Day 1 - Yorktown, VA to Glendale, VA - 62 mi

And so it begins! After catching some better sleep last night on a free cot from the hotel, I was up and ready to eat/get going around 6:15 am. We were shuttled to the "starting line" around 8 am to take the BUS4MS traditional pictures - dipping our back tires in the Atlantic salt water so that we can ride to the Pacific ocean to dip our front tires.


(Check out our sweet jerseys!)

The majority of the trip was nice and flat for all 60 miles. The weather was great for riding today! The morning started out cloudy with cooler temperatures until the sun finally came out in the afternoon (which meant hotter riding and drinking more water). The initial ride through VA didn't look like the typical Virginia I think of = Western VA. We rode through lots of flat land and corn fields.

Today's ride marks the first time that I have really done any road riding with other riders (think a mini peloton in a bike ride). The first week or two will be great practice drafting off of each other to conserve strength over the course of a day. The state of Kansas is extremely windy which makes it feel like you are riding up hill the entire time.

I also realized that I should have packed a few more substantial food items for the first few days as we are currently staying at a small church in the middle of corn fields. I will make do for tonight borrowing from people and hope to be closer to some type of grocery store tomorrow for dinner supplies (like canned meat, bread, etc.). Lunch today was pretty easy as one of our break points was at a small sub shop.

Day 1 of 60 done! It is a bit tricky uploading pictures using the BUS4MS trailer and Verizon Mifi internet (limit 5 GB data per month). I will try to upload more pictures to blog entries as we pass through towns and coffee shops. In the meantime, there will most likely be a few entries with text only :(.