May 21, 2001 - Mike and Marilyn's 2001 TranAmerican Bike Tour

Williamsburg to near Charles City, Virginia. (42 mi.) Mile 68

Colonial day, stormy night.

First order of the day was a trip to Bike Beat bike shop where we received excellent service in adjusting the bent chain ring and a few other things on Mike's bike.

In Colonial Williamsburg, a reconstructed village from the 1600-1700s, it seemed we attracted as much attention from the bus loads of tour groups as the "Colonists" in period costumes, especially before we thought to take off our high visibility vests. After the first two most common questions we get ("Where are you heading?" and "How long will it take?"), we are asked, "Are you school teachers?".

We've been experiencing "unstable" weather; warm, sticky, with scattered thundershowers. However, rain did not dampen our appreciation for the beauty of tidewater Virginia, the bird song and scent of honeysuckle as we rode the Colonial Parkway to Jamestown, the first British settlement in America, 1607.

  

Colonial Parkway between Williamsburg and Jamestown

The history lessons gave us a late start, so we found ourselves running out of time and energy miles from services north of Jamestown. It was starting to look like dinner would be Skippy's peanut butter straight from the jar, when we happened onto Indian Field Tavern, noted for gourmet Southern cuisine. We were glad our grimy appearance didn't dissuade them from serving us. The chef's specialty for the evening was ahi ahi, with chocolate crepes in raspberry sauce for dessert. We barely managed to resist the temptation to lick our plates.

Indian Field Tavern

The folks at the Tavern let us pitch our tent on the grass in a quiet spot behind one of their outbuildings. In the middle of the night, we were awakened to one of the scattered thunderstorms directly overhead, with lightening, thunder, and rain pounding on the tent so loudly that we had to shout to be heard above it, things like, "WHY DON'T YOU GET UP AND GO GET OUR WEATHER RADIO?" [in the bike pannier]. and "NO WAY! WHY DON'T YOU?" Once the storm was over, and peace had settled overhead, we programmed our NOAA weather radio to standby alarm mode to alert us of any violent weather. As the radio intermittently blinked its little LED light to tell us it was on alert, we noticed a firefly on the outside of our tent's bug netting, flashing back at the radio its romantic interest.