Tuesday, June 30, 2009
After a quick stop for breakfast, we were off to Richmond. While this would be a short day, we figured it would take us a while to get out of Ohio due to some stops we needed to make. But before we even made it out of Vandalia Kate and Justin had to hunt us down - we'd left a water bottle in the hotel room. Thanks guys!
Just west of Vandalia we passed through Englewood, which seemed like a nice town to make our stops in, and possibly the only other town we'd see before lunch. Our first stop was at Aldi's, where we picked up some awful tasting granola bars that we eventually threw away and a new bag of bagels. Although we rarely actually stopped to eat our bagels, we always try to keep a bag with us, in case we're ever stuck somewhere that we're starving or can't find other food. I think of it as a $2.39 a week insurance policy.
In addition to new groceries we also had to stop at Goodwill. Jillian keeps freezing at night when we go out to eat and she never has any warm clothing to wear. She keeps insisting she needs a big sweatshirt to wear at night, but I keep insisting there's no room (there isn't). She's also looking for a pair of modesty shorts - shorts to wear on top of her spandex when we stop somewhere to eat during the day. She eventually found both a black sweater and a pair of blue "balla" shorts, which are just blue basketball shorts that go down to her knees. Unfortunately I didn't think to get a picture at the time, but she walked out of the store singing "I Wish" by Skee-Lo.
The rest of the day was... boring. Winds picked up again, though not as bad as the day before, meaning we had slow going for a long time. Everyone always assumes that hills will be the worst part of a trip, but they're not. On a hill we might move three miles an hour, roughly the same speed we walk. But at least there's an end to it, and you know you'll reach it eventually. Wind is invisible, and it slows us down to a crawl with no reward in sight. It was so demoralizing that we took any opportunity we could find to stop. The day before we'd ridden three or four miles out of our way for a Wendy's and an opportunity to hide the bike on the leeward side of a building. Today we stopped at a park and hid near a tree.
There was nothing to see anywhere we rode, so we took to making up songs for each other. None of them were very good, but they kept us amused.
We reached Lewisburg in time for lunch, where we stopped at Sarah's Subs and Pizza.
Inside we had conversation with friendly ODOT workers, which was a nice change after the ridiculously mean ODOT woman we spoke to a few days ago. Food was wonderful and reasonably priced.
Unfortunately it wasn't long before we were off and riding in the heat and wind again. We passed through Gettysburg, which shared a town name with the town where we'd gone to college. Unfortunately this Gettysburg wasn't really much of a town, not even having a gas station for us to use.
Not too many miles later we passed into Indiana.
We'd planned to ride a few miles into town but we passed a Day's Inn that was advertising a good price and wifi. We couldn't pass it up, even though it would add another few miles to the ride tomorrow. Unfortunately we had to hand wash clothes to wear tomorrow. But there was a Cracker Barrel across the street, which made for a filling place to have dinner.
We also started seriously considering if we could seriously do this trip. We looked through all our maps, studying places in Wyoming and Kansas that seemed empty (130 miles without services?). After two days of punishing wind where we couldn't make any progress, as well as serious saddle pain, we had good reason to doubt ourselves. Across the street from our hotel was a UHaul - meaning it'd be easy to rent a truck, throw the bike in the back and drive home. But Jillian decided there was no way we were going to quit unless the bike was broken. So we decided that we'd at least make it to St Louis, so we could at least say we crossed the Mississippi. Tonight is probably the lowest point we've had on the trip.
| posted at: 08:30 |
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Monday, June 29, 2009
After bidding farewell to Jillian's parents (and enjoying an amazing Hampton Inn breakfast), we had to start the day with another sprint through construction, but this time on a Monday morning. Unpleasant, but at least we didn't lose our chain.One thing that surprised us was how rapidly Columbus disappeared. One moment we were riding in the suburbs of Columbus, dealing with big box store traffic, the next we were riding past llamas.
There really wasn't a lot to see in this part of Ohio - just miles and miles of corn. But every so often our travels took us through a small town. One of them even featured Ronald!
We saw more Mail Pouch barns.
Then the winds started to blow. Then I got miserable. Riding into a strong wind means that you start conserving energy, which takes weight off your legs and puts it on your butt. Before long, I was really hurting. Jillian was kind enough to switch with me for a little while (though it was probably in her best interest as well, since I was in a really foul mood).
While Jillian was captaining we even outran a dog. To celebrate, we stopped and got an Freeze.
Then there was more wind. This really slowed us down, because we'd go between four and five mph, when it felt like we should be going twenty. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, we arrived in Springfield. Jillian got really excited about Springfield, because it's the home of Wittenberg University - the school Hamlet attended. After initially missing it, we backtracked with the Garmin and found our way back to campus. Unfortunately the bookstore we closed, but we still took some photos.
Then we were back on the bike to fight traffic instead of wind. We stopped a few miles out of town to take a picture of some sun rays. They were pretty awesome, but it was very difficult to capture.
We arrived in Vandalia a little after dinner, and received a room with very appropriate art at the Super 8.
My friend Kate lives up in Findlay, so her boyfriend Justin and her came down for a visit. Justin is an avid cyclist, but he wasn't able to help us with our headset problem that was causing very shaky handlebars. They took us out to dinner and we split the hotel room for the night, since they were on their way to North Carolina for a few days.
| posted at: 08:29 |
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Somehow we managed to convince Anne to drive us to the Marne Methodist Church (where we'd quit for safety reasons three nights before) at sunrise. Imagine our surprise when her entire family was up and made us breakfast. They even gave us cookies to take with us! Staying at Anne's was amazing.
We managed to get a sunrise departure with nice weather. We were hopeful that nothing bad would happen today, since we were trying to make it to Columbus early enough to meet up with Jillian's parents, who were in town to see a minor league baseball game.
