Phase 5, Day 9. Petersburg- Yorktown, VA.

75 miles to end the trip at Chesapeake Bay.

Weather not good but could be much worse.  

...then turn left for Tom Petty concert. 

The last few miles on this abandonded road was a sweet end. 

Crossing James River. 

Williamsburg. Contrived but nice. 

75 miles to end the trip at Chesapeake Bay. 

Without a big day ahead, not a ton of miles and mostly flat, I went to bed thinking how nice a late start might be. Still woke up at 5am and anxious to start the day. The weather still dodgy with low clouds, mist and light showers which kept the roads wet all day but never really saw any rain. 

More miles on country roads and the last miles clicked off one at a time.  I was counting each mile down along those wet roads. Nav was easy with many turns at country junctions but got it right every time. Getting savvy at road signage in Virginia..every state is different. Still mostly wooded but every now and then soybean fields and dairy farms. 

At mile 40 found my way to the Scotland-Jamestown ferry for the 15 minute ride across the James River. Landed in Jamestown where the first Europeans settled 400 years ago. Only men and boys came initially. Guess they didn't plan to stay long, later they realized the ladies should come too. Send the ladies!


Jamestown makes up a corner of the "Historic Triangle". I visited all corners today. Williamsburg is a nice place. 18th century town Disneyland style. Very touristy but cute. The 3rd corner is Yorktown and my final destination. To be honest I didn't see Yorktown proper because the waterside and Chesapeake Bay was my destination. 

Arrival was great but anticlimactic, perhaps because I still had another hour of riding ahead. Felt good to reach the end though and I've had a lot of emotions about this trip today.  Of course traveling alone there is no one to celebrate with. I did find a nice lady sitting on a rock looking out to the bay and asked her if she would take my picture. Pretty soon she was so excited about my story she was on Facebook telling all her Brazilian friends about my ride and asked me if she could take pictures with her phone too. She was more excited than me it seemed. 

Yorktown's War Memorial is a traditional place to end a cross country cycling journey. The TransAmerica bike route ends there, Race Across America ends there too. I officially ended my ride while rolling up to the War Memorial. 

This crazy project has taken 5 summers to complete. I don't know that I'll ever accomplish anything as grand again but it's been such a great life experience for me. I can honestly say I've seen a narrow slice of America few people have seen.  It's a wonderful country. 

I've had some nice surprises: Nebraska riding far exceeded my expectations,  Nevada was remote and beautiful (I will go back), and the Appalachians are an amazing riding experience. So many other great memories. Not nice? Not much. 30 miles navigating Salt Lake City sucked...that's about it. 

5 summers have passed since leaving Sacramento. Since I began this ride in 2012 real life has gone on. I've lost my mother; she would have loved to read these stories. We've lost Chester, the family dog. Alex graduated from 2 universities and moved to Europe. Abby graduated high school and now at 21 is a beautiful and wonderful woman. We've moved to Santa Cruz, and on and on. Its easy to let life distract you from a goal but I'm glad I stuck with it. 

I could never have done this without the wonderful support from Carrie though. Always so encouraging and understanding of my goofy bike ride. She gets me, that it's important to me, and for that, thank you Carrie. 

The bike ran perfectly the last 1000+ miles. Not even a single flat tire. Today, 1 short mile from my final destination, Newport News, VA airport, the right pedal completely came apart. This would have been a disaster at any other point on the journey but I pedaled with one leg that last mile and enjoyed every bit of it. I think the bike gave up. 

I constantly got the same question when people asked about my trip: Why do you do this?  I never had a good answer. Perhaps one day I'll know why.