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.