Day 1: Yorktown, VA to Glendale, VA (71 Miles)

I'm writing my first travel entry from the eerily quiet chapel of United Methodist Church of Glendale, Virginia. Today was the best of times, and the worst of times. After waking up to find the majority of my relatives rubbing the morning gunk from their eyes to say goodbye, the parents and I took off towards Yorktown. Along the way, we met up with Jack, Mee Maw, and Pop Pop. I stopped by a Bank of America in Sandbridge to deposit the generous amounts of money my extended family rewarded me as an early birthday present. Now, here's where something went wrong. I apparently lost my debit/ATM card during this process – but we'll get to that later.

We arrived to Yorktown around 8:30AM and performed the ceremonial rear tire dip into the salty Atlantic. Also due to a malfunction from transporting the bike, I decided last minute to remove the front fender from the bike (a decision I hope I won't regret). After some long hugs and goodbyes, I set off in a westward direction. I was immediately overwhelmed with the gravity of the situation I was getting myself into. This bicycle manifest destiny I've somehow gotten myself into; however, I was distracted from my thoughts with the scenery rolling past. I biked along beautiful estuaries, and historic towns. I was feeling great. And then, about 40 miles out... the crap hit the perpetual fan. I walked into a nondescript convenience store and found that my debit card was nowhere to be found...

After frantically searching everywhere and everything, I had to call my dad to tell him the news. In the meantime, I met the coolest dude this side of the Atlantic. His name was Marvin Pressie (“I got the soul like Marvin Gaye and the Rock like Elvis Pressie!”). We chatted for a long time and I was pleased to meet a new friend. But, back to the card - long story short: about two hours later I was biking towards Richmond to meet my dad. Now, this is where I have to thank Sands, aka “The Best Damn Dad on the Planet!”, because he sacrificed one of his vacation days to come and help me. Without him, I'd only have 80 dollars to my name. I can't express how eternally grateful I am to him. Anyways, we met up at a creepy old Bed & Breakfast and decided to drop me back off in this location after we corrected everything with the debit card.

I was so troubled by this ridiculous dilemma I found myself in... I had worked so hard to save up this money for the trip, and now I couldn't have access to any of it! Luckily, we met a nice lady at the Bank of America in Richmond and we got a new temporary card (which expires in 30 days, eek!). So, I'm going to have to work around getting my permanent card somehow in the near future. I grabbed a quick bite with my dad and hoofed it back to my last stopping point.

After a short ride and the threat of an encroaching thunderstorm, I came across this church and now I'm letting everything sink in. It's strange... I haven't felt a sense of loneliness until now. Maybe it's because I'm sitting amongst row after row of empty pews. Or maybe it's because I love people too much.

Tomorrow's another long day, and I must rise early to meet it... goodnight.