iPedal 4 Orphans

100 Miles

2011-07-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

We got our motorhome back last night and drove on toward our charted riding course, staying overnight in a Walmart parking lot. With the 33 miles we rode today, our total is now at 100 miles!! We got a late start, but all went well today. David dropped us off at the starting point at 10:30. All the roads were smooth and fairly flat, even downhill, with just a few rolling hills that were easy to conquor. The weather was overcast and breezy - perfect! We rolled into the rv park at 2:30. We are now at Mammoth Caves National Park, KY. Mel is pretty worn out, so we're taking tomorrow off. There is a bike trail just 1/2 mile back that I may go check out.
G'nite friends!

37 mile day

2011-07-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

We left in the fairly cool, calm morning at 7am & finished 37 miles by 11:30. We traveled thru backwoods KY, had a few dogs come running at us. It was a beautiful morning...the sun stayed hidden most of the morning, so the ride was a bit easier, though it is very, very humid. Zak's quote from bootcamp: "I'm sweating standing still!" is very much like it is here! There were a couple hills we just didn't have the energy to climb, so we ended up walking 'em. Overall, it was a very good ride today. We are now on our way to pick up the motorhome from AAMCO, then head to another riding spot.
'Til tomorrow....

We Ride!

2011-07-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well, we were able to get in 30 miles today. The ride was good, but we had a headwind to struggle with for at least 20 of those miles. But I'm not complaining too much, as it was so hot, we were happy for the wind. We saw lots of barns, horses, & many, many people sitting on their porches waving to us. The drivers here are much better at "sharing the road" then the drivers in Cali. For the most part, they would move way over away from us as they passed by. Many of the barns either had a mural or a quilt painted on the side. No one seems to know what the quilt thing is about, but we never saw a duplicate. It is beautiful here with the green trees and rolling hills, but believe me, the heat is stiffling!!
After riding we took the dogs to the lake, but couldn't find an access point to be able to get in the water. So then we walked a trail along a river. Max was focused on the duck in the water out in the middle where he couldn't get to it, then there was a herd of cows on the other side of the river that drove him crazy!! Snapple was following Max (like a little sister does) until the cows began mooing, then she ran to hide behind my legs.....hahahaha. It was so funny!
Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures soon . . .
G'nite friends.

GROUNDHOG DAY

2011-07-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel like my life is that movie Groundhog Day, where the guy lived the same day over and over and over. Today was a repeat of our first day of riding in '08, where we lost the tranny in our Yukon. So yes, we lost the tranny in our motorhome today. It took all morning and most of the afternoon to find a garage and get the motorhome there. Luckily, we were able to drive it in, but we had to leave our cycling route behind, as we had to drive 140 miles in order to find a reliable shop.
As the man was under the motorhome to access the problems, Mel & I were inside packing to throw everything into a rental vehicle. David steps into the motorhome and suddenly there was a loud "pop" and the rig began moving forward. David tries to hold the side of the rig at the open door dragging his feet shouting "brakes, brakes" as we were drifting toward a truck nicely parked in their lot. Mel grabs the dogs so they don't jump out and I dove for the brake. We stopped only 4' from the truck. The really crazy thing is, the man under the rig is the one who caused it to move as he removed the bolt from the driveline, so it didn't matter it was set in "park." He was fast enough to think to grab the frame and drag himself along with the rig, otherwise his legs would have been crushed by the back tires. Crazy, crazy, crazy. And all we wanted to do was ride bikes!!!
We are now at a friends home til the rig is ready Wed or Thur. We plan to ride around here.

Night Before

2011-07-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

We are parked out behind the First Baptist Church in Whitesburg, KY. They were very kind to allow us a place to to park for the night. So we are just kicking back, enjoying a smoothie and chatting about tomorrow. On our way here though, the motorhome began having issues. Sounds like transmission problems....sigh. But what can ya do! So tomorrow, before we begin riding, we have to take the motorhome to be looked at. Tomorrow might be a long day.

IT'S OFFICIAL!!

