Bike Virginia 1994
The Presidential Odyssey
Ok so here are the journal entries from the Bike VA 1994. Remember that
I was typing on a electronic organizer with very tiny keyboard. So all
punctuation was thrown out the window. Plus I edit nothing! All spelling
errors are included! Read at your own risk!
6/24/1994 Fri Waiting on smiley. the adventure should soon begin! I
can,t
(Smiley is my roomate Johns nickname. He smiles a lot) wait. its gonna
be real nice to get away for awile. g et some sun. see some new places.
we should have a rea l good time. BUS RIDE FROM HELL. NEED FOOD!! WILL
SOOON DIE WITHOUT FOOD. ARE WE EVER GONNAA GET THERE??
(Didn't have time that day for Breakfast or lunch. I was starving.)
SAW my 1st criterium race at beutiful downtown bedford. rea l nice little
town. nice big spagetti dinner at the BM
(Bedford Middle School) S and we were ready to head to the dairy queen.
tomorr ow is the big climb. that should be a challenge. i,m p retty tired
not enough sleep last night. this tent may be a 3man but i still have to
lay diag to stretch out . poor john. at least it is only for 3 nights.
Bedford to Lexington 52 miles. Mile 5-10 Climb 1500ft.
6/25/1994 Sat Rest stop 31mi. 10mi to lunch. rough morning. rest of
the afternoon should be no prob. three more climbs. small ones. feel ok
when i am not moving. am i having fun ye t? 53.8 MI TODAY not bad for a
days work. 65 tomorrow. got in about 2:30 . john was here at noon. he had
already unpacked, set up the tent and gone for a 4mi run. DAMN. ate at
the p alms. nice little local bar and grill. had a gryo. the n went to
sweet things for some great fro yo. right ne xt to wash and lee coll. listened
to some band. pretty funny started out with country with line dancing the
n started playing tone loc. and people were still line dancing! go figure.
met some guy and his daughter mol ly from arlington. then ended up talking
with betsy fr om charlston sc. she was diggin john but just couldn,t get
him to line dance with her. we all walked to the VMI after the band quit.
nice campus. reminds me of al catraz. hign walls and steep roads.
(Virginia Military Somethingorother) weather is great nice and cool.
mid 70s now. sometimes we g et a nice breeze. nice sleeping weather. feel
pretty g ood. little tired. we will see how the legs like the c limb in
the morning. i have to get michelle on one of these. the people are so
nice. she would love it.
6/26/1994 Sun Breakfast at mcD. got pretty damn chilly last night. lots
o f condensation. feel ok now. mostly uphill untill mi32 . Wow, this is
great. 50mi down 15 togo. i,m sitting undernea th a shade tree with a strong
breeze and a great view. had a totaly awesone PNJ for lunch. feel tired
but go od. the legs aren,t gonna have any problem getting in. really great
rolling hills today. some pretty tough c limbs but real cool downhills.
got to 38mph. go for 5m i without pedaling. just tuck and go. sweet
6/27/1994 Mon BIKE VIRGINIA You wanna talk about rain? Rained off and
on all night. staye d pretty dry though. i just hope it wont rain all day.
i am just glad we are hoteling it tonight. Mile 40. lunch stop. rode with
betsy all morning. pretty fu n. the mt would have been a blast had it not
been rain ing. didn,t want to take it must faster then 30. stope d at a
post office and sent out cards. really nice out once it quit raining. i
did the 71mi route but ended up doing 75 to 80 looking for the hotel. that
is ok john and betsy did over 100. ok so we showed up to the hotel. showered
and ate. went to the jakuzziiiiii. that sucked. my sunburn kept me from
relaxing in the tub. ok so after dinner smiley and i got some ice cream
and found the betsymie ster. she needed to eat so we got some za and talked
for awile with the kid who played beethoven in the tale nt show. Cool kid.
so afterwards we get some beer. the beer truck closes at 830 but he gives
me a couple of free brewsters. and we slam those and after talking with
the band decide to goto millers for more brews and music. listen to this
incredible guitar player named tim reynolds. meditarianian or something.
"just play the shit man" the guy was tuning h is guitar to all sorts of
crazy stuff and then playing bar chords. not easy to do. so we met Tony
Goodman at millers. invite him to have a few beers. what a nice guy. we
talk and lis ten to tim. what a great night. the music and the comp any
was great. tony ends up paying for our tab. wow, what a guy. all in all
probably the best day in bike va week. now i get to kick somebody out of
bed and sleep in a DRY hotel room. cool. this is the life.....
6/28/1994 Tue Barboursville vineyards. 14miles. easy day today. had
bkfas t at the nook. then took off. tasted some wines. i was most impressed
with the bottling machinery. we will probably end up doing 45 to 55 miles
today. no hurry. it is gonna be sad to leave all the people we have met
this week. heading to james madisons house next. i would like to viset
monticello before we leave. 57 MILES today. coming back from madisons was
tough. we wer e all pretty tired. did not leave untill after 5. of course
tazman,s stomach said "EAT!!" and he took off. after about 5 miles. betsy
and i drafted on and off each other untill i started to poop out. she then
took off. so i fought the wind by myself untill i got to the store. 15
miles to go and i am feeling pretty bad. feeling that bonk coming on, so
i do what comes naturally . EAT. and do i go for the gaterade and fruit
like i should? HELL NO! three ho-ho,s a snickers and wash it down with
a big mt dew. oh yeah. ride back on that sugar rush. worked like a charm
to. it also helped that the road turned a way from the wind. afterwards
we went to the blue ridg e brewery for dinner. i had "tubular ribbed" pasta.
:) time for some serious zzz. i might go to montichello. it would put us
at a late start though.
6/29/1994 Wed DONE FINI KAPUT!tour is over. what an awesome week. you
jus t can,t beat this type of vacation. started late this morning. went
to montichello. looked just like th back of a nickel! hit the road about
10:45 i got in at 4. smiley was in at 3. biked 67miles. i figure i did
abou t 320mi over the 5 days. not bad for a fat fooser. pretty good biking
today. had some headwinds but tailwinds the last 10 mi or so. mostly flat
too. that was a plu s. we started out in the very back of the tour. the
st aff were taking down the arrows in front of me. but i kept a really
good pace today and passed quite a few o ther late starters and baby pullers.
so i made it no p rob. betsy gave john and i a bottle of wine. that was
pretty nice of her. then we made her buy us lunch. we are flat broke. i
brought 140 and spent every penny. o h well it is still a cheap vacation.
300 bucks for a whole week of fun. sweet. not sure if my weight went anywhere
this week. i ate plenty and probably gained some muscle. i did learn a
lot about biking though. hills and flats and food and water. how to shift
better. breathe sit and climb. boy did we climb. i think i could be a much
stronger rider if i lost some pounds, had better techniq ue and a lighter
bike. oh well, i know what to work on now the next trick is to get michelle
on one of these. i re ally think she would like it. i would have to either
cu re her fear of hills or do a flat ride. CAM in three weeks. that should
be cake after this one. it will be fun to watch cathy and mom to see how
they do. and see if we are all still speaking to each other when we get
back.