David Rollinson Rides Bike Cross Country

by Josh Hagy
Local News Editor

Copyright 2006, Covington Virginian-Review. Used with permission.
Saturday, August 5, 2006. Page One.

It is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

A journey of 3,000 miles, however, requires a bicycle.

David Rollinson, of Clifton Forge, recently completed a cross country bicycle trek spanning nine states and 3,950 miles in just 48 days.

"It was an amazing trip. It really reaffirmed my thought that this is a great and beautiful country," David said. "And there's a lot of space out there."

David's journey actually began in Roanoke with the purchase of a new bike. "I saw a guy advertising for a bike with all the racks and gear in Roanoke, so I went and tried it out and it fit me," he explained. "So I bought it, broke it down and mailed it to a bike shop in San Francisco."

One airplane trip later and David was in San Francisco assembling his bike.

"I went to the bike shop, put the bike together and rode around the city for a while, taking in the sights" he said.

That night, David came to grips with just how daunting the challenge he set for himself really was.

"I think I was more nervous that night than at any other time in my entire life. I was really, really scared. I sat in the hotel room and just thought about what I was going to do."

"Then the next day, I got up and started. I felt better about it after I started moving," David said.

He left San Franciso June 9 on the Western Express, a bicycle trail laid out by the Adventure Cycling Association that would take him from California to Pueblo, Colo. At Pueblo, David picked up The TransAmerica Trail, which would take him from Colorado all the way to Assateague.

All in 48 days.

"I got sick at a campsite in Nevada, or it would've been 46 days," he said. "I stayed in a hotel in Eureka, Nev., for two days. After that second day, there wasn't a day when I wasn't pedaling a bike. It was pretty much non stop after that."

Between California and Virginia, David spent nights camping along the road, staying in the occasional hotel and even the houses of people who would open their home up to bikers who were following the trail.

According to David, it was an unforgettable experience.

"There were some extremes," he said. "I encountered snow crossing over the Sierra Mountains. There were days of 100 to 110 degree heat in Colorado. There were headwinds in Kansas that made it feel like I was going uphill all day and then there was eight inches of rain in three days in Missouri."

"Physically, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and it was tougher mentally than I expected. There were a couple points early on when things happened and I just sat back in said 'Wow, I really wasn't expecting that.'"

One of those moments was getting sick in Eureka.

"I really wasn't expecting that. It was a definite low point," he said.

The road was filled with high points as well.

"There were a lot of nice, wonderful people out there," said David. "They all had stories to tell. The trail was mostly along back roads and places like that so I came up on a lot of small towns. It really made me feel at home."

"I discovered I am partial to Virginia," he added. "I got to ride through parts of the state I'd never been to before and I discovered how beautiful a place we live in."

For David, one of Virginia's treasures was June Curry, the 85-year-old woman who lives on Afton Mountain and is affectionately known to bikers as "The Cookie Lady."

"She's been there for a long time, since this trail was made in 1976," explained David. "She's got a little cabin for bikers to stay in and she's got Polaroids of almost every biker who's been on the trail. She has albums full of thousands of people. It was pretty cool that I now have a picture there. My own little piece of history," he called it.

She'll tell you that if you leave her place before eight o'clock, just to slide the key under the mat. Then she'll tell you, "Don't leave, I want to talk to you." I was there with a couple other people. After eight, we all pulled chairs out to the front of her house and she sat and told us stories for about an hour. It was great," he said.

Experiencing this trip moved David to keep a journal.

"I kept a journal for the first time in my life on this trip. I really wish I had a tape recorder, though. Some of the sounds were magical, especially out in the desert where there is absolutely no sound at all. I opened a sleeve of crackers and the noise was deafening," he said.

That journal may someday be the first draft of a book detailing the journey.

"I've had a couple people suggest I write a book about this and tell me they'd read it when I did. I guess I never really thought about it, but I might do it," said David.

His parents, Lon and Sue, and brother John were on hand to meet him as the ride came to an end on Virginiaís eastern shore.

"I think I'm ready to go to work now," he said, looking back over his trip. David, a 2002 Alleghany High School graduate, received his bachelor degree in mechanical engineering in the spring from Carnegie Mellon University and is now employed by RedZone, a robotics company in Pittsburgh, Pa.

David actually accepted the position before graduating college with the agreement that he wouldn't start until after the bicycle trip. "They were really supportive of the whole thing. They even called to check up on me while I was out there."

Even though he's ready to enter the working world, David says he is still more than ready for another trip.

"If anything, this really whetted my appetite for long rides," he explained. "Now that I know I can do it, I find myself wanting to do it again. It would be awesome to do this in a different country.

"But yes, I'll definitely keep doing this."

Photos Copyright 2006 by David Rollinson.
More pictures on Facebook: Album 1, Album 2, Album 3. [Links no longer work, October 2019.]

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