Day 44
Day By Day Notes From The Road
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This document updated August 11th, 2004
Confluence to Bedford Pennsylvania - 81 Miles
By Erwin:
Today's ride started out pretty lame with a long, slow ascent over a rough gravel trail. After that, the ride was gorgeous and led through rich farmland and pretty steep hills.
The main challenge of today was a mechanical problem I had around mile 10. One of my rear spokes broke. Luckily, it did not get jammed in anywhere, but still my wheel was too far out of true and too weakened to go on. What's more, since we were on the trail (10 miles from the start, 20 from the end), there was no way Allen, the mechanic, could help us out. So, we had a problem.
It was great that Lucija was with me, both for moral support and because she had some of the necessary parts for the repair job. Also, Big Rider John and Steve stopped by and helped us out. Together, we managed to get the spoke out, put in a new one, screw on a new nipple and true the wheel to a workable state, all with a combination of each other's tools and spare parts. I was lucky to be able to keep biking, but it was fun to make it work!
After that little incident, the ride went pretty smoothly and soon enough I got to Bedford. Turns out that the Cannondale Bike factory, where my bike was made, is just two blocks from our camp. I saw the mechanic's car standing in front, so off course I had to stop in and thank them for the great job they did sending out a new wheel back in South Dakota. Then, the customer rep that helped us gave us a little tour of the factory - really fun to see how the frame and wheels were being put together.
After dinner, I went to bed quickly because tomorrow is a big day! 102 miles to Gettysburg, with (we are told) a pretty brutal first 40 miles through the Appalachians. Bring on the pain - we're as ready as we'll ever be!
By Lucija:
Today we started out the first 30 miles of the day on the bike trail before returning to the hilly roads to finish the rest of the ride. To be honest, I was happy to return to the hills because the monotonous trail became just too boring. Imagine biking 80 miles through a tunnel of trees (which is what we did yesterday and today) - it was flat, shady and cool, but all we saw were bushes and the gravel path.
Once we left the bike path behind, the route became much more hilly and diverse. We made our way through over the Allegheny Mountains, passing many small farms and milk cow pastures on the way. The route also took us past the Flight 93 memorial site, which was quite moving. It was strange to see how the flight crash affected this sleepy countryside community - as soon as we reached Shanksville all the houses were patriotically adorned with numerous American flags.
Photos:
One of the many hills we went up today
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