A hot, flat world. That’s what we saw today as we rolled down from Valley Forge, PA and the length of the Delmarva Peninsula. Lots of speed changes but not too hard to stay on course (the Prime Directive in this game). Still, we erred in the stop-starts and ran consistently early. Our 2006 mentors, the Fredettes, pointed out an error in how we handle those and maybe that’s why we ran a full minute total today – all early, even though we adjusted our Timewise to slow us a bit. Grrr.

We ran over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel – a 17 mile span connecting the peninsula to mainland Virginia. Virginia is the 8th state this race has crossed so far (ME, VT, NH, MA, NY, PA, DE, VA). Quite a piece of work. I’d never run a close tunnel against trucks before – in a wide, top-down convertible. What a Noise! We also met family at our evening stop in Portsmouth, VA.  Brother-in-Law Rob Sallada and his daughter, my niece Leah came down to check out the show.  As I’ve lived mostly on the East Coast, we have met local friends and family at every stop. Life doesn’t get much better.

We broke VERY little today – a minor contact problem knocked out our left turn/brake light in the back – an easy fix. On the other hand, our old bugaboo was back: the grabby, draggy left front brake. When this goes bad, the engagement becomes random in both pedal and direction of car motion. You never know just what you’ll get when you press for binders! We call it ‘Brake Dancing’ It sure produces a lot of dust: we can hardly see the whitewalls. The pedal is low, now too, from the extra wear. I’d like to adjust it, but fear more grabbing and without a way to get the wheels off the ground to balance the adjustemnts, it might also develop a worse pull. We’ll ride with the low pedal tomorrow. And run without a spare – we can’t get a new wheel in time.  We’re running on the edge – one flat or another spoke failure and we’re out!  I’ve put out the call to our Imperial Club – maybe we’ll get a loaner from a local Imperialist.

Now, a quick word about the Finns, as promised. There’s a team here called the Wandering Troubadors of Finland (aka WTF – say no more!). They are running a very cool speedster on a 33 Auburn frame, but with a Buick 8 engine – with four carbs, AND two head fairings! Hmm, sounds a LOT like the one I expected to be driving here, too. Great minds think alike? You be the judge:

Hey, Have you ever noticed that Finnish (language and names) have excess vowels? And that left Eastern Europe with excess consonants! I think it’s a clear case of a Vowel Movement (to Finland) and Consonantal Drift (to Poland and Slovakia). Silly joke- it must be very late.  Anyway – nice Speedster, WTF.  Very nice.

Tomorrow we push on to North Carolina.  I suppose we’ll have to pass through the Great Dismal Swamp! That will add humidity to the heat!  Bring it on.   jc