Tuesday, June 23, 2009
8: Old Hills and New Friends
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| Stoker's Log Day Eight |
| 6/23/09 |
| From Donegal, PA |
| To Washington, PA |
| 52 miles |
| ? avg mph |
There have always been things I dislike about my homestate: Philadelphia sports teams, for example. But I never truly hated being in PA until this trip. How did I never notice the state's horrendous hills? And why do they never end? We didn't cover a lot of mileage today, which let us get in before dark for once, but it was still a hard ride. I don't know how many more mountains we (and our knees and the blisters from our knee braces) can take.
We also discovered this evening that we've been slowed for two days or more by a mechanical problem: the wheel is out of true, or spinning crooked, and rubbing against the frame. The misalignment explains our speedometer malfunction. It has also been slowing us down, as if we were riding with the brake half on. The Appalachians would have been beastly climbs regardless, but we managed to make them even harder. I can't decide if I'll be elated or depressed if tomorrow is significantly easier now that Kyle has fixed the problem. I'm just relieved he was able to fix it, especially since the bike shop that we were counting on in Mt. Pleasant (which was much steeper than it was pleasant) was without their mechanic for the day.
We did, however, make several new friends. At the Sheetz we met Mick, a motorcyclist and retired steel worker who told us which roads to avoid and offered his phone number if we ran into any trouble. We also bought really cheap chocolate bars from the friendly owners of a closing mini-market. I'm pretty sure Kyle's favorite moment of the day, however, was when we stopped by a Humane Society with cages open to the street. It was full of loud, aggressive dogs... except for two quiet ones: a black lab and a german shepherd, the two breeds Kyle wants to adopt. I'm not convinced that he didn't set up the whole thing...
I found animal friends as well; I stopped to take a few photos of cows and suddenly the whole herd was wandering over to say hello. Those bovines do love the limelight.
We made it to Washington in time to go to dinner when normal people go to dinner, which was very exciting. Unfortunately we had to follow our satisfying meal at a chinese buffet with a marathon of laundry... hand washed in the ice bucket. Fun times.
I don't know if all of it will be dry by tomorrow, so we could be starting a long day in wet clothes. But whatever happens throughout this long adventure I can always take solace in the important message brought to me by my poorly written fortune cookie.
| posted at: 07:27 |
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