2011-04-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

We have officially set our sights on riding through the Bluegrass State....July 10-17. Hot & Humid, here we come!!!

In Honor....

2011-03-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

This year I will ride in honor of my Dad who passed away in December. His favorite mission group is Hippo Valley Christian Mission, so funds will be raised for the Children's Village. Love you Dad!

Hmmmm....Where to ride?

2011-03-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tahoe CA???? I don't know......

NO RIDE

2010-08-05T21:18:00.001-07:00

It seems like it's been a short summer, especially when the sun doesn't shine on the North Coast for days on end. As it turned out, we did not do a ride this year.....so now, we'll have to plan a bigger and better ride for summer 2011! Keep watch!

THE FINAL RIDE - DAY 5

2009-08-01T07:33:00.000-07:00

Well, this is it! Our last day of riding together. David took us to the trailhead about 4 miles down the freeway to the I90 trail that parallels I90 into Seattle. We went over the floating bridge, through a tunnel, and into town. It was very cool! We found a Starbucks (not hard to do in Seattle) and made a plan for the next set of miles. There happened to be a metro station across from the Starbucks, so we hopped on it to take it north to Lake Union. We wove our way through town to the trailhead. There's a trail there called the Burke-Gilman that my source claimed runs 14 miles. What we found out is that it actually runs all the way around the lake, 30/40 plus miles. We didn't have that kind of time by the time we found it, but we did get 20 miles in on this trail. It was a beautiful trail, smooth, scenic around the lake and in the trees; just an all around good trail day to end the week. There were lots and lots of people out on this trail. The people here are so lucky to have such a wonderful trail to enjoy. We were happy to have found it. And nobody crashed! We put in 30 miles today, which seemed to be quite enough for us here at the end of the week.

This week logged us 150 (hard) miles. We pledged to individually make up the miles we lost to poor trails this week once we get home.

We heading for home today!

DAY 4 - PART II

2009-07-30T23:18:00.001-07:00

Well, after a good 2 hour nap, a dip in the pool, dinner, and Bible study, we got out for a 10 mile ride. The temp finally dropped down into the 80's, so it turned out to be a nice ride. We are actually in Bellevue (close to Seattle) and were trying to find a trail we were told about that takes you into Seattle . . . we never found it. We just rode around streets and sidewalks until it got dark, then we called David to pick us up because we knew we couldn't make it back before it got really dark. Overall, we only logged 19 miles today . . . hopefully we can find a nice trail in Seattle tomorrow for a long ride.

DAY 4 - PART I

2009-07-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

We started of the day in the saddles at 6am, leaving right from camp. I always like being able to do that. We heard from several sources that the trail from Lake Easton (where we were) to Cedar Falls (where we were going)is clear, maintained, and easy to ride. We were really looking forward to today. Finally, what we were looking for. Well, about a mile into the trail we hit a patch of gravel everyone was having difficulty with in one way or another, but I proved to be the most dramatic by crashing, again. I don't know why I didn't notice that my feet were clipped into my pedals, because my first crash taught me well to keep one foot unclipped in gravel, just in case. I bruised my bruises again, but this time added cuts and scrapes. I'm feeling pretty beat up at this point, but we must keep moving onward. So, we wound up and around this mountainside, with the trail not being what we hoped for but slowly doable. . . for about another mile or so. Then the trail started getting narrow, mosquitos were loving us, we had to carry our bikes over fallen trees, and had to get out the gps to figure out the trail because there were forks in the path and nothing to indicate which way to go. The gps told us we were following mosquito creek . . . yes, we were.
We keep trying to move forward because it had to get better than this at some point. Well, we came to an overgrown area, had already walked through poison oak, the trail was gone and we were basically carrying and pushing our bikes through the woods, so we decided to turn back. We had been at this for over 2 hours and had only gone 4 miles. :(
So, back through the poison oak, back over the fallen trees, and back through the heavy gravel to get back to camp.
We packed up camp and headed to Seattle where we can ride bike paths that will hopefully not have any downed trees on them. :) We're making a plan to ride tonight after it cools down a little. Apparently there is a heat wave passing through Seattle. Judging from how the previous days have been for us . . . we're just in time!
We are having fun being together though. Our goal is to ride 200 miles altogether, so we have 92 to go between tonight and tomorrow. I think it's doable. I'll post part II later tonight.

WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN! - DAY 3

2009-07-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

Last night we charted a course to ride a paved road to our next destination. We started riding at 6am. We were SO thankful for the nice, flat surface! It was the straightest road I've ever seen, but it was totally one of those rolling hill countrysides. We had several hills to climb and each time we topped one, there were two more in sight . . . and as the day went on, the hills seemed to get bigger and bigger! Overall, there were only a couple monster hills with some bite to it, mostly they were just long. The best part was going down the other side. Oh yes! Everytime we went up, we went down! At one point, my spedomoter registered 30 mph and I was braking. It was so awesome to go down those long, rolling hills; even if we had to pedal up the next one. The hills were so long, it seemed like it was never going to end, and I kept from looking up as much as possible to keep from feeling overwhelmed with the enmormity of going uphill. At halfway, we stopped for a long rest in the shade of a huge barn. There was a side door into the barn open, so I peeked in and staring back at me was a HUGE owl sitting up in the rafters. I must have scared him as much as he scared me . . . he took one look at me, spread his wings and soard out a window. It was an amazing sight to see him so close. Everything went pretty well today. We got started early like we wanted to. The heat came up later morning, but we were finished riding around 11:15am. We logged 44.5 miles. So we have just now accomplished 100 miles.
We have decided to bag riding in the desert type terrain. Riding on the paved road is fine, but when the heat comes up and there's no civilization in sight, let alone a tree, it just is too much for us. The heat is exhausting. We've also been told that there is an unusual heat wave passing through, so we need to be able to shelter ourselves from the sun. The trail on the western half of WA is upkept by the state parks system and is supposed to be in good condition. We'll find out tomorrow!
Later today, we were able to find a bike shop to fix Zak's bike, so he'll be with us tomorrow. I think he's happy about that . . .

