Steve's TransAm Adventure

Got an early start again today.  The ride into C’ville was harrowing.  The section of road that passes Montecello has too many impatient drivers on it!  I was glad to reach the big downhill and get off that road.  My companions, Rob and Steve H., and I stayed at a hostel run by two former hippies, Raven and Flame.  I was impressed at their extreme efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle.  If everyone followed their lead, the landfills would have a lot less stuff going into them..

After sleeping on a hard floor, I was glad to see the sunrise.  After a quick breakfast we were back on the road again. It was cloudy and rainy in the morning, but soon the sun came out and things got a lot better. The miles went by slowly at first.  It took awhile to get into the groove, but once we did our moods improved and the miles started rolling by. We rode uphill all day, steadily gaining about 300 ft of elevation with ups and downs along the way.   Our destination was the Mineral Volunteer Fire Department, which we reached just before it started to rain.   The guys graciously allowed us to stay overnight in a hall attached to the back of the station.   It was set up with a stage and lots of tables and chairs.   It reminded me of my elementary school.   Rob and I found a store nearby, bought some beer, and sat out in a warm soft rain drinking them.   After getting cleaned up we walked to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner.   For the second night we slept on a hard floor,

My TransAm adventure started on 26 May when I met my cycling companions, Rob H (RustyCrank) and Steve H, for the first time at the Victory Monument in Yortktown, VA.  We met through the Companions Wanted forum on the Adventure Cycling website.   All we knew about each other was that we wanted to start our adventure on the same weekend in May, and that we had similar plans for the journey.   After introducing ourselves and checking in at the visitor center we got a photo dipping our back wheels in the James river and then we headed off on our journey.   The start of my adventure was full of excitement.   My body was rested, I was well fed and clean, all my gear was clean and in good order, my bike was tuned, and the excitement of conquering the unknown lay ahead.   We were riding in the tidewater region so the terrain was quite flat and a mixture of roads and bike trail.   We discovered that Steve H, Rob H and I had a lot more in common than we realized; we are all educators.   Stev

The year was 1976 and the USA was celebrating the Bicentennial.  An organization named BikeCentennial created a bicycle route named the TransAm all the way across the USA.  The inaugural ride was from Astoria OR to Yorktown VA.  I had just graduated from high school and was really intrigued by the idea of riding across the USA.  Fast forward to 1979.  I just graduated from the University of Virginia.  A friend from North Carolina heard about a bicycle route across NC from the westernmost township to the easternmost town (700 miles) that was also created for the Bicentennial.  We decided it would be cool to ride it as a celebration of our graduation, which we did.  That was my first experience with fully self-supported bicycle touring, and I was hooked.  I did many week-long tours in the following years in NC, VA, NY, NH, ME,  and Canada.  I never could quite take the time to ride the entire TransAm, but it remained on my lbucket list.  I still can’t manage to take off 2 or 3 months to