The ride started well. We had a nice bike trail from Marne to Newark, without any traffic. It was just the cobwebs - every hundred yards one of us would get a new cobweb in our face.
Riding on the bike path also meant it was fairly flat. We kept a really good pace through Newark, which had incredibly weird parking spaces in the middle of the street.
As we were leaving the area we suddenly hit hills. Nothing too long, but really steep. After two days of not riding at all, my knees gave out. Imagine our embarrassment at having to walk a hill in Ohio. But after that minor setback, we were able to keep a pretty good pace all morning. It was a good thing too, because I made a wrong turn on OH-37 and we ended up taking US-40 into Columbus instead of OH-16, as I'd originally planned. It ended up not mattering which way we took, since we were crossing through the city on a Sunday morning.
As we crossed through downtown, which had some really pretty neighborhoods, we were passed by a Volvo with Pennsylvania plates. Jillian's parents were on their way somewhere when they saw us and puled over. Unfortunately the donut shop we were outside of was closed, so after saying hello we were on our way again. We decided to meet at the hotel we'd all be staying at to the west of town.
West of I-70, west of Columbus, US-40 gets to be a traffic mess and the neighborhood gets to be a little rough (We found out the next day that there were a bunch of cars set fire that night where we'd been riding). I got sick of it quickly, so we turned north and rode Fisher Rd, which was much more pleasant. Unfortunately, that meant Jillian's parents didn't see us again on their way back to the hotel. It took us some time to get there too, since there was some unpleasant road construction without a shoulder. When we're in a situation like that and there isn't too much construction we've found the best strategy is to ride as hard as we can and try to keep up with the cars. This worked pretty well until our chain came off. Fortunately we were able to coast the rest of the way to the hotel. Jillian's parents got very confused about why we weren't pedaling and were going so slow.
Then we got to be tourists in Columbus. First stop was the Franklin Park Conservatory. They had some really awesome glass work by Chihuly.
We walked through the butterfly garden.
We wandered around and looked through the different biome rooms, which were fun. Then it was off to the ball game. But first we got to see a little bit more of the city.
At the game, Jillian made me act happy. In reality I was quite happy, just exhausted. Bike touring is exhausting.
One of the most awesome in between inning shows ever... Quickchange! Here they are before he throws confetti on her:
And here they are after:
They changed outfits probably a dozen times at a few different points in the show.
Jillian's father has an unfortunate curse where all the games he goes to go into extra innings. Around inning 12 or 13 we left, with the score still tied. Normally we would have stayed, but we needed to get dinner and go to bed so we could get up early. After driving back to the hotel and looking around a bit, we settled on Applebees.
After dinner Jillian and her mother went searching for a knee brace at Walmart (no luck). Jillian's father and I moved Jillian and my stuff to our room (it had been too early to check in when we'd first arrived), and then I was sound asleep in moments.
| posted at: 08:29 |
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Saturday, June 27, 2009
After an incredibly restful night at Anne's house we rose to a marvelous breakfast. I love breakfast. Then, while getting the tour of the garden, I played with the cat. Jillian took photos.
Then we were off to the bike shop. First task of the day was to get the wheel fixed. After several days of constant work at keeping the back true there was a chance we could put a new tire on the back wheel and avoid having any tire rub. Before we'd gotten there, Anne did a bunch of research and found a shop that worked entirely on recumbent and tandems. So we threw the bike back in the truck, Anne left for work, and her mother drove us to the bike shop.
Our tire had an unusual wear pattern. Good tread up on the outside of the tire, but well worn on the side wall.
We left the bike at the shop to fix the wheel and investigate our chain, which by now was actually looking brown. On our way back to the house we actually experienced some car problems, as a brake locked on the truck, causing a good deal of smoke as we pulled into the driveway. Fortunately it turned out to not be too big of a deal - otherwise it would have been hard to pick the bike back up.
While we were in Granville we met with Bob Rush, a local cyclist who had completed a number of long tours. He had a lot of advice for us, notably a route to St Louis. We decided to follow his advice, and until St Louis we'd be following US-40. The only tricky spot would be in Indianapolis, where drivers are rumored to be rude and some neighborhoods are known to be bad. He recommended stopping at a bike shop just inside the Indianapolis beltway, but I decided the better option might be to just ride through the city really early.
After receiving a lot of helpful advice Jillian started blogging and I took a seat on the easy chair in the living room.
Several hours later, Jillian woke me up to go pick up the bike.
The bike shop had determined the real problem of our rubbing was the size of the tire. We had been using a 2 1/4 tire, which gave us less than 3/16 clearance on either side. Our new tire would be 1 1/2, meaning we'd no longer be rubbing and giving us less resistance on the road. We also discovered that the chain wasn't bad, it was just very poorly lubed. Those problems fixed, we loaded the bike in the truck and were off to be tourists. Anne's mother drove us out to Newark to see the Longaberger Basket Headquarters. It fit perfectly with our random buildings (shoe house, giant coffee pot).
Unfortunately, we arrived too late to see the inside. We tried peering through the windows longingly, but it didn't really work.
Then we got a brief tour of Newark, which highlighted the bike path we'd be riding to get out of town. Our next stop was the library where Anne works. They had an awesome arch.
We wandered around the library (which was very nice) and Jillian took a lot of pictures.
We switched vehicles, and Anne's mother took the bike home while we went with Anne to the barn. As we pulled into the barn driveway, I heard a sound I loved. Dogs! And big ones!
Anne went off and did something with the horses. Jillian wandered away with her camera. I played with the dogs. Anne was working a new horse, so Jillian and I camped out on some chairs and took pictures (and played with the dogs, when they weren't hiding in the shade).
