The day started off cloudy and grey. Brooklyn in a time-honored ritual that has gone on for a number of years now, was found working on his bike right after breakfast. Once he finished, and everyone got their bikes together, we had the blessing of the bikes. My mom, Ida, usually does the honors but she couldn't make it to Richmond, so I stood in for her.

We also had Ken Adams, a member of the Monocan Indian Nation give us an Indian traditional blessing. He spoke to us for a few minutes about understanding how our lives affect all that's around us and then spread tobacco on the ground for us to ride over, symbolizing the circle of life and to bring us good fortune in our ride,our lives and the lives of those we touch. It was, to say the least, a very special moment.

Then it was off for a day of history. Our first stop was Jamestown. On the way over we rode the back roads through beautiful forests and past creeks and swamps. At one point Moe, who was leading, pulled us up into the front yard of a beautiful old house. I think he thought it was a museum of some sort. I think we're just lucky no one was home to see 20 bikes in their front yard. A few miles later we had to wait on the road for some construction vehicles to go by. So of course we clowned around and took some more pictures.

Jamestown is pretty much what you would expect. It's very informative and the grounds are very pretty. I gotta tell you though, it was awfully hot. The indoor movie was very well attended as was the café. It didn't help that much that most of us were wearing our black LRLR T-shirts with leather vests over them. We split up after Jamestown. Some went back to the hotel, some went to Yorktown and others took the ferry ride. Pictures from the other groups will get here eventually.

At the end of the day we all made our way to the Sportsman'sBar, a local biker bar. Good food, friendly people and pool tables. Greg had high hopes of finally beating me and it was really close, but it still wasn't his day. Henry, the mad go-kart driver from the UK beat his dad David and Shelley tried on some chalk just for fun.

That's it for day 1. Tomorrow we start at 7 am!

See you later
Bill

Other Links:
Dennis Booth's Facebook Photo Album
Star Markham's Vespa Journey's Blog