A little warm up trip (June 2015)

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So, just to paint a picture as to why we decided to do this long distance bicycle expedition, this is something that Fi has wanted to do for a long, long time; before we even met. When she first proposed the idea of a self-supported bicycle expedtion accross a continent, I thought she was out of her mind. I've always loved her adventurous spirit (we met while hiking separately in Peru) but I secretly hoped that she'd forget about it; she did not. As it turns out, I actually warmed up to the idea after a couple of years, and now I'm just as excited about trying this as she is. We've met several people who have done this exact thing, and have thought, "why can't we?" Now that I'm finishing my career in the U.S. Coast Guard (a superb organization that I'll always be grateful for), we have a lot of free time to pursue this and other hair-brained ideas.

This first blog entry isn't about our big trip, which will start in a few weeks. This was just a warm-up: 1-day, 50 miles, 5000 ft of ascent, near Monterey, VA. This is a really pretty place tucked into the Allegheny Mountains in western VA, along the border with WV. The first European inhabitants were from the Scottish highlands and Northern England: very self-sufficient, tough, hard-working folks who had little use for the landed Southern gentry of the coastal tidewater areas of Virginia. We've met a lot of colorful characters out in these parts, most of whom have been very friendly and never too busy to stop and chat for a while.

But I digress. This ride was mostly to check our equipment and ourselves. The riding was mostly country and farm roads which often see more tractors and farm vehicles than cars. The weather was nice. Overall, it was a pretty good ride. I snapped a few photos.

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Photos

Monterey & West Virginia
A little barn overlooking a pasture. A nice place for a little rest stop.

Big field
This area of the Allegheny Mountains is mostly small dairy and sheep farms like this one. You're never too far away from a pile of cow dung, in a good way.

Ugh!
Is that a member of the Swedish Special Olympics? Nope, just some fool on a bike.

farm road
a little bit of flat riding

Another farm
I'm not sure why I did this, but I seem to have taken a bunch of photos of Fi's back.

Comments

[Home and Away]

Welcome to Travelblog!!!
I look forward to reading about your adventurous trip biking across the States. A friend of mine, a Navy Captain, upon his retirement took six weeks to go from Washington state to Maine.

[Michelle]

I can't wait!!
I can't wait to live vicariously through you guys! Have fun!!!