IT ALL LOOKS UP HILL - DAY 2

2009-07-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

We started out the day at 5am, but the sun rises around 4 here. David cooked us a good breakfast and we head out right from the camp we stayed at - St. John's, WA. We had several turns to make to wind us around the countryside to get to our destination. We planned a 60 mile route. The first road was awesome! Smooth, fast, a beautiful morning for riding. We polished off 10 miles in about 45 minutes. Then, our first turn . . . onto a gravel road. Not too bad. A little washboardish, but doable. We were making pretty good time and following the route as planned. As we wove our way throughout the countryside, we happened upon our first hill that was quite big. We ended up walking it. We got back into no man's land for real. We saw maybe 5 cars the entire morning. The hills kept getting bigger and bigger and we felt a little cheated because you know that what goes up must come down . . . but that wasn't always the case. We crossed the JWP Trail about 6 times today and each time we were thankful to be on the gravel road rather than that trail. At one point, we came upon a sign that said road closed 10 miles ahead, but we were certain that our next turn came long before that. Well, we kept going and going, but there were no turn off roads, let alone the one we needed. At this point it's starting to get pretty hot outside and we've travelled about 35 miles. I also need to mention that this is desert, platue (sp?) country . . . there's not a tree for shade in sight. We came upon the closed road, and could do nothing but keep moving forward . . . because we sure as heck weren't going to go back all those miles! So now we're on the closed road. It's a rough gravel road. Did I mention that we were going uphill? I don't know what happened, but my chain froze up and I couldn't get my feet out of my clips, so down I went! My feet popped right out of those clips at that point and freed up my chain! I bruised the insides of both my knees and got a scrape/punch on the side of my chin as my face hit the end of the handlebar, as the other end of the handlebar hit the ground. My jaw's a little sore, but I can still talk, so all is well! We could see about a half mile ahead that there was much road construction going on and it didn't look like we were going to be able to get thru. At this point a road came up and after consulting with the gps, we decided it would take us to the road we eventually needed from our previously planned route. But first, we would have to tackle the biggest hill I ever seen! grrrr But at least the road is paved . . .
Did I mention it was hot out, no shade, and we were running out of water? AND only about 35 miles of our 60 behind us?
A few miles down this road we came upon a farmhouse. The first one of the day that we could access and only about the 5th one we've seen. 100 feet further is the turn we need to make to pick up our other route. We stopped at this house and asked for water. She let us use her hose and it came from a spring. It was the most refreshing water ever! We asked her about the next road we were looking for and she dropped the bomb on us . . . that road is closed. The bridge is completely out and there's no way around it. Oh great. Now what? She gave us directions across an access road so we didn't have to turn back. She was going to give us directions through a field that would be shorter, but mentioned that the owner of said field has been shooting dogs recently and thought it best we didn't go that way. Yes, I didn't want to go through dog alley either! We rested in the shade of her barn for about half an hour. We traveled over a very bumpy, dry, hot prairie for 4 1/2 miles. All I wanted was to get to a real road and it was looking dimmer by the minute. It was so incredibly hot and completely desolate. I thought my arms were frying off my body. FINALLY, we made it to the actual road, but now what do we do? We saw a grove of trees about a mile and a half away, so we decided to head for that and call David to rescue us. We had been out riding for 8 hours and the afternoon heat was unbearable. As we sat under the shade of the trees waiting for David, the owner of the farm happened by . . . we thanked him profusely for letting us use his shade!! He was very nice and he talked with us for a while. He thought it was pretty hot out for us to be biking. At that point, 2:30pm it was 93. We got in 46 miles.
For tomorrow, we've made a plan to stay on real roads, not caring about staying near the JWP Trail. We have a route that is a straight shot, 45 miles. Pending any giant hills, we should bust this out quickly. Now that I've said that, I wonder what will happen?!

THE 1st 10 MILES ARE ALWAYS THE HARDEST!!

2009-07-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

So many things happened out on the trail today that there's not enough space to contain it all . . . first off, it was raining - we were told it was a freak of nature as it just does not rain this time of year . . . lucky us. We were on our way to the trail and had to turn around for a left behind helmet. We got to the trailhead at 7am, an hour later than hoped for, but pretty descent none the less. We knew the Eastern half of the trail was not going to be all that great, but we had no idea what we were really in for. After everyone made a deposit in the bushes, we were off! The first couple of miles went well. A little thick gravel once in a while, but nothing we couldn't handle. Then we went through a little mud here and there. Nothing grand, but it kept sticking to the bikes and kept getting thicker and thicker . . . then, we really went through a mud bog that none of us were able to pedal through! I would describe this mud to be very similar in nature to that of cement, including the little pieces of gravel. At this point we were only about 5 or 6 miles into the trail. So we spent some time trying in vain to wipe the mud from our bikes. Mud was everywhere! As we were getting ready to try to pedal on and hope to find a source of water to wash the mud off our bikes, Zak's gears broke right off the frame of his bike. The next town was about a mile off, so Melanie & Kera rode ahead to scout out a bike shop while Zak & I started walking with our bikes. That mile turned into 2 miles of pushing our bikes to civilization. There was no bike shop (it was Sunday anyway and everything was closed), but there was a hose outside a small cafe that we were permitted to use. So we spent over an hour washing the cement-mud from our bikes and skin. We had to call David to pick up Zak and his bike, while Melanie, Kera & I wanted to go on. So, we went back about half a mile to pick up the trail only to find right away that the tressel was closed and the trail stopped. You need to know that we are following signs for the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, but there are no indications anywhere that the trail is closed, or there's a detour, or simply that the trail is not maintained. So back into town we went trying to find a way to bypass the tressel. David catches up with us, so we pull out the gps and make a plan. He drove us to the nearest spot for picking up the trail. David drops us off, we take a few pictures, glad that it has stopped raining and ready to get moving. About a half mile later, I got a flat tire. We spend some time taking care of that and get a call from David that about a mile down the trail (he was scoping it out for us as he and the kids were on their way to set up camp 40 miles away), it is overgrown so badly that a moose would have difficulty passing through. Since we didn't have machetes to blaze the trail, we decided to crawl back into the truck and give it up for the day. David says "is this still the same day?" because we've had so many things go wrong. At this point we had been at this for 6 hours and were completely worn out, wet, and frustrated. Those were the hardest 10 miles I've ever ridden! I know there were other things to mention, but I'm tired and I can't remember them at this point.

