I usually stay pretty out of touch on bike tours, but I talked with my parents about my job situation, or lack thereof, and I’m glad I did.  Thanks for being there for me mom & dad!  Saw a shooting star while on the phone with them, and I’m happy to latch on to any remotely good omen that passes nearby right now. 

Slept pretty well considering the circumstances, until a strong wind began whipping the pine trees high above and dropping pine cone bombs on our tents.  It sounded like the wind that comes seconds before rain pours from the sky onto our uncovered tents, but luckily the stars were still visible, as they have been this whole trip.

The ride today was down hwy 113/13, to the tip of the DelMarVa peninsula. We crossed from the “Mar” into the “VA”, where, across the road from the official state welcome sign was an establishment with a giant Stars’n’Bars, and the slogan “The South Starts Here.”  Indeed.  Actually, the roads and drivers in Virginia, and everywhere else we’ve been, have been surprisingly awesome.

Dennis again did a good job of following in my wake, so he could take it easy on another long (88 mile) and windy day, while still making it to the 20 mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in reasonable time to be driven across in a pickup.  Then on the Virginia mainland, a short ride to a good Mexican dinner, and then to First Landing State Park.  Before even setting up camp, we made a quick dash to the beach just in time to watch the sun set over Chesapeake Bay.  And then we couldn’t resist taking a dip, especially after such a long hot day.  I think it may be the first time I’ve been in the ocean, and I have to say, it ain’t half bad.  Nothing could wipe the stupid grins off our faces.

Maybe this is just me, but if you’re going to lose your job, I highly recommend being in the middle of a bike tour when it happens.  I don’t want to say that we’re in denial, because we talk about it a lot, often with black humor when we see something that reminds us of our situation.  For example, a planned stop at 77 miles aligned us with an extremely doubtful “Fabric Outlet”, and we just had to get a photo, because what better place to get a job using my newly-developed sewing skills?  So it’s not denial, but maybe “deferral”?  When you have to ride 88 miles between two campgrounds, you are simply too busy with so many other duties and thoughts that there really isn’t much time to dwell unhealthily on the job situation.  Surely it will be a merciless dragging back to reality when we return home, but hopefully we can even ease that transition over the next week and a half on the road.

Actually, on a tour as good as this one has been so far, I think I could take a baseball bat to the gut every few hours and still feel like I was the one walking away a winner.  Not that we need to test that theory.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 at 8:32 pm and is filed under 2010 Bike Tour, bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.