will share more of the details. 

 

 

 

This is the train Bill is taking to Chicago.  It has two engines, a baggage car, three sleeping cars, a dinning car, a lounge car, and three coach cars.

This is his sleeping car (room 008).  He has a license to sleep.

Bill's Next Big Adventure - Richmond, VA to Key West, FL

He's on the road again.  Well, not yet, but starting this coming Tuesday, October 1, 2013, my dad is taking Amtrak from Fullerton, CA to Richmond, VA, where he will hop on his bike for his next cycling adventure.  The ride will start in Richmond and go southeast toward the North Carolina outer banks; then south to Key West. 

He plans to visit Terry Reilly, a DoD school teacher friend from his Japan days.  After teaching in Japan, Terry spent most of her career teaching in Germany.  She is now retired and living in Murrells Inlet, SC; just north of Charleston.  The Adventure Cycling route passes about 40/50 miles from her home.  My dad will call her when he gets close to coordinate a visit with her.  She's currently in Europe and plans to return a couple of days before he gets to her area.

Bill has never been to Charleston or Savannah, so he is excited his ride will take him through those areas.  He is also excited to ride through the keys to Key West, and to see his brother, David, and his family in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida.

Now that it is fall, it should be cooling down, making for a pleasant ride.  He had planned to start the trip a couple of weeks earlier, but delayed it, so that he could attend his friend, David Harmon's, party in Napa.

Check in regularly as I will provide weekly updates on my dad's whereabouts and his latest adventures!  Dad said this will be Bill's 2nd Big Adventure - Encore.

Back Home

It was a long ride back to California, but not bad. 14 hours to Chicago, and after a layover, 51 hours to Martinez, CA. It stopped raining as the train arrived a little early on Sunday, the 17th, in Martinez. The station didn't have the right tools to properly tighten the pedals back onto the bike, but they found a pair of pliers that held it together. Dad rode about 20 miles home in the afternoon and took a shower to prepare for the neighbors to come over to celebrate his return with champagne.



Chicago River



Grand Hall Union Station



Union Station in Denver



Bike rental in front of Union Station in Denver.



Dad's train climbing the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.



Another train view.



View from train in Colorado.



Utah



Home again!



Done!

Dad has been getting back into the swing of things this week by catching up on the mail and visiting friends at his Toastmaster meeting on Wednesday evening. He is processing all that he has done in the last several months and is getting acclimated to being home. He has had several observations:
1) He appreciates his home (his comfortable bed, hot showers, and big TV.);

2) He is glad that he missed all the political dribble that has been going on; and

3) He forgot how poor the road condition are around his area and how much trash is on the roads.


I asked Bill about the lessons he learned and he listed them out for me:

1) Don't "should" on yourself. "It is what it is."

2) Stay hydrated (he drank a lot more water than he did before leaving for the trip).

3) If things are easy, be patient. They will change.

4) Have contingency plans (Plans B, C, D, etc.) Expect things to go wrong along the way (like restaurants being closed).

5) Ice cream is a super-fuel on a hot day.

6) If it is easy and comfortable, then it's not an accomplishment.

7) Be willing to accept advice from strangers.

8) It's okay to take a break during a difficult task.

When I asked Dad about his most memorable moment, he said there were many. Memories can be positive or negative. On the negative side, he remembers the dog attacks, the thunderstorms, SUVs driving too close, and strong winds. On the positive side, he remembers the people he met and saw along the way like his brother, Jack, and his sister-in-law, Joy, ice cream on a hot day, and the glorious way of ending the trip by riding into D.C. in the rain.

Dad is retired now, so the way he spends his time will be different than how he spent his time before he left. He has lots of house chores to do like gardening and fixing the computer. If my parents move back to Orange County next year, there are all sorts of things to do to make the move efficient. He has books and magazines to read and wants to get more involved in the community; he is just not sure how yet. Lastly, he wants to get in touch with some of the cyclist he met along the way.

