Sunday, August 3, 2008 – Day 42

Start: New Waterford, Ohio
End: Washington, Pennsylvania
Miles: 63.14 Total Miles: 3,127.60 BRAA Total Miles: 2,952.60
Time: 4 hours 18 minutes (avg 14.7 MPH)
Flat tire count today: 0 Total flat tires for the ride: 10

We were allowed to sleep in an extra hour this morning since the ride was going to be a short one. The only problem was several alarms still went off at the normal time. I guess it didn’t matter too much since I was able to continue resting for a little while longer. The ride was shorter than the average day, but it was a tough one with all the hills we had ahead of us. The real test is still ahead of us over the next few days in Pennsylvania on our way to Gettysburg.

After some good climbing this morning, we came across this sign. This is always a good sign, because it usually means we are headed for a big downhill. Indeed, we had a big, fast decent right after this sign. I was rolling at a maximum speed of just under 40 miles per hour.

Five days of riding in Ohio finally came to an end when we reached Pennsylvania – state number 11. This is the second to last state we will visit prior to riding into Washington, DC. Right before reaching the state line, we got our first look at the Pennsylvania skyline. We have reached the state of nuclear power plants. We crossed a bridge between two power plants and the enormous cooling towers on both sides of us.

Pennsylvania skyline view from Ohio.

It was nice to reach another state, but along with the change to Pennsylvania came the hills – rolling hills and a lot of them. These things continued for the next 40 miles. I guess I should get used to them since they will be with us for the next several days.

I did find a couple of new friends this afternoon. They were eating along the side of the road. They didn’t like me much. When I went to take their picture, they walked the other way.

We are in another camp ground this evening and will only have a few more nights in our tents. There are only six days left before we enter DC and only five of them are riding day.