Eventually I was able to talk Jillian into brushing a dog for a photo. She was smiling through, so I think she enjoyed it.
Jillian also got to feed a horse (when it behaved).
The horses were fun, but it was time to get some ice cream. We went into town and got some delicious ice cream with the dogs, who hungrily ate their own dog sized ice cream at our table. On the drive home we received a tour of Denison University and Granville. Nice campus, pretty town. Apparently a bunch of New Englanders just packed up and moved to Ohio. Since they built the whole town together it has a kind of New England feel that Jillian and I both liked.
Dinner was delicious and afterward we went out with a few of Anne's friends, sharing crazy stories. It was a delightful way to end out first rest day in Ohio.
The next morning we got up in time to go to the farmer's market. On the way downstairs we noticed a ridiculously large spinning wheel. Anne has progressed from knitting to making her own yarn.
At the farmer's market we had some delicious lemonade and pastries. One of the really cool things about a lot of towns in this area were the brick streets. Apparently they run a bicycle race on this street every year. I can only imagine how that must go.
The pastries really were amazing, plus they had fruit on them. We at a ton of fruit at Anne's house. One of the problems with being on the road is a total inability to find healthy food. By the time we'd arrived at Anne's house we'd worked up massive cravings for fruits and veggies.
Back at Anne's house we were treated to a wedding present - massages! We actually got them outside at Anne's house, which was a very peaceful setting. Thank you Anne!
Right next to where we had our massages was the laundry rack. This was on it.
At a distance it looks disturbingly like a dead animal. But it was just wool drying. We decided that we'd just need to get Anne a sheep, so she could do the whole wool making process.
Anne took us back in to town to see the Newark Earthworks. The one we saw was the Great Circle, which at just over a thousand feet in diameter, is the largest. I stopped to read all of the signs.
Jillian took a lot of pictures, so I'd get bored and take pictures of her taking pictures. I call it metaphotography.
On the way back from the mounds we took a look at the grounds of the Bryn Du Mansion.
Then I took another nap.
After another delicious dinner, which was made extra delicious by the fact that it was grilled and not fried, like all the road food we ate, it was time for bed. Since we hadn't quite made it to Newark on the previous ride we'd need to do an extra 15-20 miles tomorrow, which meant a very early start.
| posted at: 08:29 |
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Since there isn't much between St Clairsville and Newark, we decided to ride the entire 115 miles or so to Anne's house. Since we both remember Ohio as flat, we were optimistic we'd be able to get it done in no time.
However, not being crazy, we also started at dawn, knowing this ride would take us a long time, especially since our back tire was still rubbing on the frame. No matter how much time I spent truing it, by an hour into the next ride we were out of true and rubbing.
There wasn't much to see early in the ride. Enjoy this picture of a large chair.
After Morristown US-40 merges with the highway, so we turned south on OH-149. For the most part it was a very pleasant ride, the back tire just kept worrying me. Eventually I managed to convince myself that the problem was how heavy we were. First solution was to try putting me in the front and Jillian in the back, in order to bring more weight onto the front tire.
Riding with Jillian as captain was a bit like riding in a kayak. The whole front of the bike kept shifting back and forth. After three or four miles I finally discovered that it was because of where she kept her eyes. She had a tendency to watch where the front of the bike was (the boom), and see if was staying centered on the line at the side of the road. Like driving, you actually go a lot straighter if you look at the road fifty or sixty yards ahead. Once we got that straightened out, things were a lot better.
After ten miles switched we came to Barnesville. Still worried about weight, we took all of our gear apart and put everything we thought we could do without in a box to mail home. Our frisbee, my Tevas, and my notepad all went. Unfortunately, since I'm actually writing this in early August, I don't remember most of the other items. But the important thing is that it came out to eight pounds of stuff. Eight pounds! But I also noticed that our wheel problems continued to worsen despite moving me to the front. We opted to switch back for the remainder of the ride.
We also noticed that Ohio isn't all flat.
The road we were taking didn't have much of a shoulder, but it didn't matter at all. The drivers in Ohio were nicer than anywhere else we'd been. They would always wait until it was safe before passing, they'd give you plenty of room, and they wouldn't honk.
We stopped in Quaker City for lunch at a park pavilion, where we were joined by town workers a few years younger than us. Quaker City was everything I had hoped for in small town Ohio. However, I might just be remembering this town because it had an amazing roadside experience - clean, almost new port-a-potties.
We rode a number of miles in picturesque farmland. It would have been a perfect ride if it had been just a bit cooler.
In order to cool off we stopped for ice cream at the Sugar Shack. They had a fun wall.
They also had exercise and stereo equipment in the separate building where you could eat in air conditioning.
Just before we reached I-70 and subsequently US-40 I spotted a bike trail off to the side of the road. We immediately hopped right on.
Shade, flat riding, fresh pavement - Ohio was amazing. We even had Mailpouch barns to look at.
In Cambridge we passed the Frisbee Motel. Tempting.
As we got out of Cambridge we ran into seemingly endless construction. Ten miles of single lane, no shoulder construction. To make things even better, we couldn't see even a single person working. After a mile of that, we got frustrated and rode through the center lanes.
This stressed me out, since I was all nervous about having highway speed traffic on either side of me. We stopped to calm me down at another S bridge.
Then we had more of the same. Note the grates on the shoulder. Perfect for destroying a wheel.
Finally we actually saw people doing work. The flag lady said we were only half way through and got incredibly offended, like we were the stupidest people in the entire world when we asked if we could ride in the closed lane. It was really offensive. There's no shoulder or shoulder with grates everywhere, traffic is moving at 60mph, and there's an empty lane? We saw maybe, maybe, 50 yards of construction.
