Day 1 - On the road again

Today I finally headed of. As it's tradition, I went to the beach and dipped my rear-wheel into the Atlantic Ocean. Same thing with the other wheel in San Francisco.
The first part of the ride was from Yorktown to Williamsburg on the "Colonial Parkway". The road is wide, the traffic slow and it was a joy riding it along the ocean and later through lush forrests. Saw my first turtle! Williamsburg is an unique town. Several hundred restored colonial-style buildings, no evidence of modern technology and even the residents walk around in 18th century dresses.
Wanna travel in time? Visit Williamsburg!
Next I passed historic Jamestown. The park has just few original excavations, all the buildings are fake, so I skipped it. At some point the bike path ended and I had to ride on a busy highway... Three things to mention: people here are great! They just randomly greet you on the street "welcome to virginia!". Of course there is the standard-talk "where are you from and where are you riding to? Are you kidding me?!? Safe trip!" all the time. I was surprised how many people have have been living in Germany (mostly for the military), met at least 10 on my first day. One guy needs to be mentioned: He was sitting in his car at a gas station, waiting for his wife to buy something. When he waved at me and I approached the open window he gave me a 20 dollar bill, "No good reason, go get yourself a pop (popsicle, dt. Wassereis)". How nice is that! Also worth to mention it, the story how I found a place to camp at. There are phone numbers of people who offer their backyard for bicyclists on the ACA maps. When I called one from a public phone the guy told me it's not possible anymore, but he gave me a new number of a guy called Neil. Called him and got told just to pitch my tent in his yard. When I arrived there I first wasn't sure if it was the right house so I knocked the door. It turned out that Neil was the owner of the property but didn't life there. The man living there knew about the bicycle-deal though, I had found a place for my first night of camping on this trip. That's how camping works on the transam! 

Yorktown, VA

Today Linda picked me up at 6am and drove me close to Yorktown, VA.
I was surprised how green this state is. Totally different to California, more like where I live back in Germany. Trees and farmland. Of course the architecture is different. Red-brick buildings all over the place, looks neat and you definitely feel the history involved in that area (early jamestown settlement from 1607). Most of the people down here consider themselves as southeners and indeed people are different. I'm gonna find out in what way during the next weeks.

Linda had to go back to work at some point and dropped me of some 25 miles west of Yorktown. With hardly any sleep and breakfast I had a hard time getting to Yorktown, but finally I made it.

Bad news: when I lifted the fully packed bike out of the van I hurt myself badly at the right leg. I pray to god (that's what people do down here - no offense) that the wound is gonna heal without complications. The humidity isn't supportive though...

Tomorrow, some 3 months after I decided to go for it, the great (ad)venture begins. Being back on my bike with the configuration carrying me 7 weeks last summer felt wonderful.
The road has got some more secrets for me to find out, let's get started!

"Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” Jack Kerouac, On the Road

4th of July

Came back the hotel half past midnight, what a trip... Need to do some fine-tuning on the bike and pack everything. Tomorrow (6am) Linda is going to drive me down near the starting point of my trip.
Therefore only pictures for now.

First day

What a crazy first day! Like a rollercoaster, from joy to fear and finally relief... But step by step:

1) baggage drop-off required a good portion of patience, since there was a metall-band with their instruments in front of me... However, I had an eventless flight on the new Boeing 747-8, great piece of engineering!

2) immigration and customs... My worst dream seemed to become true, just with an happy ending. The line at immigration was unusually short and I went through within 20 minutes. But: The officer didn't stamp my passport. "It's okay" he said, when I asked. For a few seconds I felt relief due the fast processing but moments later I couldn't believe and asked a random officer at the baggage claim, who then dropped the worst words one could imagine: "secondary inspection".
In other words: they don't trust you. Third summer in a row, this time even three months?! Maybe they send you back home, maybe they don't allow you a 90-days stay. Trip is ruined anyway.
I couldn't realize all that, somewhere between nervous breakdown and unconsciousness. Had to give away my passport and "take a seat". Sitting there for way too much time I had already accepted that this trip was gonna come to an early end. Eventually they called for "Erb" and I had to tell my story again. Finished school, university in oktober etc. etc. They even wanted a second ID with photograph, luckily I had my national ID with me.
Again I was told to sit down and wait. Some more minutes, pulse skyrocketing.
Long story short: After another talk I got the damned stamp and even the full 90 days.
By the way: I bet they went through all data they got about me, including facebook, mail-account and this blog (which is linked to the mail-account). Welcome to 21st century...
Got out the airport and into a wall of humidity. Quite different to California, the climate over here.

But now to the nice things!
3) Called Linda from the airport and she came pick me up with her massive car. Easy loading and off we went.
After I had assembled my bike at Linda's place there was a delicious dinner with her family - what more does it take to make a traveller happy?
A bed, of course! Found a pretty cheap one at Holiday In Dulles, likely to be the most "luxurious" accommodation on this trip.

Tomorrow America celebrates its independence from the British crown, declared July 4th 1776, followed by 8 years of war and since then celebrated with parades, fireworks and much more.
I'm gonna watch the huge fireworks at National Mall. Yes, that's where Martin Luther King Jr. held his famous speech, or was it Forrest Gump?

Just a test

Just want to check if upload via tablet works.
Free wi-fi at the gate!

Final preparations

Rebooked my flight to July 3.
One week to go - bike boxed.

After more than 6 weeks I finally received my adventure-cycling maps. Had to pick them up at the German customs office and pay 8€ of tax...
Pretty impressive to see all the miles and elevation profiles!