This trail is really bad. There is no way were going to be able to ride it, so we're making a plan for tomorrow to follow surface roads that run nearby the trail. I hope it's not raining!

ANXIOUS!

2009-07-04T00:22:00.000-07:00

I'm anxious to get up to Washington and out on that trail, however, training has gone awry this spring and I think I'm in for a bruttal ride. All we have to do is ride, right? No time limits, no worries. I wish I had more time for riding . . .

WE MADE IT!!!!!

2008-07-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe we actually just travelled over 300 miles. . . ON A BIKE!

We began the day early again, getting on the trail at 7am. Zak set out with us, as he decided to ride the whole last day - 55 miles.

Almost everything was uneventful today, until that time I couldn't find Zak. We had 14 miles of the trip left, we had just taken a long break at the C&O Canal visitor area, and we were ready to finish up the ride. We put Zak in the lead and apparently the energy gel kicked in because he took off. I stopped a couple times to take photos and was casually going on enjoying the last bit of the ride. Then I realized Zak wasn't in sight, so I rode ahead to try to find him. I didn't catch up to him until mile post 8! I rode at 15-20 mph for 5 miles trying to find him. I couldn't believe he was so far ahead, and thank goodness I found him when I did because I was spent.

Michaela joined us at the C&O Canal, as she wanted to ride the last miles of the trip instead of at the beginning of the day as she had done all week.

When we got into DC about 1/2 mile away from mile marker 0 - the end of the trip, we lost the trail. It just kind of ended and turned into streets of downtown DC. We weaved our way through that a bit, but ended up calling David to figure out how to get to the end where he was waiting. We finally got turned in the right direction and began heading for MILE 0. We knew that it was behind a kayak shop, as we were told by someone we had met on the trail a couple days earlier. It was not only obscure . . . it was practically hidden! We came around the corner of the kayak shop and spotted David who was frantically waving his arms and pointing for us to turn. We turned . . . and ended up in the kayak storage area behind a big fence. David is yelling "no, this way," so we came back out from behind the fence and saw a path leading around the back of the fence and rode to the mile marker. Considering the fact that the ending mile marker area was so blah, I guess God gave us that bit of humor of making the turn into the fenced area just to spice it up a little. It just cracks me up when I think about it! It's like being in the lead of a car race on the last lap but at the last second, for no apparent reason, you drive off the track!

We hugged and kissed the mile marker . . . and began planning our next bike adventure - Colorado, maybe?!

Considering the rough terrain we have been riding for the past 150 miles, I am amazingly not that sore. I have a feeling it will all catch up to me in a couple days. Right now, my body thinks I'm getting up and pedaling tomorrow. Ha! I was more sore when I was on the bike hitting those roots and rocks sticking up out of everywhere. Our bikes held up really well. No flat tires or broken chains. Michaela's rear is a little sore, but she doesn't have riding shorts and believe me, that does make a difference. Zak didn't complain once about the ride and he was willing to do more and more. I'm really impressed with him. He's not complaining now of being sore either. I think I will take and Aleve before I go to bed though . . . just in case.

Thanks to everyone who has kept up with us through this blog. It has been a lot of fun, and we appreciate your prayers and good thoughts. And thanks to all those who sponsored us. It has been worth it all. I'm sad that the week is over already.

I'm hoping in the next day or two of getting some videos onto this blog. Check back for that.

We are beginning our touring of DC in the morning.

Blessings to all.