Fortunately, Ohio drivers and incredible and no one ran us over. Many of them even drove through the closed lanes to get around us. I love Ohio drivers. I hate OHDOT.
We saw a lot of weird purple boxes on the side of the road, and had been wondering what they were since at least Somerset, PA. Anne's mother told us later they were to measure how infested the woods were with Emerald Ash Borers.
In Zanesville we were climbing a hill when Jillian saw a billboard that said, "Rates need lowering?" She said, "In Pennsylvania, that would say 'Rates need lowered?'" I thought she was referencing the fortune cookie from two nights previous. It turns out she was just referencing the way people in some parts of PA drop the to be verb. Eitherway, I laughed and nearly crashed the bike. Weird things get funny on the bike. They get extra funny going uphill.
We turned north up OH-146. It also started to sprinkle and we played what we call the Shelter Game. Every time one of us spotted something that could become shelter in a storm, we'd memorize the mileage so that we'd always know how far we might need to ride back to find a roof.
By the time we got to Nashport the storm had developed into a full on thunderstorm. We took shelter at a preschool with a couple of motorcyclists.
Knowing that it was less than twenty miles to Granville (where we hoped to stay), we made a break for it when the rain stopped. We rode on to a gas station at the intersection of 146 and 16. There we spoke with Anne, who offered to drive out and pick us up. Foolishly, we refused.
We rode a few miles further before the skies opened up on us. I spotted a spire and we headed to the Marne United Methodist Church. Fortunately they had a covered entryway big enough to drive under. We stashed our trailer there, put on the more clothing, and did a few laps in the parking lot in order to make our mileage say exactly 100 - Jillian had never ridden a century before.
We caved and called Anne, who drove through the most violent rain I've seen in a long time to pick us up. Lightening struck things on all sides of us. But Anne arrived with food! After a twenty minute ride to her house, she fed us even more before we took quick showers and crashed in the guest room upstairs.
| posted at: 08:02 |
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
We were pretty pumped to be riding today, since despite not doing a lot of miles we were going to do three states in a day.
However, we had this minor problem before we could go anywhere. None of the laundry was dry. Jillian hung things out on the bike, while I borrowed a hair dryer from the office (They're not in every room at Motel 6) and went nuts trying to dry clothes.
Our next quest was to try to find a bike shop, so that our wheel and handlebars could get fixed. We spent an hour riding around Washington looking for the bike shop. We did get to see Washington and Jefferson College, which looked very nice. In fact, most of Washington looked pretty nice, and the cops had sweet rides.
While we were searching for the bike shop, someone ran out of a coffee shop and shouted "Jillian and Kyle!" This confused us, since we don't know anyone in Washington. But we stopped, to find that Anne's mother (who we'll be staying with tomorrow night) was having coffee with a friend. It turns out that her friend Mrs Young had pointed out a funny looking bike, and her mother had put it all together. They treated us to coffee, conversation, and directions to the bike shop.
We set off, determined to find the bike shop. Unfortunately, all we could find at the address (even after calling Sheila, for more clarification) was a bank and a parking lot. Frustrated, we rode to Rite Aid.
Here Jillian decided to do something about her feet, so she bought 4 pair of insoles for her shoes (they were buy 2 get 2 or something - to be honest I don't remember the deal, but financially it made sense). So we chopped up the insoles with my knife and fit them to her shoes, only to find out they pushed her toes into the top of the shoe. They weren't going to work.
From Washington we got on US-40 West, which we were going to be riding most of the way to St Louis. 40 has a number of S bridges preserved. An S bridge is perpendicular to a stream, but at an angle to the road. They were cheaper to build than a bridge at an angle to the stream.
40 also has regular mile markers.
Not too long later we crossed into West Virginia. 40 follows the Little Wheeling creek to Tridelphia, where it turns north. West Virginia became the best ride we've had yet - it was all downhill, losing about 600 feet over about 9 miles.
Following the recommendation of a cyclist we came across, we stopped at the bike shop almost on the corner of WV-88 and US-40 after stopping for lunch at Subway. Unfortunately this bike shop couldn't repair anything for us, but they were kind enough to sell us a spare tire. Jillian also tried some cycling specific insoles from Nike, though they ended up not working either. The two very young employees of the shop were also kind enough to point us to the local bike path.
We followed their advice and got on the path less than a mile away from the shop. Unfortunately, this route isn't reflected in the map on the route page. Originally I'd planned on taking 40 through a tunnel and a town, but everyone said this would be very dangerous. The bike path followed the old railroad route.
The bike path got rather confusing, as parts of it were marked closed but not actually closed. We were very careful to watch what the locals were doing and just followed them. It took us over a bridge, through a tunnel, and past some really nice areas of Wheeling.
Wheeling was a very bike friendly city, and we were able to follow bike paths all the way to the riverfront.
I was very hopeful that Wheeling would turn out to be an awesome city, but unfortunately a lot of it seemed to be falling apart. But they did have some really awesome parks and minor league hockey.
The National Road goes across a really awesome bridge onto Wheeling island.
Remembering our experience at Washington Crossing, we opted to walk the bike.
Then we were on Wheeling island, which wasn't as nice as I'd hoped. We crossed into Ohio over another bridge not much later. From Bridgeport, ohio we rode right up and out of the river valley on 40, making pretty good time. It also meant we started and finished at almost exactly the same elevation.
We spent the night at a Super 8, nearly across from the Dennys where we had dinner.
| posted at: 07:29 |
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Today started with yet more rolling hills - nothing much interesting to report. Surprisingly enough, we still hadn't lost enough altitude, so before long we had yet another long downhill. Sadly, this was likely to be the very last one we had before the West.
