Waiting For Darkness to Fall
We left off on Wednesday morning and it is now Saturday afternoon. Where does the time go? I'm writing this from a picnic table in Palmyra Virginia where we have decided to stop for the night. I will go through a quick rundown of days and places, before waxing philosophical.
By the time we had finished our cave tour and taken time to gather our thoughts on Tuesday, it was already past 4:00, so we made a relatively short drive from Mammoth Cave to My Old Kentucky Home State Park, where we camped for the night. That evening I called my cousin Tom, who lives in Dayton Ohio, and invited Riley and I for dinner, showers and beds on Wednesday evening. Hey, anyone who asks for a visit ought to get a visit, if it's at all possible. So on Wednesday we drove through Louisville where we went to 3 different bike shops before emerging victorious with the right seat post. Then it was through Cincinnati and on to Dayton. I actually lived in Dayton for a year, when I was in first grade, so I drove by the house where we lived and gave Riley the added thrill of showing him Orchard Park Elementary School, where I attended most of my first grade year. Tom and his lovely wife Nancy were very hospitable, but then who wouldn't be when you're entertaining your favorite cousin? We had some laughs, caught up on old times and made a few phone calls to other cousins, aunts and siblings. On my dad's side of the family, there were 32 first cousins. Needless to say, I don't keep in touch with all of them. In fact, I actually keep in touch with just a few, but Tom is at the top of that list, so it was good to see him in person once again.
While I was at Tom's house, I received a message from my very dear friend Evelyn Fulcher, saying that Cincinnati was not very far away (from them). Hey, that sounds like a request for a visit to me! Jim Fulcher is truly one of the people who has had the most impact on my life. We met when I first attended a Soul Talk in his home on Granite Road, San Marcos, CA. Jim was a beekeeper at the time and somehow he had the crazy idea that I would have a good time if I went out and worked bees with him. It is thanks to him that I can say that I have probably been stung 20,00o times. Actually working bees with Jim was a lot like this trip, except that I hadn't dreamt about it for year. It was a lot of very hard (and at times even unpleasant) work, liberally punctuated by some of the best memories I could hope to have, working alongside someone who I love deeply. It is fitting that I would get a chance to see Jim & Evelyn (she now goes by Lyn, but I knew her long before that). In Denver we paid a visit to Tony Chukes, who pontificated at my wedding, and in Cincinnati, we got to see Jim, who did the actual, legal officiating. Our visit with the Fulchers was a short one over a cup of coffee at Starbucks and we spent the remainder of the day driving to Charlottesville Virginia.
I must admit that at times I wonder why in the world the Adventure Cycling Association picked the routes that they did. It seems that they made every effort to pick the roads least travelled all the way across the country. But then I think about the view that you get while driving along an interstate highway - any interstate highway. The views are pretty generic, and it seems like you don't really see very much. One thing that we did finally see while driving to Charlottesville was rain and lots of it. That was Thursday, and we have seen some rain on both Friday and Saturday as well, but it really came down while we were driving on Thursday. We arrived in Charlottesville around dusk on Thursday and made our way to the South Street Brewery. We had been there once before on a family vacation about 6 years ago. We liked it then, and we liked it this time as well, but this time, I think that I liked it even more.
A few thoughts on beer. Bicycle tourists drink beer. If you were to read some of the blogs written by other tourists you will often find beer being prominently mentioned if the writer discusses the cuisine at all. We don't necessarily drink a lot of beer, but it does seem to be a dietary staple. Rich in carbohydrates and taste, what's not to like? From the time that we left Fallon Nevada until we arrived in Charlottesville, there have been basically 5 selections to choose from: Busch LIte, Coors Lite, Bud Lite, Busch and Bud. It seems that most of middle America prefers lousy beer! So the South Street Brewery was an oasis and after having such a lousy selection for a month or more, it was refreshing to actually drink a good beer, on tap no less!
Now is the time for waxing philosophical. We will be driving home from Newark Delaware, where my lovely wife grew up. With the passing of my mother-in-law, about 16 months ago, there has been a relatively new car sitting in the garage with no one to drive it. That was not the reason t=for the trip, not really even a factor, but it did seem to make sense rather than flying home after getting to the Atlantic, to drive the car back to California so that it can be put to good use.
When I go on a vacation, my normal mode of operation is to just take things one day at a time. When it was backpacking, there was no set objective for each day, we would hike until we felt like stopping for the night. If it's a sight seeing trip, I don't make a list of sights to check off. If I am enjoying the first thing, I might just as well spend the whole day there and skip the rest. It just doesn't seem to be very relaxing to have to have a schedule to stick to. And so it has been with this trip. Well, I learned somewhat early on that this trip is no vacation, but I failed to then try to establish an itinerary to stick to. What does all of this have to do with today? Well, only after arriving in Charlottesville did it occur to me that Corky and her father are currently in Delaware and using said car. It won't do us any good to show up too early because the car won't be available to drive home until they are done using it and about ready to leave town themselves. I confirmed the dates and it seems like we could have pedaled the whole distance through Kentucky, even seeing Mammoth Cave, and still arrived in time. Now I can't help but feeling a little remorse for having rented the Budget Truck. I cheated, or at least compromised more than I needed to, and now we have some time to kill. But all is not lost. With that extra time, maybe we will not cross the Chesapeake Bay by way of the bridge-tunnel, but rather go inland, ride to Washington D.C. an spend a few days at the Smithsonian, the Mint, and various other tourist attractions. Hey, it's still and adventure, and should turn out well, but the remorse is there in the back of my head just the same.
Well, that's about all for now. We spent an extra day being lazy in Charlottesville and only rode about 25 miles today. Once again, a few days off has made us soft, plus it's harder to get motivated to jump out of a (motel) bed and hit the road, when the roads are wet from overnight rain, and the sky is grey and threatening to rain some more. One neat thing happened on our extra day in Charlottesville, which incidentally is the home to the University of Virginia. We were pulled over by the side of the road on our bikes, while I was checking directions. A man struck up a conversation with Riley, asking about our trip. When I was free, I said hello and told him that we were going to see some cousins in Williamsburg. He asked what their names were and when I said Samaha, he ask, "Rick Samaha?" I told him, yes, Rick is married to my cousin Christine. It turns out that he went to school with Rick and was good friends, although they hadn't been in touch for a while. So, it is still a small world after all!
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