ONLY 55 TO GO!

2008-07-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

We got on the trail at 7:15 this morning. Mucho better riding earlier, beating the heat, and having time to relax at camp in the evening.

We met some people from Cleveland going our same was today. Nice talking with them and seeing them once in a while as we lept frog one another if one party stopped for something. Go Indians!

We stopped at Harper's Ferry around 2 for some touring time. Got some ice cream and had 6 more miles to get to camp. Today we were able to ride right into camp, so David didn't have to try to find us at a stopping point. The ride today was really dirty and we were very thankful we are able to shower each night, as if we had tried this dry camping we would have stunk really bad by the end of the week!

There were a lot more people on the trail today. Because it's Saturday I reckon. One part of the towpath we were on was also part of the Appalachian Trail. Now I can say I've been on that!

We rolled into camp around 6pm, having ridden 59 miles.

After dinner we sat by the Potomac River. Zak & Michaela swam for a while.

We plan to hit the trail by 7am, and Zak is riding the whole 55 miles with us. I'm not ready for this trip to be over, even though my butt could use a break from the saddle. Hope that the headline reads "We Made It" on tomorrow's post!

Gotta go.

DAY 4

2008-07-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

It was hard to keep our mind on our objective today, as our butt's were sore, it was 97 degrees, the trail was muddy in places, but mostly dry and rocky; and we were just plain tired. Zak & Michaela rode 16 miles with us at the beginning of the day. Michaela found a turtle on the trail, we had to make a stop for investigation. The canal is very swampy and among all the woods it gives a bit of a creepy feeling at times. . . so Michaela calls it Shrek's Swamp. We've seen very few people on the trail, especially this part.

After dropping off the kids with David at the pick up point, which by the way, it all went smooth today . . . we pushed on ahead. Although, about 10 miles in, Kera began having troubles with her bike and was feeling overwhelmed by the heat. At the next town, she found help for her bike and all is back to normal, but we both decided to not go any further and to get up early to add the extra miles on tomorrow's ride. Today's ride only produced 32 miles.

Our plan is to get up early tomorrow and ride, ride, ride!

THE DOWNHILL SLIDE

2008-07-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

Today we were on the trail at 9:45. We all went this time, including David. We had another 2 miles of uphill, but along the way was the Eastern Continental Divide, that provided a photo opportunity. Shortly after that, we stopped at the mouth of the Big Savage Tunnel for another photo op. The tunnel is a mile long and provided a blast of cool air that felt great. On the other side we were on top of the world. There are amazing views from mountain tops! About a mile after that we were at the Mason-Dixon line . . . another photo op! Now were are in Maryland. At this point David & Michaela turned back . . . this gave Michaela her 10 miles and David some much needed fresh air away from the drama of the truck.

Zak, Kera, and I pushed on, but this ride was sweet! From this point on it was all downhill. Amazingly downhill! In fact, we rarely pedaled for 25 miles - no joke. The funny thing about this though was that different muscles are now being used to try to keep all your weight off the seat. We were laughing about how we were looking forward to the descent but now other muscles are sore!

Much of the trail was alongside a currently used railroad track, and I mean alongside, right against, next to the track. It was really amazing though, and we did get to experience a train coming by. It was only about 6 cars long, hauling tourists I guess. The conductor blew his horn for us too.

At 25 miles we dropped Zak off with David. They went off ahead to set up camp, while Kera and I moved onward. Although, we did stop to eat right away at a place called The Crabby Pig. It was a BBQ joint. Then, Kera had a small issue to sort out with her job on the phone. . . so we were again starting off the afternoon at 3:30pm. It was insanely hot this day! It was so hot, it was stifling to breathe. We were in the open sun for about 30 minutes, then the C&O canal towpath appeared and we were in the shade the rest of the day.