Our first town of the day was Mount Pleasant. There was a bike shop here, and we were hoping to talk to someone about the shaky handlebars as well as pick up a spare tire and some tubes. Unfortunately, the guy that fixes bikes wasn't in, so we had no choice but to ride on, handlebars shaking a little more all the time.
This part of PA seems to have a series of steep, but not terribly long hills. It made for very painful riding, since we were really hoping that we were all done with the big hills. In between the hills are rivers. As we were riding into Monongahela, we raced a coal barge (We won)
Since it was well past time for lunch, we stopped at a Sheetz, where we had a lengthy conversation with Mick, a retired steelworker. Mick was very nervous about our riding 136, since traffic moves very fast and there's a very limited shoulder. He was right, but there also wasn't much traffic when we rode it. The terrain looked nice, but it was more rolling hills.
There was a lot of very picturesque farmland, and Jillian spent a lot of time shooting pictures of cows and hay bales. I tried to ride away, but she spotted me.
On our way into town we passed the SPCA during a a bit of construction. Anxious to get off the road a while, I decided we'd stop and look at the dogs. I fell in love with a certain German Shepherd, who was also the only quiet dog in the bunch.
We rolled into Washington pretty early, which was good, since we were entirely out of laundry. Jillian took charge of hand washing the laundry.
We found out the next morning that the motel had guest laundry and we just hadn't noticed. Meanwhile, I tried to fix the bike some.
We were having quite a bit of trouble with our wheel. The tire we had on the back was a little large, and there was less than 3/16 of an inch of clearance on either side. If we hit even one bump the tire was out of true and we'd rub. We had been rubbing for several days, and trying to true the wheel at every stop was becoming my new hobby. I also took a few moments to tune up some other things that had been bothering me a while.
Dinner was at the Chinese Buffet nearly across the street. Food was pretty good, but the fortune cookies were so much better.
| posted at: 07:29 |
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Monday, June 22, 2009
Originally we'd planned on riding to Washington, PA today, a distance of 108 miles. But after yesterday, we decided that sort of distance would be pretty much impossible. The new goal would be Donegal, PA, just sixty miles away. We also decided this would mean we could sleep in a bit and have a sit down meal downtown.
The owner of the motel we stayed at (I think it was Wild Bill, but I don't remember) recommended a bike shop and a restaurant in town. Our first stop was the bike shop. The handlebars were acting a bit shaky. The mechanic took a look at it, but he had no idea what the problem could be. Everything looked tight. So we rode on, with me in a bad mood. Next stop was the restaurant downtown. I wish I could remember the name, but all I really remember was this genius Velcro screen door which kept all the bugs out but made it easy to walk in and out.
Breakfast, which was quite delicious and very inexpensive, was rather slow. That gave us plenty of time to interact with people. First Wild Bill came in and was glad to see we'd followed his breakfast suggestion. Then we talked with quite a few people that were curious about the bike. Finally we talked with one woman who was so curious she called the paper, who came over and interviewed us (Read the Article). As we were riding away from breakfast we got caught up in another conversation with Wild Bill and his friend.
We weren't able to get going until almost 11, which got even later when we stopped at the Giant Coffee Pot.
Further on, we met a giant herald.
We did a lot of climbing on our way out of Bedford. A lot more than we expected.
We're hoping that Pennsylvania will have the worst hills of the trip and that we can get them over with first. We have talked with a lot of people that have gone cross country, and they all agree that the Rockies are really high and often have up to twenty mile long hills. But on those you just pick a low gear and ride for a few hours steady, then get a pleasant downhill. In PA, you get only 3-5 mile long hills, but they're up to twice as steep in places. The downhills feel short, and the minute you're down the hill you have to climb all over again. The hills aren't as tall, but they're even worse to ride. Sometimes you don't even get a nice view!
Wild Bill had warned us the hills to the West of Bedford were worse than the ones to the East. Foolishly, we didn't believe him. This was what we could see of what would become the worst hill we've done so far. At the top was one of these:
Except then there wasn't a downhill. It was level a minute, and then we were back uphill. We had to stop again soon.
We also passed a combination Bed and Breakfast/Vacuum Cleaner Repair shop. Finally we summited.
This was apparently the site of a ship hotel.
We apparently had not summited. We did another mile of climbing.
Finally we were at the top. Except we found that we were now in the Laural Highlands. There would be no huge downhill, we'd just stay up on top of a plateau for many hours. The road became very straight.
In the midst of a giant wind farm installation we found a Subway. It was very hot, so the Subway, with AC and cold drinks, was very appreciated. We turned off US-30 here, and headed past Indian Lake.
From there we went to the Flight 93 Memorial. It is on a quiet, windswept hill. No one talks, you simply stand on the hill, looking at what was left, and staring at the field where the plane hit.
After we left the memorial we realized that we were running out of time. We started riding really hard through rural Pennsylvania roads. One road we took had loose dogs at every turn. We had to mace our first dog, a chocolate lab. I felt awful, but we can't risk a dog attack again, and if the dog turns toward the bike either he or us can easily get hurt. Looking back on it, I really don't see another option, but I still feel bad.
Just before we got to Somerset, PA we stopped for some more water. We were both exhausted.
Unfortunately, we still had a long way to go. We ended up climbing another huge hill at twilight and barely making it off the Laural Highlands by dark. When we finally saw the Day's Inn Sign in Donegal, I don't think we could have been any happier.
We had dinner at a McDonalds, since it was the only thing open at 10:15. I'm not even sure that we talked during dinner, so much as we just stared at each other and wondered how a rest day turned into a second epic ride.
| posted at: 22:00 |
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Sunday, June 21, 2009
We started early today, knowing that no matter what we did, it was going to be a very long day. Directly west of Frederick are some pretty big hills. In fact, we think today will be one of the hardest days of this entire trip.
