May 27, 2002
4 min. read
This post is part of the Trans-Am series.
This post is almost entirely pictures. I spent two days at the bike house and filled up my 1 GB memory cards more than a few times. Yes, yes. Those of you from the future are rolling your eyes at 1 GB. Even I am a little as I’m posting this to the new site. But 1 GB WAS big in 2002.
The bike house is really hard to describe. You can spend a full day trying to see everything in it and read all the notes and not get done. Luckily, some bad storms hit and I decided to stay. While it was hard to narrow all the pictures down to just one post, I hope this gives you just a little taste of how extraordinary it is to see the Cookie Lady Bike House “museum”.
You enter the house from the uphill side into a small entry room. This is a closed in, mostly weather proofed porch. The sign in book is here and this room is open, even if the bike house is locked.
The next room is filled with all sorts of hanging memorabilia. Items that cyclists have written on an left over the last 26 years. Here the polaroid photo books sit on a table along with address labels for June so you can write back.
She told me that she hasn’t ever been far from this mountain. But the world came to her. It was in this room that I stored my bike out of the rain on Memorial Day. You can see a shot through the door into this room at the beginning of my Day 8 journal.
Following are photos of many things in this room.
The rest of the house is two large rooms and the kitchen, which is stocked with enough food to feed a small army. The fridge also contains a variety of prepared drinks. I had a mix of food that I packed in and some from here over the two two nights I spent here.
It was great to have a variety without having to pack the weight. Pots and pans are there and a stove to use that you didn’t have to light.
The middle room of the bike house is filled with an unfathomable number of post cards. There are also articles and cards. The final back room has a bicycle and other items all along the wall. I’ll let wide pictures of the two main rooms in the house do my talking.
Hopefully you enjoyed the virtual tour.
Postscript
In early 2015, I flew into Charlottesville, VA for a one day business trip. We had planned to have a meeting around lunch, but the coworker that was meeting me there had connecting flight issues and was delayed. I had the rental car and had a few hours to kill. The only thing I could think of was to head to Afton and see the Bike House. Unfortunately, my camera was failing on my phone and it didn’t focus. I was able to find this photo of the memorial.
June Curry passed away in July of 2012. I really had hoped to see her again, but never made it back to Afton. I met the new owner, who said that many cyclists had been by this season and even that day. When I stepped into the bike house, memories flooded back to me and it was almost as if I was back in 2002. It is something not to be missed on a Trans-Am tour.
But June will be missed.
Part 12 of 48 in the Trans-Am series.
Series Start | Day 8 - Memorial Day in Afton, VA | Day 9 - Afton almost to Vesuvius, VA