Day 1: That can't be good for the seatpost

May 21, 2016

All week long I watched bright sunny days heading into Virginia Beach. All week. Until the Friday before. Then guess what happens? Storms roll in and dump rain into Norfolk and Virginia Beach. And guess where I'm flying? Yep - same place. And my bike is at the FedEx office there with all my stuff ready to depart on Saturday. Welp, guess I'll be riding in the rain.

My flight departs in the morning and I touch down onto the runway as rain hits the airplane window. Welcome to the origin point. A quick taxi ride to the FedEx store, pickup the bike and assemble it, but what's this? The seatpost bolt doesn't grab - it's stripped. Yuck. What to do? What to do? I have a bike fully assembled with the seat post unable to stay in place. I need to get it to a bike shop but I have no transportation.

Moments before tragedy struck and I discovered a stripped seat post bolt

The owner of the shop suggested I get an überX and hail a larger minivan, so I did just that. I set my destination as the REI there in town, and the minivan driver picked me up and shuffled me over to the REI. They had a post bolt and didn't even charge me for it. (Heck - I would have paid them $10 for the bolt). With that all settled up, I got onto the road and re-routed my trip, taking 10 miles off the day. I wanted to get into the campsite and out of the rain as soon as I could.

The successful implant of a new seat post bolt. I'm now able to embark on mile 1 of my tour!

Since I re-routed my original route, the first 5 miles or so was through commerce-central, and a 4-6 lane divided commercial "stroad" (not quite a road, not quite a street) and just miserable with the rain, wet asphalt, and spray from passing cars. It became a little better after that as I headed south and away from the metro area.

The rain stops by mile 13 or so, and crossing in a pedestrian crosswalk, with the white pedestrian on a green, I start across and a car makes a right-hand turn on a green nearly colliding with me. Driver slams on his brakes and honks his horn. My adrenaline is pumping overtime nearly getting hit with only a foot to spare and now this? I start yelling I have right of way and he's yelling for me to get off the road (me, on a bike, in a crosswalk, crossing with the pedestrian signal AND on a green). It's only his wife keeping him in the car that prevents us from fighting. I have never seen such and entitled driver in my life. I'm a "live and let live" person, but that incident really got my ire up.

15 miles in I stop at Walmart to pick up a sandwich and chips (and one of those 500ml boxes of wine) for dinner. 7 miles later I stop at "Jerr-asic Park" to go dinosaur hunting. If you've read my journals before you know I like finding these off-the-beaten path places.

Stegosaurus on a bike tour. Or should I say Din-O-Bike!

It's then about 10 miles to the campsite. The rain stopped but the clouds never cleared from the sky. There's a low cloud cover for the rest of the evening. About a mile before the campsite I cross over the border from Virginia to North Carolina and roll into the campground.

I ask the campground host if there's a pavilion or some picnic place I can set up my tent since it's supposed to rain overnight. She doesn't have one, but she does offer the porch on the backside of the bathhouse. Works for me. I look over the Currituck sound and across the water. The wind is blowing pretty well, probably steady at about 12 knots, and after I shower and change into my off-bike clothes, I sit down for my dinner.

I'll have a sandwich, potato chips, and box of your finest wine. What's that? Why no, I don't want a straw, I have a mug to drink it from - do you think me uncouth?

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Today's ride: 34 miles (55 km)
Total: 34 miles (55 km)

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