The first hill is one that I climb all the time. Roughly 650 feet over 2.8 miles. That's about a 4.8% average grade. We climbed it without any serious problems, and had a good time surveying the valley ahead of us.
After a brief stop in a park we were off to tackle climb two. Unfortunately, we could see this climb coming from a long way away, and the temperature had started to pick up. We had a short conversation here where we decided (perhaps out of Jillian's stubbornness) that we were going to do this ride, no matter what.
This climb ended up being 550 feet over 2.1 miles - again around 4.8%. Nothing too bad yet, but with the constant rolling hills between, we were feeling a little tired. At the bottom we stopped at a Sheetz for breakfast. Here we ran into some cyclists on their way to a race in Williamsport, MD. The were had also apparently been another race in Hagerstown. We were missing the races by a matter by a day, which is rather frustrating. They were impressed by what we were doing, as were impressed by them.
It's a long, flat road to Hagerstown, which was good. We ended up having to backtrack around the city a bit, since we had trouble finding the road we needed to get out. As we were headed out the weather started to look iffy, but by riding pretty hard all the way to Mercersburg, we were able to stay North of it.
We decided to stop in Mercersburg for lunch. First we rode to the Mercersburg Academy campus, which was beautiful.
We had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to eat in Mercersburg. We were there on a Sunday, and the entire town seemed empty. We finally found an open gas station, got some drinks, and then were off.
Our next stop was Buchanan's Birthplace State Park. We rode a little way off the road to it, but stopped soon because we were running out of time. We did snack on some food though.
Then we started the climb up Cove Gap. This climb worked out to 1150 feet over 3.1 miles - a 7% grade. It would have been a totally manageable hill, except for the trailer and the two previous climbs. For the first time in ten years I walked a bike on a hill. Not that far, only for maybe a quarter mile, but I was too tired to push it any farther. The view from the top was awesome.
From here we had a very fast downhill. Jillian tried to record it as a movie on the camera, but we're yet to see if the footage is any good. We did have a problem where halfway down the computer stopped recording speed. It seems that when our speed breaks 40mph, the computer stops working.
At the bottom was the town of McConnellsburg. There wasn't really much of a town, but I did insist on stopping for a Slushie. Then it was off to climb the next hill, which we could see coming all the way from town. This climb seemed to twist back and forth some. This climb came in two sections. The first was only 0.6 miles long, but at an average 7.8% grade. Again, I asked Jillian if we could walk the bike.
At the top of this first section, I noticed the handlebars were feeling a little shaky. If you're pushing a Pino, push by the stoker's seat - not the captains. The shaking isn't bad enough to really be worried about, but we definitely need to have it looked at.
Just half a mile later came the next section of hill - another mile at 6.5%. We climbed this one, and had a not so pleasant downhill, since it was getting late and we weren't sure if we'd make it to Bedford before 10pm, when the hotel closed up for the night.
At the bottom we had to decide if we were going to take the short, but steep, route to Breezewood or if we were going to take the longer route via the abandoned PA turnpike. Perhaps foolishly, we thought it'd be faster to take the turnpike. Unfortunately, the route we took involved a bunch of dirt roads. We'd been on the dirt road for three minutes when we were chased by a dog, which we outran. Riding on dirt got really old, really fast.
Soon we weren't really sure where we were. Fortunately we ran into a couple (and their dog) who did some cycling touring. They pointed us to the road we needed (which we had ridden past, not even seeing it hidden in the forest). This road led to another dirt road, which had a huge, stone covered hill. We walked the bike here too, but only because we couldn't find enough traction to keep going up the hill.
Eventually, we found pavement again.
A few miles later we hit the trail, which was very well marked.
It was a little eerie riding on an abandoned highway.
Even more eerie were the tunnels. The longest was about a mile, and had a crown to it, so that you couldn't see the end of the tunnel until you were close to halfway.
The miles between tunnels were spent avoiding large potholes and climbing easy grade hills. Finally, we reached Breezewood. I had originally intended for us to ride a circuitous route to Bedford, in order to avoid a highway, but now we were short on time. I called my parents and asked them to ask the PA State Police if it was legal to ride US-30 the whole way to Bedford. We rode on a little while before hearing back that yes, it was legal.
So we rode as hard as we could, since there was no way we were going to make it in before dark and a possibility we wouldn't make it before ten. Unfortunately, we got to Everett and discovered that you can't bike 30, you need to go through town. It looked like a nice place, but we had to fly through it.
We arrived in Bedford around 9:30 and started racing out of town toward the hotel. Jillian called her mother and had her call the hotel and beg them to stay open long enough for us to arrive. At 9:45 we coasted in and checked into Judy's Motel. Jillian hopped into the shower and I set off to find somewhere to get some food. Unfortunately, the pizza place (and only place to eat we saw) closed at 10 and I was a few minutes late. So I grabbed some refrigerated sandwiches and cheese from a gas station and walked back. It wasn't a pleasant dinner, but we were so tired and hungry we didn't care.
We also decided that although we didn't have an exact count on miles for the day (I found out later it was 102), there was no way we could do a 100 mile day the next day. So we decided to shorten our route and only travel to Donegal, PA. At only sixty miles, hopefully we'd get some rest.
| posted at: 22:00 |
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Saturday, June 20, 2009
Our plan was to take Friday the 19th off and then meet my parents the next morning for the ride to Bedford, PA. We had always planned to have a day off in order to change our gear and spend a little more time route planning. However, we hadn't realized just how badly we needed it.
