Group blogging, steep hills, and Ohio.

Now, if you haven't already noticed, we'll have more authors. Kevin, Liz and I will be active bloggers, and Eric will chime in occasionally through our posts.

So, here's the scoop: last night we stealth camped at a local park. We found a pavilion to camp under, made dinner, read a book out loud to each other, relaxed, and charged our phones. Our goal today is to go 60 or 70 miles to Canton, OH. Currently, we are about 20 miles away from Ohio.

We left Pittsburgh, PA pretty late, sometime around 3 PM and got to our destination sometime around 8:30. Although we only biked 40 or 50 miles yesterday to get to our camping spot, which is a few miles outside of Beaver Falls, PA, it was rough! The hills were massive...we're taking like 20 grade, which is STEEP! Even the locals were earning us of three hills, but we managed, for the most part. After facing the hills, I became ravenously hungry and started grunting at the gas station for food like an animal (after I grubbed out I apologized to the attendant; she just laughed and said, "hey girl, you need your energy"), Kevin managed the whole hill...of course, his bike skills are beastly, Mitch was booking it up the hills but his trailer tire kept getting a flat due to the broken glass on the roads, and Liz pushed it hard for a bit but ended up walking up the hill to conserve her energy. Seriously, these hills were beastly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow! Especially with loaded touring bikes...beastly!

By the way, Pittsburgh was awesome. We all took so many pics, but it's hard to do our experience justice. We'll post those pics and a few other catch up posts and pics soon.

-Jeanné

Pics of our camp site.

Three things plus one

Happy Father's Day!

Three things plus one that I have learned since the beginning of this tour:

1. Myth: Flat Land

I don't care what anyone says, experienced cyclist or not-- there is no such thing as flat. Granted I have not experienced the Midwest yet, but as it stands now, every piece of the geography on this beautiful earth has AT LEAST either a slight incline or slight decline. Not to mention the carefully placed Hills of Death right when your energy is lowest.

2. Pooping

One main concern I had before this tour was pooping. I was pretty poop shy, refusing to poop anywhere but my own house within reason o my circumstances.      Now, I pay homage to the poop god in any toilet. Freedom. My confidence was pushed even further when I had the privilege of clogging Dan Oates' (our gracious Pittsburgh host) barely functioning toilet. It took three flushes and at least 38 plunges to get the poop down the toilet. I was not the only one this happened to but now that this barrier has been crossed, I am poop invincible.

3. A Trail Name has been anointed

Eric has officially been dubbed "2nd Meal" ever since he ordered an entire 2nd FULL meal at a diner we ate breakfast at,

Plus one: I am beyond thankful that I have a sleeping pad when I almost left without one for the sake of a lighter pack (thanks dad) and my bike shoes and sod pedals.

Liz Coates

Bye to the Burgh

We left Pittsburgh today and had a nice ride following the Ohio river. We met a man named Pete who is riding his unicycle across the country. It was pretty astounding and made the hills we encountered seem more docile. Tomorrow we rode for Ohio where we will constantly think of Neil Young songs.

Catch-up post :Finished the C & O Canal

On Tuesday, June 11, we landed in Cumberland, MD to finish the C&O Canal. Beautiful sunny day. No rain, but tons of mud puddles. Dirty bikes!

We had the pleasure of riding alongside a large group organized by Events Unlimited Inc. (www.eventsunpgh.com). Seth, Mark, Chris and Virginia (a.k.a. best group bike leaders ever) led the group into Pittsburgh in celebration of the now fully completed Great Allegheny Passage-thanks to all of the awesome people that have worked hard to finish it. Check it out at ridethegap.blogspot.com. So, if you ever want an organized, stellar bike ride on the C&O and/or GAP, check out the Events Unlimited website for more details. 

After rolling into town, we joined Chris, Mark and Seth at a local Mexican restaurant El Jinete for a crazy night of $1 Coronitas and Margaritas. Eric introduced the concept of "sarpe" which is a shout out that means one more round! We soon found out that sarpe can be invoked as many times as desired. We laughed a lot, Mark gave Eric his suspenders and we all became best friends. One thing led to another and we ended up all cramming together for a solid night of comfortable sleep in Chris and Mark's hotel room. Their generosity towards us cannot be overstated. Thank you guys!

