I'll post the answer soon. I promise!
Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T
____________________________________________________________
53 Year Old Mom Looks 33
The Stunning Results of Her Wrinkle Trick Has Botox Doctors Worried
consumerproducts.com
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
What's Wrong With This Picture?
I'll post the answer soon. I promise!
Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T
____________________________________________________________
53 Year Old Mom Looks 33
The Stunning Results of Her Wrinkle Trick Has Botox Doctors Worried
consumerproducts.com
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Greetings From The Windy City
I've passed through Chicago a few times before and never thought much of it, although in fairness, I don't recall ever getting off the interstate except maybe for gas. And I never went through the heart of that toddling town. Today it's going to be surface streets all the way!
This One's For You
Hey, the gold dome, our bikes, and I think even the dame if you look carefully. No, I'm not an alumni, but I am Irish and was raised catholic...
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Sue & Stanley
Monday, July 30, 2012
Goodbye Virginia. Good Riddance To Your Drivers!
Are All Californians Celebrities? We Are!
Hey, I'm going for 2 days in a row; a real accomplishment lately. We are currently at Jane's Island State Park which is just outside of Crisfield Maryland. We awoke this morning in Buzzard Point Marina in the tidewater area of the western shore. That western shore refers to the Chesapeake Bay. The loyal followers of the blog know that of course.
We were camped right by the dock from which the ferry departs, so there wasn't much to this morning except to pack our gear and get on the boat. That part of Virginia is really very beautiful and the view from the water did not disappoint, although it did give a much different impression than the view from the roadways. From the roadways it was obvious that the region is very rural, agricultural and has plenty of folks living somewhere near or below the poverty line.
Virginia has 3 peninsulas that form much of the western shore of the bay. Only one of these, I believe that it is called the James Peninsula, has much in the way of population. With Jamestown, Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg there is opportunity to develop tourism. Being the closest to the mouth of the bay, it also had an advantage historically and Newport News, which had long been a major shipbuilding center if I am not mistaken, is at the end of this peninsula. Also, Norfolk is just across the James River. The other 2 peninsulas have always been rural, swampy, and have relied on agriculture and fishing as the major industries. I don't know how good, or rich the soil is from a farmer's point of view, but I can say that there are not large tracts for developing. So I am guessing that even in the best of times, these 2 peninsulas have never been extremely prosperous. But that story isn't told very well from the water.
As the ferry pulled out this morning, the sights were nothing short of spectacular. There were many different inlets and streams creating a maze of waterways to choose from. And lining each of these were magnificent homes, all neatly kept, with expansive lawns reaching down to the water's edge, where almost every home had a beautiful boat. It reminded me of a scene that one might picture in Disney's version of an antebellum Rivers of America attraction. When we entered the bay I got a sense of just how large the Chesapeake is. As we got farther away from the peninsula we had left, I stopped paying close attention to the views, because it seemed that there was nothing to look at but water. I am not sure if we did in lose sight of land, but if we didn't, it would have been just a speck on the horizon. I am fairly familiar with the San Francisco Bay and how it looks from the water. At 60 or more miles long and about 10 miles wide, it is a pretty substantial body of water, but it is absolutely dwarfed by the Chesapeake.
Tangier Island is a page out of history, literally. Because of its location, it has been isolated for most of its 300 or so years of habitation by European settlers. They have a dialect of English that is apparently a throwback to old English, and linguists have devoted plenty of time studying it. The primary industry has been and still remains fishing. There are a couple of restaurants, gift shops and even a couple of bed and breakfasts to cater to tourists, but there is nothing to do there. If you were looking for a peaceful weekend, this would be a good choice, but the only thing to do other than hang out at the b&b, would be to take a walk to the beach. The roads are only about 10 feet wide and there are very few motor vehicles other than golf carts. On Tangier you don't have a family car, you have a family golf cart. But don't let that fool you. The golf cart drivers on Tangier firmly cemented our opinion that the drivers in Virginia are the worst that we have experienced on the trip. On U.S. 17, as I mentioned, we were nearly run off the road on multiple occasions. On Tangier, Riley was actually hit by a hag on a golf cart who couldn't even be bothered to stop to see if he was alright.
So, the final word on Tangier Island is, while it is a quaint place to visit, don't do it!
We left Tangier and arrived in Crisfield MD, where we were treated like celebrities at one of the local pizza establishments. The folks were amazed that we had come from California by bicycle. The owner of the place, a woman named Billie, gave us a bag of steamed soft shell crabs to take with us. She apologized for not being able to locate a souvenir mallet to take with us for cracking them, and was adamant that if we were still in town in the morning, that we return for a couple of welcome bags that she would go get from the chamber of commerce. While we were sitting there waiting for our pizza, there was a loud bang that was probably a car backfiring, but might have been a gunshot. The owners son and his friends were sure that it was a gunshot (although Riley and I were skeptical), so the police were called. A sergeant responded and took everyone's statements and then asked us about our trip. Before too long his lieutenant who was obviously on his day off, judging by the way he was dressed, showed up, not to look into the bang, but to talk with us about our travels. It seems that Sergeant Taylor called him to let him know about the two guys who had biked from California. The lieutenant is an avid cyclist who told us that he would love to ride coast to coast someday and he wanted to meet us and see our bikes. It was indeed a very warm welcome that we enjoyed in Maryland!