If you want to catch up with my dad, I am sure he would be happy to hear from you. My mom is with me in Southern California until Tuesday, so I bet he has the time to chat.

You might hear from me again once my dad has more time to process everything, but that is all for now. Thanks for following my dad along his bike adventure with me. Live BIG!

To Yorktown, the Final Leg on the Trail

After an informative, private tour (private because it was the first tour on a Monday morning and Dad was the only one there) at Ash Lawn-Highland, where he only had to pay a $4 entrance fee instead of $9 because he arrived by non-motorized means, my dad rode 58 miles to Louisa, Virginia. It was cool and cloudy all day.

James Monroe's home, Ash Lawn-Highland.



Ash Lawn-Highland

Statue of James Monroe.

On Tuesday, October 5th, it was 38 degrees when my dad left the motel. He used his rain jacket because his windbreaker wasn't enough to keep him warm. Dad went off-route 2 miles to Chuck and Jean's home in Bumpass, and had lunch with Jean. He also got to meet their grandson, Zachary, who was younger than two years old. It was a pleasant lunch. In the afternoon, my dad luckily avoided getting hit by a school bus when he stopped before an intersection to verify directions on his map. The driver of the bus assumed my dad was going to turn right and didn't stop at the intersection as he turned right. At that point, another cross-country cyclist named Paul from Canada, met up with my dad and they rode together until Paul turned off for a shortcut. As he continued to ride, my dad got to thinking and realized that most of Bicycle Route 76 goes by college towns. He figured that when this route was made in the 70s, most of the cyclists were probably college students. Dad ended his day after 57 miles in Ashland, Virginia.



The Chuck and Jean Gritizus Estate


On Wednesday, he rode 63 miles to Haupt's Country Store, just east of Charles City. Dad had a detour at a road closure that added 7 miles to his trip. He also got stopped by a cop for running a red light. Dad swore he had a green light, but the cop told him that it would be impossible because there was no traffic and bikes can't trip the signal. Luckily, he didn't get a ticket and he can't exactly figure out why. Dad thinks the cop thought he was a local and when he found out that he was just passing through on a cross-country trip, he decided to let him go. Later, the motel that he was going to stay at was out of business and the B&B at the next stop was closed. He went in to Haupt's Country Store to ask if there was a motel close by and that conversation led them to letting Dad camp behind their store. Dad visited Cold Harbor, the site of two battles. In one of the battles, 16,000 people were killed or wounded in just 6 hours. When Dad returned to his camp after dinner, there was another cyclist planning to camp there too. She was a young lady that Dad met briefly in Missoula, with her boyfriend. The boyfriend was heading to Boulder, Colorado, and she was heading east. As they were talking, a cat kept trying to get into Dad's tent. It would climb on top of Dad's tent and kept hanging around. In the middle of the night, when the dew set in, Bill could smell cat urine, and he realized that he was probably sleeping on top of its litter box.



When the Virginia Department of Transportation says road closed, they are serious.  Notice the pile of rocks blocking the road.



Getting close to the end of the trip.



Glass-blowing in Jamestown.



Old church at Jamestown.



Swamp near Jamestown.

On Thursday, October 7, Dad completed the last 55 miles of the trail to Yorktown, Virginia. That morning, he was going to eat at the restaurant in town, but it never opened, so he ate what was left in his bag, which included a stale bagel, peanut butter and jelly, and some cookies. Once he got into Yorktown, he went to a bicyclist-only hostel run by Grace Episcopal Church, which had magnificent views. It was a house set in grass behind a church used for Sunday school and meetings that overlooked the river. There were 5 cyclists and 4 beds. My Dad was one of the last to arrive. He came in at the same time as another cyclist, so they flipped a coin to see who would get the last bed, and my dad spent the night on a couch in the basement. It was sort of an unceremonious ending to his cross-country trip, but Dad went out to have a beer on his own. He did enjoy finding out that the others who were on the rollercoaster hills last week, used the same Highway 11 shortcut that he did and that he wasn't the only one who thought they were unnecessary.