All in all, a successful riding day and a fun night.

Liz Coates

Catch-up Post #1: "Hello, Liz"

Monday, June 10: Liz joined in the evening.

So, after Tom left Hancock, MD for PA, Kevin, Eric, and I stayed in MD to do some errands. We got some groceries from The Dollar General and Sav-a-lot (I think those are their proper names): tuna in bags, crackers, Nutella, instant potatoes, instant oatmeal, and then some. So, we can't really refrigerate our food items...We aren't carrying a fridge after all.

We also did our laundry for the first time too...clean clothes are awesome!

Blah blah blah

Okay, so, we met up with Liz in a town called Little Orleans, MD. It was about 20 miles outside of Hancock, MD. It was difficult to plan a meeting spot because our cell service was spotty in Hancock. We dropped several phone calls with her when trying to give get directions to a place we didn't know. Bottom line, we all meet up with her at Bill's, which is an old country bar that everyone on the trail knows about. A trip along the canal wouldn't be complete without a visit to Bill's....the food is simple, fried, and yummy. It's Eric's favorite place because you can get Busch heavy and windings. Eric feels as though you could buy ammo in this place. It is the type of place where you put $1 bills on the ceiling...I wonder if they do it because the owner's name is Bill...anywho, at one point, there were a total of 6000 $1s on the ceiling!!!

It's awesome Liz joined! Her dad, mom, and sister dropped her off. We found out that she was so weight conscious (about the weight she was bringing on her bike, that is) that she almost didn't bring a sleeping/camping pad!!! Thankfully her dad caught her goofy mistake and turned the car right around and got her pad. She was so curious to see what the big deal was di or first night camping she slept half of the night without it and the other half with it. After that, she's never been more grateful for that camping mat, duh!!!

Moral of the story, go to Bill's and bring a camping mat if your camping a lot.

77 miles to Pittsburgh

Today's the day we plan on finishing the GAP, Great Allegany Passage. Tomorrow, there's the grand opening of the GAP's total completion, which means a whole day of celebrating tomorrow with a ribbon cutting, music, food, bikes, people, beer, and more funtivities. We met up with this crew who is riding there to celebrate it...here's a blog they have: ridethegap.blogspot.com.

Currently, we're a little outside of Ohiopyle, PA. Yesterday, we biked from Rockwood, PA. We rode ~45 miles (15 off which were in the nice cool weather, the rest in consistent rain). We're hoping once we start heading more West we'll escape this rain...but, who knows what the West will bring us (strong headwinds, tornadoes, sunshine, sunburbs).

Also, we have a few drafted/saved blog posts about finishing the C&O Canal, Liz joining, hanging out in Johnstown, and our first week in review. We'll post them, along with sweet pics during a break from the saddle or someone tonight if the service is there.

Okay, that'll do for now, we'll share pics and stories soon!!! Bye from outside Ohiopyle :)

This was written around 8:45AM, but we just now got service to post this.

Goodbye, Tom!

After spending 43 hours at "The Hilton" Pavilion, thanks to Miss Andrea T. Storm, and 140+ miles on the C&O, we parted ways with Tom, or more affectionately known as Sherm. He's headed back to PA 2 days ago due to heavy rain, and its forecasted to continue storming this week...unlike us, he does have to get back to work a lot sooner than we do. It was awesome hanging with him. Without Sherm, we may have left the "Hilton" at 8 am and been stuck in the storm; thankfully he slept all day and left us youngsters taking bets on when he'd wake.

Life lessons learned from Sherm:
_Beans and spaghetti do not go together.
_Onions? Not on meatballs, but every other food is acceptable.
_You don't need a fancy bike or even one that fits to ride big miles with a smile on your face.
_Rear brake rubbing for the fist few days, no problem.
_He counts cards...so using unusual tactics is the only way to beat him.
_Anyone at any age can do anything; you're only limited by what you think you can't do. Dude, Sherm is 67, and he's a powerhouse and a goofball!
_And most importantly, he works to live and create memories rather than living to work.

We'll miss you Sherm, but at least we got to kick it with Marianne, his wife, and Sadie, their pup when he left. Till soon!

If this post doesn't make too much sense its because of two reasons. The end.