Day 7 - Wrapping Up

62 Miles The Route

Our offsite wrapped up today with presentations from all the division chiefs on what their division did and introducing (now?) their teams. We were done by 10 am. The Austin crew took off for the airport and the rest of us were invited to attend an optional conversation with Rich and Joe. I don't think anyone took them up on the optional session because as I was headed out the front door with my bike, Rich was checking out and Joe was headed out to his car.

My plan was to follow Bike Route 1 back. I rode down to Canal and 2nd, which was certainly where Bike Route 1 southbound picked up, but it wasn't at all clear that that's where the northbound side picked up. I could have backtracked southbound for a ways then picked up the signs for the northbound, but being far too lazy for that I decided to simply retrace my ride from Monday until I picked up the northbound route. A couple of miles later I picked up the route and was happily pedaling my way back into the countryside.

The weather was great except for an on-again, off-again headwind (which wasn't too back except a few times when it got rather strong). I stopped in Ashland for spaghetti and meatballs and fill up the water bottles. US Bike Route 1 and Route 76 parallel for a ways in Ashland, which was interesting.

After Ashland, nothing but farmland, rural homes and trains. I was glad I packed extra water, or I would have had to resort to knocking on doors asking homeowners for water. There were no convenience stores, general stores, gas stations, hotels, motels, etc. I was hoping to find a motel as I got back close to the the "other" Route 1 and I-95, but there was nothing, and I knew there wasn't going to be anything else along the route until I got to Fredericksburg some 20 miles further up the road. So when the odometer hit 50 miles and the clock went past 6 pm I decided I'd better break off from the route and look for accomodations.

I rode back to Route 1 and headed north. I thought that sooner or later I'd hit a crossroad that would have access to I-95 and would stand a better chance of finding a motel.

Now I know you're thinking, why didn't I just look up a hotel in advance. I should have done more research, but I wasn't sure where the Bike Route 1 went exactly and I figured that surely I would have run across some small town somewhere along the route. Shouldn't assume!

Anyway, about 10 miles up Route 1 I hit civilization, a large strip mall with a Food Lion and, just down the road to I-95 a Quality Inn hidden behind several fast food establishments and a couple of gas stations. My milage as I rode up to the motel was 60.9...pretty remarkable as my goal for today had been to do more than 60.

I got a room, dropped my gear then rode back to the strip mall for carbonated water and Chinese, then slept 10 hours.

Day 6 - Presentations (Riverside Ride)

17 Miles The Route

The teams presented our customer service and business process improvement suggestions this morning, followed by Jon Wooditch giving an interesting presentation of the history of 53, highlighting the idea that we're constantly changing. Someone passed me a note with something like "translation: stop complaining about BPD".

I think all of the presentations referenced the SharePoint in some way. I think I heard both yesterday and today a universal desire to have a service directory of some kind on the portal, which is great. I've been thinking about how best to start that. We of course started the OIG Services directory some time ago, but I think we need something more structured. I should have plenty of time to think about it on the way home...tomorrow.

Several presentations from IT which were good but got way too technical for most everyone and I think left more people confused than enlightened. Not the speakers' fault...just impossible subject matter.

This afternoon was diversity which was very interesting. Diversity is no longer just about achieving racial integration in the workplace. It's all about integrating differences in culture, education, background, age, experience, etc. They played a very interesting video that made the business case for diversity, drew parallels from nature and presented success stories. Very good presentation.

Concluded the day with a video montage on VA wheel chair olympics which was very moving and really helped put a face on who we're ultimately working for.

I picked up my laundry today and was stunned at the price. $15 for wash & fold for two polo shirts, one pair of shorts, one pair of trousers and two briefs. I could have gotten that done at the hotel for about $20.

I've decided to bike back on the US 1 bike route. Part of my ride down turned out to be on the US 1 bike route, so I'll be going back over some of the same ground. I'm going to try to define the route and put it up in bikely.com because I'm having a hard time finding out what the actual route is.

For today's ride I decided to take the US 1 bike route south and see what it looked like and maybe try to put it into bikely.com as well. Turns out to be a very scenic ride. Pictures follow.

Day 5 - Getting Down to Business

18 Miles No defined route

Today was work..

