Transamerica Cycle 2013, actual Day 1

Woke up this morning to a chigger bite in my armpit. Gross. It's 8 a.m. and everyone is packing our things (which basically consumed the whole house) so that we can clear out by 10. Travis finishes packing first so he cooks bacon and scambled eggs for breakfast and then we're dressed and eating and cleaning up and leaving. We throw our donations in the box and happen across John the owner on the way out, thanking him profusely, skipping out before church starts. People see a lot of cyclists around here so everyone asks about our trip. We go down to the beach, drag our heavy bikes in the sand, and then dip our rear wheels in the Atlantic Ocean. We'll dip our front wheels in the Pacific when we reach it and reach perfect closure. We recruit a passerby to take our picture.

We got a good, deep sleep last night so the 35 miles along the Colonial Parkway is SO MUCH EASIER OMG. We easily keep up 10-15 mph instead of the 7 from yesterday. We find a Food Lion in Williamsburg and have a nice, long lunch in the parking lot. We also shop for our next few meals here. Virginia is so lush, verdant, alive. It is a pleasure to cycle this route again.

The Handlebarbarians now have a theme song. Are you ready?

(to the tune of "I'm in the Lord's Army"/"Greasy-grimy gopher guts")

We may never ride in the Tour de France
Race against winner Lance
Don't think we'll get the chance
We may never look good in cycling pants
But we'll always ride our bikes!
We'll always ride our bikes
We'll always ride our bikes
We may never attack from the Pelaton
Be a sponsored team to ride on
(but we'll always have this silly song)
We will get up right at the crack of dawn
Because we love to ride our bikes!
We'll always ride our bikes
We'll always ride our bikes
From the east coast to the west coast
We're gonna ride our bikes!

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We pass our nightmare campsite and the Chickahominy river and keep plugging on to Charles City. We pull back in to the Courthouse Grille for some beers (in my case, wine) and rest. Ben shows us this cool waypoint app thing where every time we stop he adds a new dot to the map--you can find our tour here: trackmytour.com/W8s7D . He updates it regularly too.

We decide to stop in Charles City for the night since we've gone about 50 miles today. There's no campground or anything but the bartender said people are really chill around here so we decide to stay in a field behind the county courthouse. As soon as we reach it, it begins raining in earnest, so it becomes a race--who can put up their tent first? Since my bivvy didn't work I'm sharing with Travis tonight. We tie with Jenn and Dan. The inside of the tent is damp, but not wet, so it's tolerable. We can't cook so we eat boiled eggs (Jenn has to get out in the rain to get them and delivers them to each tent), grapes, and whatever snacks we had with us.

I'm reasonably comfortable in here at least. Time to sleep.

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Here is your featured rider for today: Me!

Tetris Queen riding Bike Rothar