One of our major problems was space. We had been packing our yellow BOB bag as full as we possibly could. Then we were strapping a backpack to the top of it to store food. Unfortunately, this meant that every time we stopped for Jillian to take a picture with her nice camera we had to take all our gear apart and dig her camera out. Similarly, our tools and rain gear were totally inaccessible. And there wasn't even really enough space for our food.
One of our first stops was Wheelbase, a local cycling shop within walking distance in Frederick (remember - we had no car). We bought a trunk rack as well as a Trek Interchange. Though it was the most expensive trunk we could buy, it was by far the largest and attached perfectly to both the rack and the bike. We wouldn't even need to mess with velcro straps. Our new plan is to put the camera, GPS, food and tools in the trunk where we can easily get to them. We also picked up a set of really dorky looking velcro straps that I can put on my calves to keep my rainpants from getting caught in the gears and chain.
While we were at Wheelbase we investigated the pain in Jillian's feet. The Achilles pain seems like it's caused by the sandal, so we're going to bring her regular mountain shoes with us. The knee pain is probably just overuse, and the hotspots don't seem to have much of a solution.
We also gave Emily a call and got her to drive us to Sports Authority for Jillian to pick up some clothes. We also thought about water. I was getting a little bit of back pain from the Camelbak. I was thinking about using a Camelbak Unbottle and simply strapping it to Jillian's seat. Unfortunately all the Unbottles they had were either damaged or discolored.
While we were out we also stopped at Target to get a bright orange duffel bag with a ton of exterior pockets. We're hoping this gives us a lot more packing options for our stuff.
I also stopped by the Trail House, the local outfitter downtown. We bought a cube, which is perfect for packing our maps, electronic gear, and travel towel. I also added a few mesh bags for the rain gear.
Unfortunately, it was looking like rain for Saturday. My parents had no intention of driving all the way to Frederick just to ride in the rain all day. We also didn't want to start the rest of our trip on a rain day. So we pushed everything back. This also meant we'd be able to hang out with a bunch of our friends that night, instead of going to bed early to prepare for a long ride.
We started with an awesome cookout with David's burgers, then rapidly moved on to scooter racing.
Then it was indoors, to lots of rock band.
Most of Saturday was spent doing some more last minute packing/shopping. To be honest, it's been a few weeks, so Jillian says we went to Target and Sports Authority this day instead of on Friday. It all kind of runs together. We also uploaded some photos on worked on the website some. It felt really good to rest. We also had a brief conversation about if we really were going to do the rest of this trip.
Then we were off to bed, since Sunday's ride would start very early. My parents would not be joining us, since they both had to be back at work on Monday. We were a little worried too, since tomorrow's ride features the first big hills we've seen.
| posted at: 22:00 |
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Thursday, June 18, 2009
Getting up this morning was really hard. We had a real bed and a hot breakfast waiting for us. Consequently, we didn't get started until after eight. For the first time all trip we were going to spend some time on familiar roads. In college I rode from Gettysburg to Lancaster and we'd be using many of the same roads to get to Frederick.
My strongest memory of that ride was the mile long bridge in Columbia and the steep climb into Wrightsville. Both of our knees were already hurting when we woke up, this hill about killed them. Then we had a few more miles to our next stop: The Haines Shoe House.
Apparently a shoe salesman became quite wealthy in the area and used the shoe house as both a guest house and an advertisement for his shoes. Though we'd both driven by it a dozen times, we had to tour it. The inside looked... like a house. There was also a shoe dog house.
It had also started to warm up. Fortunately, there was ice cream.
And then we were back on the road. We rode right through York, which had a ton of traffic. But fortunately we passed a Walmart, where Jillian bought a knee brace. In West York, they had awesome parking meters.
And then it got really hot. Just past York we stopped at a Sheetz and had a little picnic on the grass. Then we turned off US-30 to go to Hanover, PA. The road turned out to have even worse hills than the climb in Wrightsville. Plus, the hills were rolling, so as soon as we did one we had another. The scenery was beautiful though, with great big fields of wheat.
Once we left Hanover things started to flatten out. By the time we reached Littlestown the hills had switched to long, gradual climbs followed by similar descents. Soon we reached Maryland.
Unfortunately it was also starting to get dark.
We pushed on, following an official bike route through beautiful countryside with wonderful pavement and a wide shoulder. When we reached Taneytown, we took a few minutes for dinner.
Then we rode on to Frederick, catching a gorgeous sunset on the way.
Unfortunately, catching a sunset also meant we would be riding in the dark. We turned both of red lights on as well as all three of our headlights and rode on as fast as we could. Though we'd been riding very slow all day - usually less than 9 - we were able to keep it above 12 here and often up to 18. It felt like flying. By the time we'd reached Woodsboro the sun was totally down. But due to the wide shoulder riding still felt safe. We stopped one more time (at a Sheetz) to hydrate and then pressed on again.
Night riding is a funny thing. On one hand, you hate it because it feels so unsafe and you have to focus so hard on seeing what's on the road ahead of you. On the other hand, there's less traffic, the temperatures are better, and there's a certain peace to it. This was good night riding. Though I wish we'd gotten in a lot earlier, this turned out to be a wonderful section of the ride and just the right thing to cheer us up a bit.
We didn't arrive at our apartment in Frederick until nearly 11. David was getting a little worried. After quick notes to our parents that we'd made it alive, we completely passed out and were asleep in moments.
| posted at: 22:00 |
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
We woke up early at Fricker's. Fricker is currently living in a converted chicken coop on a lavander farm. Curiously enough, it's the perfect place for him.
He lives within walking distance from where he works, and within walking distance from the dojo where he trains. After his girlfriend fed us some pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins (we had a lot - they were kind of hard to stop eating). He gave us a bit of a tour.
Naturally, I also played with the dog.