We are now camped at Jane's Island State Park and there is wifi by the park store, so I'll stop now, take a stroll on over there, get this posted and then hit the showers. Good Night.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Buzzard Point Marina
July 28, 2012
Greetings from Buzzard Point Marina, near Reedville VA.
Well a week has slipped by without any update, or even any typing at all. A quick check of my last full post shows that we were in Palmyra, after having spent 2 lazy days in Charlottesville. We left Palmyra and headed off route for an REI store in Richmond, where we were well cared for. As I have told you in the past, the battery packs that came with our solar panels were somewhat finnicky, and they had ultimately convinced us that neither was really working properly at all. The great thing about REI is that in addition to having very good quality and prices on all sorts of ourdoor gear, they have a lifetime satisfaction guarantee! If you ever decide that you don't like the gear, just take it back, so we did. After looking me up in their database, they cheerfully exchanged not only the battery packs, but the panels as well, because I had purchased them as a package. Hey, the new packages even included solar powered flashlights, which only one of my purchases had, but was lost sometime in the first week of the trip.
But the best, unexpected thing about our REI visit was Rob, and ultimately his friend Tim Hendron. Rob asked where we were planning to get to that evening and I told him Mechanicsville. Rob twisted his face in thought, trying to think of a place to camp anywhere in the general area, but he drew a blank. That was not too surprising, as the route maps didn't indicate any places to camp either, and they have proven to be pretty thorough in that regard. So Rob said that he had a friend who lived in Mechanicsville, very close he believed, to the ACA route. He called said friend (Tim) who told him to send us on over and that we were welcome to camp out in the backyard. As it turned out, Mechanicsville was a bit ambitious, but we made it nontheless, and I called Tim from his own backyard to tell him that we had arrived. Tim and his wife Laura were very hospitable, allowing us to shower as well as camp. Tim also brought out a box fan to blow some air through the tent, as it was indeed a very muggy night. In the morning, there were 2 slices of cherry pie set out for us. Another act of kindness from complete strangers, that continued to make the trip more memorable and easier for us.
After Riley wolfed down the pie (cherries rank even lower than hummus for my picky palate) we set out for Williamsburg, which is very near the end of the official route, and also happens to be where my cousins Mary and Christine live. Mary was gracious enough to host us for 4 nights, although she did have a couple of chores lined up - moving furniture and hanging curtains - so she did receive something in return, but still we got the better end of that deal. Mary had a full-blown, Thanksgiving style turkey dinner for us when we arrived! During the visit I also got to spend some good time with cousin Christine, her youngest two children Renee (who became a facebook friend!) and Paul, who is Riley's age and has grand plans to take Hollywood by storm, and her husband Rick. Rick is a doctor, and unfortunately, I didn't see him after the tick was discovered, but he did give me the established protocol by way of telephone. Mary and Christine's dad, my uncle Bob was in town and I had my best visit ever with him.
The day after arriving, we planned to ride to Yorktown, to get to the official end of the Transamerica route. We got a late start, meaning something like 4:00 pm, and by the time we got into Williamsburg proper, we started to get a few raindrops on us. I looked around and saw a wall of very black clouds racing along in the same direction that we were traveling and a little faster, so I knew that we were in for a serious downpour very soon. We raced into Colonial Williamsburg and got under cover just about 2 minutes before the clouds opened up, and let loose with the most torrential rain that I have ever experienced. It definitely would not have been safe to be on the road at that time, as drivers' visibility would have been seriously impaired. The deluge lasted about 10 minutes before easing off to a moderate rain. The ironic thing is that because we had anticipated a short afternoon ride, we left our panniers, which included our rain gear, at Mary's house, otherwise we may have ridden in the moderate rain. About an hour later another, even stronger downpour let loose. About 15 minutes after that, the rain stopped entirely and we rode back to Mary's, dry and cool. On Wednesday we started out earlier and did indeed get to Yorktown. The round trip turned out to be about 45 miles, so it is probably good that we got rained out on Tuesday. As we were nearing Yorktown, we met a fellow named Justus, who will probably be the last tourist with whom we crossed paths on the trip. Justus is planning to take the same route that we did in reverse - Yorktown to San Francisco, and was just about 7 miles into his trip. It was nice to be able to stop and talk to someone else riding the Transam, as we hadn't seen another tourist in quite some time.