We spent the day in breakout groups coming up with suggestions to improve customer service and business processes. Given that we're all very new at this I think we did a good job. We came up with a few good suggestions that we'll present tomorrow.

Our very last hour was...well...interesting. Rich got up to speak about his plans to retire early next year (exact date still being determined by his wife) and then announced that since this all-hands conference was going to be the only occasion that all of us were together in the foreseeable future, he was going to go ahead and celebrate his retirement with us by having cake and refreshments. He went on to deliver a retirement type speech for the better part of the hour. We then broke up and he cut the cake and we all had cake and refreshments and celebrated his retirement...5 months early.

No notable quotes today, but from yesterday...

In speaking about dealing with customers, one of our videos from yesterday recommends "Use your personality. If you don't have a personality, borrow one from someone who has one and likes their job."

"Anything we do should be adding value." --George Opfer

Today's ride was just riding around. I rode out to Richmond International Airport and climbed a couple of very steep hills. Most of the ride was in heavy traffic, no shoulders...not horrible, but nothing like yesterday. I think tomorrow I'll head back down Osborne Turnpike and try to ride through Richmond Battlefield Park.

George Washington on the Richmond Capitol Grounds

Day 4 - Cookie Day (Ride to Osborne Pike Boat Landing)

22 Miles The Route

Our first full day. We kicked off the day with our introductions. Several of the speakers walked all the way up to the front of the room to speak while others just stood in place, which I thought was very interesting for some strange reason. Most of the speakers did very well. I immediately realized that I didn't interview my person nearly well enough. Ah well, go with what you got. I enjoyed hearing about everyone.

This was followed by two customer service videos then presentations from Rich, Joe, Mr. Opfer. The first video was basic retail/business customer service that kept reminding me very strongly of the customer service episode from The Office (BBC). The second was on internal customers within a government agency...very appropriate for us. This was immediately followed by Rich who introduced Opfer who spoke and took questions. Rich followed that with a presentation of his own ideas on customer service, and then Joe sharing some of his experiences.

In the afternoon we split up into our breakout groups after enjoying cookies supplied by the hotel (one cookie each please). My group was led by Joe who spent a lot of time reading comments (sounded like just selected phrases from comments). For example he would tell us that one comment said our staff member was "professional" while another comment said our staff member was "rude and abrasive" and then sort of emphasize the idea that "professional" was good while "rude and abrasive" was maybe not so good. This was followed by our taking a personality test, the "Parker Team Player Survey" meant to "identify your style, assess your current strengths, and create a plan for increasing your effectiveness as a team player." Sadly we ran out of time and had to wrap up before everyone had tallied up their score (which was confusing). Turns out I'm more of a collaborator and communicator than a contributor or challenger.

After a bike ride and a chance to digest this afternoon I'm starting to get a little apprehensive about where we seem to be headed. Rich and Joe seem to have a very good sense of what constitutes good customer service, and they seem very confident that they are practicing good customer service, but I'm wondering about their ability to lead us in achieving good "team" customer service. In a sense I think I'm hearing them say "I do good customer service. You need to do it too. Here's what it looks like. Now go do it." I'm wondering if what we're really lacking here is someone who can teach us. Ah well, we'll see I guess.

After we were dismissed for the evening I raced up to get changed and get out for a ride. I got all the way outside before I noticed a flat rear tire, first one of the trip. A staple. I went for a great ride down Osborne Turnpike to the Osborne Pike Boat Landing.

Day 3 - Ashland to Richmond (The offsite begins)

21 Miles The Route

It was a pleasant and short ride from Ashland down to Richmond, gradually becoming more urban and congested. When I checked into the hotel they didn't want me to take my bike upstairs to the room, insisting instead that I "secure it" with the bell staff. I left it locked in their utility room while I went upstairs to drop my bags in the room. I later came back down and took it up to my room.

The conference started today with an hour-long session at 4 pm followed by an invitation to the hospitality suite. Everyone received a portfolio with a differently colored name tag which will be used to determine breakout group membership. Rich made introductory remarks followed by Joe who talked about the mission of the VA and the IG and the various directorates within the IG and how the IG is important to the veterans we serve and how we are important to the IG, saying that "We have an unsung role, but an indespensible role". It's true...I can drink that Koolaide.

