This year I participated in my fourth Bike Virginia
bicycle adventure. My first two were 2009
and 2010, then I took a hiatus and returned in 2014. It’s a centrally located ride, which is
helpful for my Florida friends, so I obliged them this year.
I have a “love-hate” relationship with Bike
Virginia. I chose to do it in 2009 to
visit friends in Charlottesville, which was the starting city. I had visited Charlottesville before and it’s
lovely. That love quickly turned to hate
when it took me around three hours to complete the registration process.
I loved the riding itself, the scenery and the history
of the area. I hated that there were
2,000 people and I never saw someone after meeting them once. I hated the stifling heat. I finally met two really fun guys and loved
hanging with them. Back and forth it
went.
So this summer I was back at it. This time was more love. Half the participants stayed at hotels so the
camp sites weren’t as crowded. The weather
was perfect – mid 80s during the day and low 50s at night. Most of our “gang” could go. We had two camping sites and had our cars
with us all the time. And we had a visit
from Steve’s friend Bruce, whom I met on my first ride.
Buena Vista
I met Duane and Andy in Dayton and drove on to Buena
Vista, which is pronounced “Byew-nuh Vista.”
(I don’t know why.) We camped at
Glen Maury Park for three nights. Steve
and Deanna brought a sun tent and a large camping rug. We had a great set up!
Saturday I rode 20 miles and then kayaked on the James
River. I enjoyed the five-mile route,
but managed to miss the “get out of the water” area and went 15 minutes too far
downstream. Then I paddled an hour back
upstream (not even all the way back) to a camp area where the kayak company
could pick me up. If I had to do it
over, I would have continued downstream for four more miles to the next pick up
area. Paddling upstream is hard and not
fun.
Sunday I rode 20, saw the natural bridge and tubed down the James River. Steve and Deanna joined me and it was a much
more pleasant experience.
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| Natural Bridge State Park |
Staunton
Monday morning, we packed our gear and drove to
Staunton, which is pronounced “Stan-ton.”
(What is it with these town names?)
We stayed on the grounds of the former Western Lunatic Asylum of
Virginia. Creepy. Steve, Deanna and I rode the 11-mile
route. We then had lunch with Bruce (he
drove over from Richmond) and we had a fun afternoon exploring Staunton. I hadn’t seen Bruce since 2009 so it was
great to catch up and have a lot of laughs.
We all have super sophomoric humor and it’s awesome.
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| Steve and I managed a quick workout at the Gypsy Hill Park |
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| Deanna did her part as well |
Tuesday I rode 43 miles. I had heard squeaking from my bike since
Saturday (is it the crank? Is it the pedal?)
and after lubing with no change, I turned the bike over and inspected my
pedals. The right pedal was loose and
Duane noticed that a piece of the end had cracked off, exposing a ball
bearing. We drove to Black Dog Bikes and
I bought a new set of pedals. I’m
thankful I finally looked at it, as that could have ended badly. We flew down quite a few hills and if the
pedal had broken off on one of the downhills…yikes.
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| The obligatory "Where's Steve" photo |
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| One rest stop gave away puppies! (kidding) |
Wednesday I rode 23 and then we headed back to Dayton
to drop off the boys. I continued home,
got to bed pretty late and went to work the next day.
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| Weeee! Let's do it again! |
