Gloucester: A Day for Donations

This morning, we left Suffolk on our way to Gloucester. As we were leaving, a couple saw us biking, pulled off, and gave us twenty dollars. We talked with them for a little while, explained what we were doing, said thanks and gave them a flier. A few minutes later, they pulled up and gave us another thirty dollars. It was an excellent start to the day, and a good thing to happen since we had just made a mistake. As it turned out, we had biked five miles in the wrong direction.

We soon realized our error and turned around. The new route was great - there were almost no cars, the scenery was great, and we saw a few ducks waddling along beside us and honking at us as well as a woodchuck running away from us. We kept on going until we got to the Jamestown ferry.

Taking the ferry was a great choice. While we waited in line, we struck up conversations with people sitting in their cars. Within minutes, we had received several donations. And they kept on coming. Kids, parents, grandparents, and people just passing through dug into their pockets and added to Chester's Bag o' Change. By the time we got off the ferry, a fifteen minute ride, we had raised about a hundred dollars. We also met Daniel, a guy training for Ironman Wisconsin, who gave us a ride the hundred or so yards off the ferry to our chase car, where Nick and Matt had already reassembled the bikes (we had to put them on top of the car for the ferry).

Then, since I am quite possibly the only person who grew up on the east coast who had never been to Williamsburg, and since our crew from Iowa had never been either, Austin decided it would be a great place to visit. Throwing Chester's-significantly-heavier-Bag o' Change in the back, we made our way to the town. Unfortunately, when we got to the visitor center there, we were informed that we were not allowed to ride our bikes around historic Williamsburg. They said something about tourists not wanting to get run over, and they wouldn't make an exception for the heavily bandaged bikers who said they wouldn't run anyone over. So the bikes went back on the car, which may have been a good thing since we heard a distant rumble of thunder. We asked one man what the weather was supposed to be like. He checked the radar and said, "There's a little storm over on the other side of Gloucester, but this is just noise. You guys should be fine. The radar's not showing a thing."

Well, the radar was wrong. As we walked around Williamsburg, it started sprinkling. Then it started pouring. Luckily, Nick noticed a Vineyard Vines distributor right by where we had parked. We went into Classic Cravats and introduced ourselves, and the lady managing the store there, Betty Lou, not only introduced us to almost everyone in the store - leading to more donations - but also sent us over to the main store, R. Bryant, where we received yet another donation. What's more, we even got an umbrella, which we needed. We left feeling great, but the storm was going full force. We had sideways rain, lightning flashing over us, minor flooding, even a little hail. Since we couldn't really see potholes, and since cars couldn't really see us, even with our lights, we decided to try to wait out the storm. We went to eat lunch, but the storm didn't let up. Finally, we gave up and got on the road to Gloucester. We made it to stay with the Williams family, the parents and siblings of a girl Austin and I knew at Vanderbilt. They put us up in a cottage next to the oldest house we've seen yet, built in 1658. In fact, they not only agreed to put us up but they also organized a fundraiser for us tomorrow at their ice cream store. More on that later.

~ Tom