Hiding out from the Virginia Beach rain. Last day of the #biketour #ridefordipg

Made it something like 1,200 miles, 950 or so with #ridefordipg, through Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia to reach Virginia Beach! Not a bad August #biketour

Franklin to Great Bridge VA pictura

Aaron with his friggin' full-size flag.

Getting patriotic!

He got honked at all day! Group of guys thrust their fists out the window and screamed "HOME OF THE FREE!" right before running their trailer into a curb.

Virginia Beach, coming up!

Nice morning overcast.

Hi Joe.

This road was really busy.

Hi Morgan.

Hi flag.

Rob, in the youth group room, his head finally turned into a bottle of fizzy feelgood, because that's all he drinks.

Franklin to Great Bridge - 2nd to last night

Well, I've gone something 1,200 miles on this tour and 900 with the guys.  Tonight is the last night on the road for us and they finish tomorrow.  It's always an interesting mood as a tour wraps up.  They've been on the road for 98 days (the Tazzies) and 79 day (Nebraskans).  Imagine that, and ending tomorrow.  It's a mind fuck.

This is only my 14th day for me (not counting RAGBRAI), so it's not really the same for me. Although I have been on the road since July 21st or so, or earlier if you count a wedding I was camped at.  I'll have been gone from home for over a month when this is all said and done.

Today was only 50 very flat miles to the suburbs just outside of Virginia Beach. We did it in 3:12 on bike and maybe 4 and a half hours total time, arriving around 12:30 to our church (as usual).

We spent much of the afternoon at the pool of some of Aaron's relatives, and then as quiet afternoon of napping and contemplating. The night does not seem to be shaping up to be too wild.

Tomorrow we have a 25 miles ride or so to the beach, and we'll have a big party at with some The Cure Starts Now people to finish the fundraiser.  They'll probably raise 18,000 to 20,000 for DIPG research by the time this is all done.

Really there isn't too much to say.  It's been a good trip. Mine's been weirded by the stuff from home that I sort of mentioned earlier, and it's still being weirded by that, but bike tours aren't supposed to be easy.  This one, without that weirdness, would have been an easy-breazy fun time, but hey, you can't pick your weather, hills, or bullshit.  You just gotta roll with it, play it cool, and see what happens.

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day though!

Alberta to Franklin photoloto

Just some morning selfies to pass the time.

beautiful area


look at our huge church!

Clouds!

Aaron getting free!

Morgan helping.

And then we got locked out of the church.

Aaron from #ridefordipg gets free! He's riding that for the next 2 days on this #biketour

Alberta to Franklin

We've finally figured out what's weird about Virginia. It's nature's impersonator! Over the last few days we've ridden through what looks like Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, West Virginia (that one's obvious why), and even Tasmania (according  to the 'manians.")  It's kind of beautiful that these last few days gives the guys a summary of what they've seen so far on their long coast to coast trip.

I like it when bike tours end like that. The last day on my 2014 tour I hit long hours, crazy headwinds, hills, bad roads, bad bike trails, bee attacks, heat, etc - a great final exam for a 64 day 4,000 mile tour.  I loved it. This one is ending for the guys a bit more relaxed. 50ish miles tomorrow, and then 25 into Virginia Beach.

Today was supposed to be an easy 58 mile day but Melinda (Google Maps) based that routing on us taking the Tobacco Heritage Trail - sometimes ATV, sometimes jeep, sometimes meadow, sometimes wooded "cut out" (barely) that  is often unmarked and completely unridable or drivable. Thanks Melinda.

We've been farting around with this trail for about two days now. We do the Google Bike There and when Melinda tries to make us take the trail we find ways to route around it on pavement. Today that meant adding 15 miles or so, making it a 68.32 mile day.  We did the ride in 4:46 on bike and got in around 3pm.

We're staying in a huge church in Franklin that Morgan figured out on our rest day.  It's nice, and it looks like we'll get a storm in tonight.

Today was HOT!  That last few days have had few towns, and we've been needing to carry lots of water in the 100+ degree heat indexes.  Luckily it's been flat, which made it possible for us to do a 40 mile push today without breaks to get from one water stop to another. I arrived feeling pretty sick but was able to stave-off full heat stroke by hanging out in a Chinese resteraunt for awhile.

I've actually felt fairly sick the last couple mornings and ridings been tough.  I'm not sure if I'm coming down with something or it's just anxiety. I've been dealing with some personal stuff that I'm not going to write about here or share with the guys I'm riding with. Suffice to say that there are changes in my life that are for the better, but change is hard, especially when you are far away from  your support. Bike touring is an excercise in vulnerablity and survival. It's life out on a limb, and when the trunk of the tree gets shaken it can be very hard to hang on.  It's not a very solid place to try to figure things out or to keep your mind right.  You also have WAY too much time to think on a bike tour, and my brain is stupid and hard to control sometimes. On times like this it finds the worse-case worry scenarios about everything (in this case the shit I was perseverating on was barely related to the change, even) and then just cycles and cycles and cycles until I find some kind of foundation to hang-on to. Thing is, there isn't one of those on a bike tour.

But, I seem to be on the way out of it now. My logic mind sometimes takes awhile to quiet down my panic mind, but the near heat stroke seemed to hit the reset switch a bit. I also have had some good help from friends back home, and that's been nice as well.  They provided the foundation I needed, and the near heat stroke gave me a push.

I'm only including it in this blog because when I read this years later, I want to focus on the good, not the unmentioned bad.

But, my mind is on the mend now and I'm able to mentally rejoin the bike tour. I've been distant for a few days, but I'm back in it now. Hopefully I'll stop feeling sick too :)

ILYI

Chase City to Alberta photos

This is Joe. He frequently looks like this.

Riding out with the group.

Young Tom trying to get a splinter out of his finger with telekensis.

Great great roads out here.


It's getting flat! Weird looking too. Virginia is a land of surprises.

Virginia impersonates many states. Here it is going it's best "Oregon."

We got on some gravel today.

This road is named "Traffic Rd." It had none.

I'm not sure what's up with this sign, but we left the road shortly after soooo... oh well.

Mor gravel.

Nice house, dude.

The sign says "End County Maintenance." No shit, sign people.

This is part of the Tobacco trail, a non-existing trail that Melinda likes to try to route us down.

Chase City to Alberta

Whelp, things sure are winding down. We had a short day today, then three more days and we'll meet Virginia Beach!

Today was a relatively easy day, a fairly flat 43.39 miles with 3 hours on bike, leaving at 8 am and arriving at 11:30.  It was a weird day, and I felt sick for much of it (Heat? Lack of sleep? not sure...) but it was still good. We are staying at a Methodist Church with nice AC, (thanks god, it's super hot). They fed us through a potluck they already had planned, and then donated $500 to the charity ride. Amazing! They've raised over $18,000 now. Go Team Maddie!

I sent most of the day reading and playing uke since we got in so early. Tomorrow will likely be similar.
ILYI

South Boston to Chase City photos

Aaron get's his 1st flat or his 18th flat on the trip, depending on symantics.

The flat peanut gallery.

NarBandersnatch posing during the flat ceremony.

The elusive Joe.

Rob, the of tye-dye tribe.

These two photos almost line up...

They have lots of pine and logging out here. didn't expect that

Is a white flag with a black X a white power flag?The other signs and flags seem to imply that.

Very interesting story I didn't know about.  I guess Oprah is now making a movie about this.

Old buildings

Riding into Chase City


The key to the city also happens to be a bottle opener...


Rob and Tom in their most natural states - napping and dank memeing.

Morgan massaging Aaron's knee. Really. That's totally what is happening here. Trust us.