Day 1: Lexington to Harrisonburg VA- 78 miles

We had a great overnight stay in Lexington, home of Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute (and interestingly enough named after Lexington MA). Wake up this morning was very early- 5:35 AM (oy!) and we went through the Anchor House ride rituals of getting our bags on the Yellow Truck and getting our bikes ready to ride. One of the rituals is getting your "chit" from the chitboard, the tag that lets the ride organizers know when you're out on the road and when you return. Lots of chit jokes, as you can only imagine (get your chit together, don't lose your chit on us...).

Special to this year's ride for me is of course riding (and rooming) with Adam. It's every Anchor House rider's dream to ride with their children. Here we are about to head out for the day. We also spent most of the day riding with another father-son duo, er, trio, my former room mate Jack and his twin sons Ben and Sol. Adam, Ben and Sol were among a number of young first time Anchor House riders. New blood for the ride is a great thing!

The riding was lovely as we we headed out of Lexington and into the rolling Shenandoah Valley. The terrain was rolling and really enjoyable. We had a near constant view of the Blue Ridge mountains to our east as we headed north. Temperatures were very kind today, in the 80's and we had a good cloud cover for most of the day.

Part of the Anchor House is getting into the spirit of the ride. Here's Adam relaxing in the comfy chairs with good friend and veteran rider Ken Naglak. The SAG stops are always fun. Here's volunteer Adrian Glass showing here colors for Argentina. We were very motivated to get the ride finished in time for the big game!

We finished the ride around 2PM- a hilly finish, but we were happy to have day one in the books. A beer, or two from the Yellow Truck, some pool time to cool off, and then out to Chili's to replace 4000 calories and watch the World Cup. It's Harrisonburg for the night and tomorrow it's another 78 miles to Winchester. A great start to the ride!