It is hard to remember the beginning of today. It was dark in Ohio. We started at 5:40 a.m. It was still in the dark of night when we got up. Wakeup needs to be later, as we can't see what is going on, what we are doing and can't find anything or see in the truck to load it, etc.
As I write this I am sitting in my tent and the rain is coming down.
It is the end the end of our day in Washington, PA. The rain is coming down hard. The tapping on rain fly has a soothing quality however the interanl humidity in quite high and very uncomfortable. The downside of the rain fly is the amount of moisture it traps underneath and thus around me. Ickkkk.
I have drips from my rain fly coming through the mesh of the tent and I get a bit damp now and then. I have tried many creative measure to stop the drips. A plastic bag over the mesh as middle waterproof layer, hanging a stuff sack in the door way zipper as a pseudo gutter. By and large I am good and dry. This 4' x7' space is certainly not palatial but I am dry enough and comfortable enough in my tent. I am glad the wind is not blowing the tent around.
These are natural light viewsin the tent.
All of my clothes and cotton gear are wet. My pillow is soaked. I have my sleeping bag out, however it is so hot, that I may try to use my rain coat as my dry blanket instead. Right now I am super thankful for my thermarest chair. I am sitting it in right now and with my head lamp this is reasonably comfortable.
Working backwards through my day-
I played Euchre under the canopy with Mechanic Dave, Mary and Sean. We also dicsussed books along with ane and Liz. Dinner was catered with chicken and scalloped potatoes and pie. Yumm!!! The call for dinner is what got me out of thetap after a nap. I noticed Jodi had made camp under the box of the truck. Hope she doesn't sit her up quickly and smash her head on the chassis. AFter last night's limited dinner, I got in line much earlier and made a point to eat more.
This afternoon during the end of the ride I just looked forward to getting into camp setting up my tent, some dry clothes and taking a nap to the sounds of hte rain. The nap was good and by and large I stayed dry despite my wet clothes and gear.
Setting up my tent I found several stow aways from last night. 3 Super daddy longggggggg legs spiders., I don't love spiders but I don't mind these so I grab them by a leg one by one and remove them from inside my tent to outside of my tent. The spiders that are creeping me out are the tiny little albino-ey fluoroescent ones that look like tailless scorpions. These totally creep me out and I kill each one I see in the tent.
Suddenly the rain in harder and I have a drip right above the flashlight that will drive me crazy all night. Like some sort of natural chinese water torture.
Anyway today's ride-
AFter getting up late and in the dark, I was excited to have church da. We set off, Stephen, Bob, Lambert and I withthe intent of finding a church alonthe way and joining in the worship. Well first the cue sheets were wrong. When we go tthat figured out our 75 mile day became a 55 mile day. WHOOPPEEEEEE!!!! Like early dismissal in school.
We rode along through the country. It is rolling hills which are hard for me to get a rhythm on. For that fact, I don't care for the big rollers. But we rode. And soone we were in Pennsylvania. We heard of several riders taking another route which actually was more direct route and also took them through a bonus state of WEst Virginia. Back on our normal route we saw this sign.
It took me a few moments to see the word J O Y in it. but I loved it as this so simply stated my boiled down faith.
With a downhill following this sign and view I rode with my legs spread out as Stephen took a picture of me enjoying and relishing in the feelings of being a kid again and having fun again on the big ride.
Then suddenly hard rain and thunder, lightning! Flash............. Rumble. The ride returned to serious business. After a crazy wet downhill where I hit 42.4 mph without pedalling we followed the Dan Henry's .
Oops I have a leak in the tent. An already wet sock will be used as a make shift sponge. It can't get any wetter!
So riding through town, Kathy was marking Dan Henry's and I noticed her car was backing up ... in traffic... without a driver!
She had parked to mark the Dan Henry's but the car had gotten in to neutral and began to roll.
WE raced over to stop it. I tried to park my bike at the side of the road and race over to it. Lambert just shot right through traffic and dumped his bike at the car. I got there just after him. He was already getting in and I yelled I had his bike and pulled it out of the way. Lambert stopped the car and then drove it over to safety. The lady in traffic behind Kathy was all paniched and had eyes the size of saucers. When she saw us heard of cyclists ride up and abandon our bikes she got it and was cool and didn't hit anyone thankfully.
David Lambert was our Hero.
After that frazzling moment we all had to take a moment. What with the drams from last night, the rain for this morning and then the runaway car, we were all right on edge and needed a moment to just laugh at it all and let some tension go. As a joke that really did relieve the stress, the 7 or so of us actually held hands while standing in a circle and sang "Kum Baya". We all had a big laugh and the tension evaporated. The Big Ride was fun again.
From there we did not find a church but the gray morning had us ready for a break. On through town we shot pics of town with the nuclear cooling towers in the background.
Then we saw a cop who told us not to stop on the upcoming bridge and certainly not to take any pics of the nuclear plant. New homeland security laws had been put in place that made such activity illegal and would resultin the confiscation of our cameras and film. He didn't want to see us lose a summer's worth of picutres so he gave us the heads up.
Oh another suggestion from the Officer we went to the breakfast at the Mid City Cafe.
Breakfast inside the Mid City Cafe
3 Blueberry pancakes made from scratch really weighed me down as we rode across the aforewarned bridge and passed the huge cooling towers. Climbing the rollers out of the river valley we found Mark's waterstop and I laid down on a bench for a brief rest.
With the misty morning, I felt like I was out near Snoqualmie falls just outside of Seattle and was having flashbacks.
Starting back up again, the rain was heavy and I was cold and miserable. Steve and I waited for Bob and Lambert at the Presbyterian church until I realized I had a flat and then I changed the flat while I waitied. Just as I finished, Bob and Dave rolled up and we headed down the orad a short mile when we decided to duck in to BAD DOG Cafe for lunch, warmth and mostly a respite from the rain.
10 miles of hard rain got us into camp and thus I was into my nap.
The riders are highly charged and politicized over the drama. I feel like I have lost friendships witheh Scott Train for reasons I don't know and drama makes camp seem tense and uncomfortable for me. I am saddened to see it ending this way.
For now it is time to sleep. Only a few hundred miles left in left than a week.
1 comment:
Great work.
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