Yorktown at last.



The cyclist-only hostel in Yorktown.



A view from the hostel of a schooner being put to sea.

  Kurt, one of the other cyclists staying at the hostel, and my Dad palled around the next afternoon. They took pictures of Yorktown, as well as ceremonial pictures of the bike tire in James River, showing that Dad had made it from one end of the country to the other. They went to dinner and relaxed with a low-key day. Dad rode a total of 1 mile.



Ceremonial dipping of the front bike wheel in east coast water.



Bill in front of a Yorktown restaurant.



Riverwalk in Yorktown.



Yorktown Battlefield

Now, it was time to head to D.C. to catch the train home. He didn't want to leave since the hostel was so nice overlooking the river; this was his destination for 3 months (and even longer with all the planning he did for this trip) and now that he was leaving, he had to acknowledge that his adventure was over. It was a little melancholy. A church member gave Bill a ride over the James River since bikes aren't allowed on the bridge, and then he continued for 57 miles to Tappahannock, Virginia, where Dad splurged and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and watched the UNC, his alma mater, versus Clemson football game live. UNC won!

On Sunday, the 10th, Dad rode 54 miles to Fredericksburg, where he rested. He also got to meet up with some people and hang out a bit.

He rode 11 miles into Historic Fredericksburg and walked around town on Monday. He took a trolley tour of the town and mentioned it was sobering to know that in the four battles near Fredericksburg, there were 100,000 casualties.


Historic Downtown Fredericksburg

On the 12th, Dad rode 64 miles to Arlington, Virginia. He took the scenic route via Mount Vernon, which is longer than going up U.S. 1. Two nice things happened this day. He stopped at the National Museum of the Marine Corp, where his friend, Andy, is a docent. Andy saw my dad on the road on the way to the marine base and met up with Dad and gave him a tour. They also got to have lunch together. Earlier in the day, a guy moving with a U-Haul van stopped my dad and asked him why he stopped so far back from the intersection. He was a cyclist too. Dad told him he was following someone in Saint Louis who did that, and Dad thought it was a good idea. The guy invited my Dad to his house, which was just 3/4 mile off-route, for some water and conversation. The guy's friend, Lance, was there at the house and offered my dad a place to stay in Arlington. This was so helpful since Dad didn't know where he was going to stay and didn't want to spend a lot of money on lodging. He stayed with Lance for two nights.


Entrance to the National Museum of the Marine Corps.



Dad's friend, Andy, commanded these weapons in Vietnam.



Another view of the museum.



Blurry picture of Dad and Andy.



The Potomac River

On Wednesday, Lance drove my dad into Washington D.C., on his way to work. Bill wondered up and down the city all day, including the National Mall. Even though, my dad has been to D.C. many times, this was the first time he was able to just wander around and take it all in. He had a good time. He took mass transit back to Lance's home and took Lance out to dinner.


A memorial to the women who served in Vietnam.



A scene from Washington D.C.



Korean War Memorial



The Korean War Memorial



The Vietnam War Memorial Wall.



The Vietnam War Memorial



World War II Memorial



World War II Memorial

It was raining on Thursday, the 14th, and Lance showed Dad a way to get to D.C. via Fort Meyers to avoid the traffic. Riding into the city in the rain was the perfect way to end the tour because it was a beautiful ride with nice city views. Plus, he was riding into the capital of our country and that was majestic somehow. Since it was raining, he didn't go sightseeing again. He spent two hours boxing his bike and boarded his train, which left on time. He got to use the first class lounge since he had a roomette ticket from Chicago to Martinez, California. It was very busy in Chicago, which reminded him how popular the roomettes are. Dad is on his way home and will be there by the end of the day on the 17th.