So the rest of this day we rode on the towpath along the canal, which as built 150 or so years ago. I'm sure it was something great in it's day, but now it is a swamp, completely covered with green and dead trees crisscrossing it. We passed by the locks used to get the boats up and down the canal. The locks had boarded up houses next to them, as they must have been used by the "locksmith" - ha, ha. Just kidding. I don't know what he would have been called, but he would have been there to work that specific lock. It's really neat seeing a piece of history like this. Once upon a time, people worked and thrived along this canal.

I will also say that the towpath is not a gentle path at all. It is rough and hard on the old body. Lots of potholes, mudpuddles, sticks, stones, and roots all perfectly placed to add a little more pain to the rump. At this point, my rump feels nothing but pain, which I expect will remain that way the rest of the trip. The good thing is, the pain never gets any worse; it just doesn't go away or get any better!

We saw a lot of wildlife today. A lot of deer, turtles (not only in the canal but smack right on the towpath too), groundhogs, squirrles that jump straight up in the air like a scared cat if you get too close to them, and we had to ride through a flock of Canadian Geese that hissed and honked as we passed through.

We covered 55 miles today, and none of them were going backwards!

DAY 2

2008-07-17T19:29:00.000-07:00

We got on the trail at 10:30 and headed out. Today we were a little quicker than the first day and we made it to Michaela's drop off in an hour and a half (14 miles). . . but David was not there. I trolled around a bit to find a high spot to get cell service to try to get in touch with him. You won't believe this, but the loaner truck we were given while ours was being fixed began spewing transmission fluid everywhere and became undriveable. So, while David waited for our truck to be delivered to him, and their truck to be picked up, Zak, Michaela, Kera, and I rode back 2 miles (because it was the nearest town) in order to get some food and wait for David to meet up with us. Zak & Michaela got in 16 miles this day. We saw another snake, but it wasn't as big as the first one. After an eternity of waiting and David finally appearing on the scene, Kera and I were on our way again. . . at about 3:30pm.

This time the trip seemed more difficult because we were on an uphill grade the entire 42 remaining miles. We were already tired from the heat and mentally drained because of all the drama of the day. We saw some beautiful scenery and stopped once in a while to take photos and rest a bit. Towards the latter part of the day we began seeing deer and other wildlife on the trail. And before we were done, a full moon arose to shine our way in. We ended up not getting to our destination until 9pm. I was never so happy!

No bike troubles . . . yet.

WE'RE OFF TO A . . . . . START?

2008-07-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

We were promptly woken by a rooster on one side of the trailer and a gobbling turkey on the other side of the trailer, apparently talking to one another. But they did get us up and at it.

We found a trailhead outside of McKeesport, PA to begin our day. We got a bit of a late start, 10:30 in fact. The trail is beautiful! It's like riding at home (CA) only without seeing the ocean and it's A LOT hotter. About halfway through Michaela's 10 miles, she had a bike malfunction that put us about 15 minutes behind Zak & Kera. But, Michaela and I did see a very large doe cross the trail right in front of us. That might be why it looked so large!

We dropped Michaela off with David at 12.5 miles. Then we head off with Zak to meet David later on. Right away there was a very long, black, round stick across the trail that turned out to be a very long, black, round snake that reeled back and brought it's head up as we passed it . . . almost causing us to crash as Zak had to skid to a stop and investigate. Later on, at 25 miles I call David to find out where he is, only to learn that the transmission on our Yukon has blown. Thankfully, we were within half a mile of him. Not thankfully, the warranty on the Yukon ran out,\. . . in January.

So, we stayed with David and the kids till the Yukon was towed to a garage and we were given a loaner to tow the trailer to a campsite to wait for the Yukon to be fixed. (Angelo! We need you here!)

Kera & I did press on and got our 50 miles in. We stopped several times to take photos of the area, it's so beautiful. The trail itself is like riding on pavement dusted with grains of dirt/pebbles. However, the last 10 miles was alongside a river through the woods with small fist sides rocks sticking up through the dirt. The last 10 was a bit rough and my rump is a bit sore! It took us a total of 9 hours yesterday, 5 of them on the bikes.

While David waits for the truck to be fixed, we will continue on. We're hoping for a quicker day.