I think that after we realized that we had some time to kill, we both got lazy in our minds, hence the extra days in Charlottesville and 4 nights at Mary's, which was at least 1 or 2 more than I had originally anticipated. By the time that we left Mary's place on Friday, we had used up most of our extra days, so we decided to revert back to plan A, which is to get across the Chesapeake Bay and ride up the Delmarva Peninsula to arrive in Delaware. Looking at the maps, I saw that there is a ferry that runs between Reedville VA and Chrisfield Maryland, so that is our route, rather than getting ourselves across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which would also invole another bridge or two that are interstate highways.
We rolled out of Williamsburg on Friday, back to Yorktown and across the Coleman Bridge, which is US 17. The ride from the north end of the bridge to Gloucester VA was perhaps the most frightening road that I have ever ridden a bicycle on. Most of the way, there is very little shoulder and the drivers in that part of Virginia are the worst! Highway 17 is a very busy road and the drivers gave us very little clearance, even when there were two north-bound lanes. Probably half of the vehicles passed within 3 or 4 feet of us, and a few came within a foot, or at least that's what it seemed like as they flew by at 60 MPH or more. On the way to Gloucester, we finally did get caught in some rain while we were on the road. We got off the road and waited it out in the woods next to the highway. Fortunately the rain didn't last very long, but we donned out rain jackets and did get to ride in them for the last 3 or 4 miles into Gloucester, where we opted to get a room for the night. At the local Walmart I met a very nice couple who live in a nearby town, but are originally from Czechslovakia. They were considering doing a cross country tour themselves, so had several questions. They also invited us to stay at their place that evening, but understood that we probably weren't planning to go that far, as it was already nearing nightfall.
And that brings us to today. We knew that we only had 50 miles to ride, so we didn't check out and hit the road until noon. When we did get going it was hot and humid once again, with the temperature between 95 and 100, but we were ready to make a real go of it, and we arrived at our destination with an average speed of better than 15 MPH, which is pretty good for loaded bikes. Aside from the heat and humidity, this part of Virginia is very beautiful. The place where we are catching the ferry is basically a little fishing village, with all of the charm that you might imagine. Our ferry doesn't go directly across the bay, but will be dropping us off on a little island called Tangiers, where we will have a few hours to kill before catching another ferry to Chrisville. Who knows, we might find that we like Tangiers and stay over night, but that is not currently the plan.
That's about all the news that's fit to report. I tried to pitch the idea of trading our bikes for a boat, then we could get home via the deep blue sea, but the locals were having none of it. They were, however, good enough to tell me the password to the marina wifi, so I hope to post this tonight. Oh, I called our Australian friend Denis this evening. He was back home. He had saddle sores that just wouldn't let up and forced him to call it quits in St. Louis.
Dale
Greetings from Buzzard Point Marina, near Reedville VA.
Well a week has slipped by without any update, or even any typing at all. A quick check of my last full post shows that we were in Palmyra, after having spent 2 lazy days in Charlottesville. We left Palmyra and headed off route for an REI store in Richmond, where we were well cared for. As I have told you in the past, the battery packs that came with our solar panels were somewhat finnicky, and they had ultimately convinced us that neither was really working properly at all. The great thing about REI is that in addition to having very good quality and prices on all sorts of ourdoor gear, they have a lifetime satisfaction guarantee! If you ever decide that you don't like the gear, just take it back, so we did. After looking me up in their database, they cheerfully exchanged not only the battery packs, but the panels as well, because I had purchased them as a package. Hey, the new packages even included solar powered flashlights, which only one of my purchases had, but was lost sometime in the first week of the trip.
But the best, unexpected thing about our REI visit was Rob, and ultimately his friend Tim Hendron. Rob asked where we were planning to get to that evening and I told him Mechanicsville. Rob twisted his face in thought, trying to think of a place to camp anywhere in the general area, but he drew a blank. That was not too surprising, as the route maps didn't indicate any places to camp either, and they have proven to be pretty thorough in that regard. So Rob said that he had a friend who lived in Mechanicsville, very close he believed, to the ACA route. He called said friend (Tim) who told him to send us on over and that we were welcome to camp out in the backyard. As it turned out, Mechanicsville was a bit ambitious, but we made it nontheless, and I called Tim from his own backyard to tell him that we had arrived. Tim and his wife Laura were very hospitable, allowing us to shower as well as camp. Tim also brought out a box fan to blow some air through the tent, as it was indeed a very muggy night. In the morning, there were 2 slices of cherry pie set out for us. Another act of kindness from complete strangers, that continued to make the trip more memorable and easier for us.
