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The bicycle tourist is greeted with two choices when starting their tour. Do I ride away from my home or pack up everything and take alternate transportation to the start? For local tours, the loop method is a good idea. Start off in one direction and ride in a big loop until you end up back home. If I had a year’s time, not just a couple months, I would enjoy a loop tour of the US. It would be ideal to leave Indiana, riding in the northern states during the warmer months and the southern states during the cooler months. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the few extra weeks it would take to get to Virginia by bicycle and luckily, my dad has nice friends.

Dave is a part owner of a Baron, a twin engine aircraft with enough space for me, my father, Dave, and my bike and gear. Dad and I arrived at Bowman Field in Louisville, KY around noon. We loaded up the plane as soon a Dave arrived. The local Air Traffic Controllers allowed us to depart a little past 1 PM.

The day had a dreary cast, under a solid fluffy blanket of clouds. An occasional mist hit the windshield as we sampled small rain showers, on the climbing to our cruising altitude. Due to icing at our intended altitude of 11,000 feet, Dave eased up to 13,000 feet. The Baron is not a pressurized cabin, so air pressure inside is the same as the air pressure outside. This requires oxygen for the pilot, above 10,000 feet. Oxygen is required for other members of the plane for altitudes above 14,000 feet for short times and lower altitudes for longer durations. There were only two sets of oxygen, so Dad and I switched off. I went more without than with, because Dad wanted to do some of the flying.

This gave me a chance to practice a pressure breathing exercise I read from those entering high altitude environments without supplemental oxygen. The problem isn’t with the percentage of oxygen in the air at higher altitudes; it is a problem with the pressure of the air in your lungs. The lower pressure means less total volume of air, and therefore less total volume of oxygen. The low pressure also doesn’t help with getting the oxygen molecules into your blood stream via your lungs. The pressure of air in your lungs can be increased by forcing your lips together, while your diaphragm muscles force the air out. This technique would later prove beneficial when climbing over Hoosier Pass, later in my trip. This worked somewhat, but I was always ready for the oxygen when it was offered. There were a few times that I became slightly woozy, with just the very beginning stages of hypoxia. It was an interesting experience, which gave me a headache that would last the rest of the day. My slight dehydration didn’t help in this matter the least.

The experience of flying over mountains I would soon see again was somewhat surreal. The entire trip out took around 2 hours. The trip back to near the starting point of this flight would take around a month by bicycle. Had I room in the plane, I would have kicked myself for packing spare batteries in the back. My camera went dead as Newport News Airport came within view. The shot am annoyed most for missing was the giant aircraft carrier. It was a beautiful view and seemed bigger than the grass strip in Scottsburg, IN, where dad taught me how to land our Aeronica Champ, years before. Quite a different thing to land a plane which didn’t stall until far below 50 mph on field that size, than an F-18 with a stall speed nearly 5 times that number. (Yes, I know. They have the hook and wires and all that. But it still puts things in perspective.)

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After taxing to the FBO (Fixed Base Operator, the “gas station” of an airport) at Newport News, we began unloading my bike and gear. It took a few minutes to reassemble everything and get ready to ride over to the start. Instead of doing that, one of the FBO employees was nice enough to give me a ride to the Yorktown Visitor’s Center. After a second time loading the bike and doing a final check of everything, I was off to find the Victory Monument and official start of the Trans-American trail.

Then I stopped 100 feet later. I couldn’t get my bike computer to work. The sensor just got bumped away from the magnet, I thought. Any experienced cyclist has run into that one a few times. I moved the magnet until it made a slight “whack” sound on the sensor, then backed away every so slightly. Still no speed indicated. That wasn’t the problem. I remembered having to unwind the handlebars after we set the bike down out of the van. Sure enough, the computer wires were ripped clean apart. Looks like I’ll be in need of my first repair sooner than expected. Wonder where I can borrow a soldering iron, I asked myself.

I took some pictures at the Monument before heading for Williamsburg. I attempted to get another tourist to take a picture, but reviewing the screen showed nothing. “It was all ready. They just had to push the button,” I murmur to myself. I am already seeing the advantages of bringing a digital camera and small laptop. Had I been shooting film, I would have assumed the picture of my overweight self would have already been taken at the monument.

I guess we can see if the timer works, I thought. Sure enough, a timer taken picture later and I was off.

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There are so many things to see that I needed to ride right past. It was nearly 4 o’clock, with a little over 4 hours of sunlight left, when I started riding. I had no clue where I was going to stay tonight. During the trip, I would learn that it is often easier to find places to stay in less congested areas. In the big cities, cars are king. So was it most places here. I pulled into the Williamsburg Visitor’s Center around 6:30, as everything was closing down. I received pointers to the lower priced hotels in the area and where the restaurants were hiding. My lunch wasn’t large before I left Jeffersonville and I was famished. I found a Golden Corral and cashed in on an old bicycle touring adage: Never pass up a buffet.

The restaurant was bustling with tourists taking their first gasps of vacation, after the school year finished. As long as the food doesn’t run out, the best you can hope for is a busy buffet. Food turned over faster, tastes better. Hunger also has that effect on food. While I enjoyed resting and people watching, I knew daylight was fading. My choices were hotel or not. The hotels were right here. I could ride back into Williamsburg for a visit tomorrow. But this is a bicycle tour, not a tourist trip. I wanted to be some miles under my belt, so off I rode.

I left the restaurant a little after 8 and hustled into Jamestown. This was the best option I could come up with for the night. Soon I enabled my rear lights and flipped the switch on my “dashboard” to enable the headlight. I knew these were going to be needed through out the trip, but didn’t consider them being required the first night. I finally pulled into the campground at 9 and was greeted with a $22 campsite! That is quite a bit of dough for a plot of grass and the use of a shower and bathroom. Oh, well, I thought. Where else am I gonna go.

Supply and demand was in full force in Jamestown. Yet another lesson I would soon learn. While I knew $22 wasn’t the most I would spend for a night, as I planned a few motel stays. I hoped it was the most I would spend for a campsite.

With my tent pitched and shower taken, I fired up my little Libretto laptop. It is about the size of a Disney packaged VHS movie, the screen was small, keyboard even smaller, and I had yet to adjust to it. The headache still greeting me as I typed up my day’s journal, I constantly sipped on water. The color of my urine had assured me that I was still dehydrated or someone slipped a bunch of vitamin B into my food at the Golden Corral. I assumed the former.

The night was unseasonably cold. Temperatures dropped to 34 over night. My 20 degree mummy bag felt nice over the small Thermarest air mattress. The full hood was too warm, but a small fleece cap was just right. My water bottles available for sipping a few times through out the night, I slept well.

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Day 2 (next)