Then we were off, a little late, as usual. Leaving Fricker's was a relaxing ride. Despite having a little more trouble following our route, we had a pretty good ride. Jillian caught an awesome picture in a park.
Around lunch time we stopped at a Dairy Queen for some food. We also had a lengthy conversation with a nice gentleman and his granddaughter.
When we were confused about where we were, we had to stop and check the Garmin. Unfortunately, we weren't sure how to make the display brighter. So we had to come up with a different solution.
As we approached Morgantown, PA the clouds looked awful. Then we started a lengthy, two mile long hill. At the top, the rain really hit. We donned rain gear and pressed on.
When we reached New Holland, we stopped at a CVS to get some food and use a bathroom. Around here I noticed I was getting very, very cold. I tried my rain pants, but they kept getting caught in the gears. So I had to switch to my cycling tights. Add a pair of wool socks, and a few miles later I started warming up. Eventually, we reached Lancaster where we discovered that the Eden road we were looking for was not the route we really wanted. We took a route right through the city, and finally rolled into Jillian's parents house as it started to get dark. They were more than just a little concerned that we had taken so long to get there.
They gave us some delicious food, and we passed out. It was another depressing day. Though we finished 86 miles, our pace had slipped slightly. We'd also gotten stuck riding in the rain and had finished in the dark again. Both of our knees had started hurting quite a bit.
End of the day in Mountville? Kinda demoralized.
| posted at: 22:00 |
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Neither of us slept well today, mostly because we both knew we were going to be getting up after only four hours of sleep. But we still managed to wake up quite excited to get going. After months and months of getting ready it was finally time to get on the road.
After a hurried breakfast we were on the road and off to the beach. Like all cross country travelers, we took the bike down to the water to dip the back tire in.
Unfortunately the skies were a little cloudy, so the sunrise wasn't as spectacular as I'd hoped. But then it was time to load the bike and get going. Jillian's mother gave us a new flag for the trailer.
And we were off. The houses close to the shore of New Jersey were spectacular. We had anticipated riding from about five until ten, when we'd stop at our friend Sheila's house for a while. Unfortunately, a certain donut shop may have gotten in the way, and we didn't depart until around six. We also had a terrible time in a few places where roads had the wrong name, or simply weren't there. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to find our way back to where we needed to be. We ended up showing up at noon. Sheila has new puppies.
I was exhausted. After Sheila fed us, I took a nap.
Around three it was time to get going. We gave Sheila a quick ride.
Then we were off again.
We rode straight for Pennsylvania. We crossed the Delaware at Washington's Crossing. It's a very, very narrow bridge, with a very pretty park nearby. We approached it in line with cars, to find signs everywhere on the bridge. We couldn't possibly read more than the one prohibiting horses. Halfway across, someone ran out of a little shelter and yelled at us. Only then did we notice an additional sign that said we needed to walk the bikes on a separate walkway. That would have been better actually, since we could have taken pictures, but since there was no way to get the bike onto the walkway, we just crossed in record time.
Once in Pennsylvania, we had nearly twenty miles to go until Fricker's house. Unfortunately, none of the roads had a shoulder, and none of them had a bathroom. Jillian ended up rather dehydrated, making for a very hard few miles.
Finally we came to a lake. Fricker was at the other side of this lake, and we only had to go a few miles and we were there. Unfortunately, the road we needed had a closed sign. We ended up trying to dead reckon around the lake. It took a while, but at least it was pretty.
Finally we arrived, close to dark. A rather depressing way to start our first day, finishing everything hours later than we'd originally intended. We promptly grabbed a pizza and went to bed.
| posted at: 22:00 |
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Monday, June 15, 2009
After spending an entire weekend running around buying things last minute for the trip, we're finally ready to go. We have a lot of stuff.
Around noon we headed off to Lancaster where we'll be leaving our cars with Jillian's parents. After tucking our cars very carefully into the corner of their driveway, Jillian and I got into her mother's car and headed off to Jersey.
I don't remember much of this part of the trip, since I was in and out of sleep a lot.
Once in Jersey we stayed with one of her mother's college friends for the night. We were treated to a delicious dinner and conversation with another Gettysburg alum. Naturally, we had to give rides.
Before we climbed into bed, I noticed the magazine on the nightstand. A hint, maybe?
Plan is to get up at 3:30am in order to make a sunrise departure on the beach.
| posted at: 22:00 |
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Sunday, June 07, 2009
Our last opportunity to get some training in came in the form of the Capital Area Greenbelt ride. My former roommate Emily was in town for a few weeks, so Jillian and I put her on my old mountain bike (which I bought specifically for the CAGA 07 ride) and the three of us headed to Harrisburg. By chance we all wore blue.
We met up with my family, some of whom were apparently able to avoid being in a picture.
This ride was also our first opportunity to try out Jillian's sandals. Jillian's mountain bike shoes had caused some pretty serious hot spots during the Scranton ride, so we were glad these worked a lot better.
After our rather miserable experience in Scranton, we were glad to be able to get a fun ride in before our trip.
| posted at: 22:00 |
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Tuesday, June 02, 2009
When I returned to school from my honeymoon I found that a certain science teacher had decided to cover my desk, bookshelves, and filing cabinet with up to six inches of shredded paper. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, so I wasn't able to get any photos of it, beyond a terrible one on my cell phone.
Naturally I couldn't let that go unanswered. After spending a weekend moving Jillian to Maryland, I came into a large roll of pallet wrap. Several hundred feet. I started with her desk.
Then moved on to her classroom.
I also wrapped her scissors in many, many rolls of pallet wrap, and hung them from her ceiling.
Just for fun, I even left her a note on the board.
| posted at: 22:00 |
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