After Riley wolfed down the pie (cherries rank even lower than hummus for my picky palate) we set out for Williamsburg, which is very near the end of the official route, and also happens to be where my cousins Mary and Christine live. Mary was gracious enough to host us for 4 nights, although she did have a couple of chores lined up - moving furniture and hanging curtains - so she did receive something in return, but still we got the better end of that deal. Mary had a full-blown, Thanksgiving style turkey dinner for us when we arrived! During the visit I also got to spend some good time with cousin Christine, her youngest two children Renee (who became a facebook friend!) and Paul, who is Riley's age and has grand plans to take Hollywood by storm, and her husband Rick. Rick is a doctor, and unfortunately, I didn't see him after the tick was discovered, but he did give me the established protocol by way of telephone. Mary and Christine's dad, my uncle Bob was in town and I had my best visit ever with him.
The day after arriving, we planned to ride to Yorktown, to get to the official end of the Transamerica route. We got a late start, meaning something like 4:00 pm, and by the time we got into Williamsburg proper, we started to get a few raindrops on us. I looked around and saw a wall of very black clouds racing along in the same direction that we were traveling and a little faster, so I knew that we were in for a serious downpour very soon. We raced into Colonial Williamsburg and got under cover just about 2 minutes before the clouds opened up, and let loose with the most torrential rain that I have ever experienced. It definitely would not have been safe to be on the road at that time, as drivers' visibility would have been seriously impaired. The deluge lasted about 10 minutes before easing off to a moderate rain. The ironic thing is that because we had anticipated a short afternoon ride, we left our panniers, which included our rain gear, at Mary's house, otherwise we may have ridden in the moderate rain. About an hour later another, even stronger downpour let loose. About 15 minutes after that, the rain stopped entirely and we rode back to Mary's, dry and cool. On Wednesday we started out earlier and did indeed get to Yorktown. The round trip turned out to be about 45 miles, so it is probably good that we got rained out on Tuesday. As we were nearing Yorktown, we met a fellow named Justus, who will probably be the last tourist with whom we crossed paths on the trip. Justus is planning to take the same route that we did in reverse - Yorktown to San Francisco, and was just about 7 miles into his trip. It was nice to be able to stop and talk to someone else riding the Transam, as we hadn't seen another tourist in quite some time.
I think that after we realized that we had some time to kill, we both got lazy in our minds, hence the extra days in Charlottesville and 4 nights at Mary's, which was at least 1 or 2 more than I had originally anticipated. By the time that we left Mary's place on Friday, we had used up most of our extra days, so we decided to revert back to plan A, which is to get across the Chesapeake Bay and ride up the Delmarva Peninsula to arrive in Delaware. Looking at the maps, I saw that there is a ferry that runs between Reedville VA and Chrisfield Maryland, so that is our route, rather than getting ourselves across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which would also invole another bridge or two that are interstate highways.
We rolled out of Williamsburg on Friday, back to Yorktown and across the Coleman Bridge, which is US 17. The ride from the north end of the bridge to Gloucester VA was perhaps the most frightening road that I have ever ridden a bicycle on. Most of the way, there is very little shoulder and the drivers in that part of Virginia are the worst! Highway 17 is a very busy road and the drivers gave us very little clearance, even when there were two north-bound lanes. Probably half of the vehicles passed within 3 or 4 feet of us, and a few came within a foot, or at least that's what it seemed like as they flew by at 60 MPH or more. On the way to Gloucester, we finally did get caught in some rain while we were on the road. We got off the road and waited it out in the woods next to the highway. Fortunately the rain didn't last very long, but we donned out rain jackets and did get to ride in them for the last 3 or 4 miles into Gloucester, where we opted to get a room for the night. At the local Walmart I met a very nice couple who live in a nearby town, but are originally from Czechslovakia. They were considering doing a cross country tour themselves, so had several questions. They also invited us to stay at their place that evening, but understood that we probably weren't planning to go that far, as it was already nearing nightfall.
And that brings us to today. We knew that we only had 50 miles to ride, so we didn't check out and hit the road until noon. When we did get going it was hot and humid once again, with the temperature between 95 and 100, but we were ready to make a real go of it, and we arrived at our destination with an average speed of better than 15 MPH, which is pretty good for loaded bikes. Aside from the heat and humidity, this part of Virginia is very beautiful. The place where we are catching the ferry is basically a little fishing village, with all of the charm that you might imagine. Our ferry doesn't go directly across the bay, but will be dropping us off on a little island called Tangiers, where we will have a few hours to kill before catching another ferry to Chrisville. Who knows, we might find that we like Tangiers and stay over night, but that is not currently the plan.
That's about all the news that's fit to report. I tried to pitch the idea of trading our bikes for a boat, then we could get home via the deep blue sea, but the locals were having none of it. They were, however, good enough to tell me the password to the marina wifi, so I hope to post this tonight. Oh, I called our Australian friend Denis this evening. He was back home. He had saddle sores that just wouldn't let up and forced him to call it quits in St. Louis.
Dale
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