Note: Image quality is poor, since I over-compressed the images.
Before we even got to Yorktown, we were in Washington DC for a few days. While there, we were interviewed by Voice of America. VOA, whose offices are in Washington DC, is the BBC of the US. VOA has an international audience of roughly 100 million people. We were interviewed regarding the bike trip. It was a total blast, since neither of us had ever been in a recording studio before. Hopefully, that interview will dramatically increase the number of visitors to our website. |
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After Washington, we traveled to Newport News, which is the nearest big city to Yorktown. Trish and I spent the weekend there. We had shipped our bike and equipment to Beth Caylor, a great lady who is involved with the Peninsula Bike Club. Friday morning, we went over to her house and put the bike back together, and rode it back to our hotel. |
Trish and I decided we would ride back to the motel with my rear brakes not working and try to find a welder that would hopefully come to the hotel and fix the problem. Fortunately, it didn't come to that - about two blocks from where the brakes had failed, we found a small body shop. I went it, and met Charles Thompson, the owner and proprietor of Thompson's Body Shop. Charles let me use his oxy-propane torch and his pneumatic drill; I had the brakes fixed in less than an hour. Of course, the paint job was a little damaged by the extreme heat of the brazing, but that couldn't be helped. |
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At last, Sunday morning came, and it was time to start the ride. We got up at 4am so that we could be on the road by daybreak. Even so, we didn't get started till around 5:30am, and wasted about half an hour of daylight. When we peddled away from our motel in Newport News, it was a crisp, chilly 60 degrees. By 11am, it would approach 90 degrees, with an incredibly high degree of humidity. |
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We pedaled out of Newport News, and headed into Yorktown, the city which houses the beginning of the TransAmerica Trail. It was eerie, I thought, riding by fields and hills where Colonial and British troops had once clashed for control of the Thirteen Colonies. On the way into Yorktown, we met a fellow who had ridden some parts of the TransAmerica Trail. We talked for a while about what we were doing, and he wished us well. We arrived at the Yorktown Victory Monument, the Eastern head of the TransAmerica trail, at around 8am. After much picture taking, and staring out into Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean beyond, we headed West. |
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On
the way to Williamsburg via the Colonial Parkway, we ran into Mark Dulany.
Mark is the President of the Peninsula Bike Club. I had spoken to Mark
before we came down to Virginia, and he had offered to help us with a few
things. Anyway, we were riding along, and this guy rode up and said "Are
you Ben?" I told him I was, and he introduced himself. Mark just happened
to be riding to Williamsburg for a group ride when he rode up to us. We
chatted as we rode together towards Williamsburg. On the way down a particularly
steep hill, our solar panel broke off the trailer. Mark, who was closely
drafting us, rode right over the solar panels. Thankfully, neither Mark,
his bike, or the solar panels were damaged. We'll have do figure out a
more efficient solar panel mount. After that, Mark rode on to Williamsburg
ahead of us.
At
last, we reached Williamsburg. Mark rode back out from Williamsburg to
meet us. Apparently, his group ride didn't materialize. We parted; Mark
headed back to Yorktown, and Tricia and I went on into Williamsburg.