We concluded by dropping our names into a basket that Jennifer carried around the room. She gave a pen to everyone who dropped their nametag into a basket. Then the basket was passed again and we had to pick a name and repick if necessary to get the name of someone we didn't know well. Our mission for tomorrow is to introduce the person whose name we picked. The meeting broke up with us all racing around trying to meet and interview our subjects.

Memorable Quotes
"We are the pimple on the elephant's rear end." -- Joe
"Young Joe Vallowe is ready, willing and able to take over and will do an outstanding job." -- Rich, talking about his planned departure early next year.

Cellphone rings during the presentations: 2

Day 2 - Fredericksburg to Ashland

58 Miles The Route

Got off to a leisurely start this morning with a side trip to Olde Towne Bikes to see if I recognized any faces and to purchase a mirror. Olde Towne Bikes runs two stores, one in Fredericksburg and one in Woodbridge. It was into the Woodbridge store that I walked in several years ago and told the sales person, "Don't laugh - I want to buy a bike and ride across America". I've been a regular customer ever since, but had never been to their Fredericsburg store.

Fredericksburg Battlefield Park

As fate would have it, Dan, the man who sold me the very bike I was riding (well, except that I had the forks replaced after the big crash a few years ago, and then more recently had the frame replaced) was there. Dan used to work in the Woodbridge store but then disappeared a couple of years ago. He remembered me and he and another customer took a look at my planned route to Ashland and gave me a few pointers. I wasn't planning to ride but a very small stretch of Route 1, but they both felt Route 1 south of Ladysmith was safe enough to ride all the way to Ashland if I wanted too.

Fredericksburg Battlefield Park

I rode back down through old town Fredericksburg to get back to my route which took me almost immediately into Fredericksburg Battlefield Park which was a great ride. Very quiet, shaded, beautiful woods and very little vehicular traffic (a fair number of cyclists and joggers though). My route took me all the way to the end of the park where the pavement ended and I had to ride down a fairly rugged dirt and gravel trail that was blocked in two places by fallen trees. Battlefield Park was the highlight of my day.

The backroads are amazing

I rode through some of the most scenic, beautiful countryside today. Beautiful wooded areas where there was lots of shade and the temperature was much cooler than out in the sun.

Rehydrating on the front porch of a country store

The last part of my route took me several miles down Route 1. There were a few sections that had a foot or two of shoulder but most of it was no shoulder at all. Traffic was light and most everyone moved over to give me plenty of room as they passed. There were a lot of rolling hills along this section of Route 1, a few of which were pretty challenging. I think I'll look for an alternate route on my way back.

Day 1 - Home to Fredericksburg

43 Mile The Route

It's finally started and it feels great to be on the road again.

Kelsey and I went to the midnight release of Breaking Dawn last night, so I treated myself to a sleep-in this morning thinking that I could still finish up my pre-departure "to do" list and maybe hit the road by 11:00. I didn't end up pedaling up the street until after 2:00. I kept finding "one more thing" I had to do.

I stopped at the end of the street to take a picture of my ride in front of Station 17 (where many great rides begin and end). Just before I left home I decided to "fly the colors" this trip and mounted my flags. There are a lot of narrow twisting back-roads on this trip and flags flapping behind me (or simply hanging there...I'm not the fastest rider in the world) would make me more visible.


I headed down Route 1 through Dumfries then cut through Quantico. Route 1 from 234 to Joplin Road is high volume but relatively low speed with bits of shoulder and sidewalk to work with most of the way. South of Joplin Road it gets back up to 55 MPH with no shoulder past the Marine C0rps Museum.

From Quantico to just North of Frederick (after crossing back over I-95 and Route 1) it was just hot. Very little respite from the sun. After that however I passed through a lot of tree-lined back roads where the tree branches met over the road and provided lots of shade. Ahh...

Tree lined road in Fredericksburg

When I hit Fredericksburg I found a very nice bike lane with a lot of bike-friendly road signs instructing drivers to yield to cyclists and share the road. I'd heard that Fredericksburg was a nice place to ride. I was also starting to get a little bonky. By the time I hit the hotel I was really dragging.

Fortunately Pattye came down with chinese food and rapsberry sorbet to revive me.