- Day 1 -1 Week
- Day 1 -12 Hours
- Day 1
- Day 2
- Day 3
- Day 4
- Day 5
- Day 6
- Day 7
- Day 8
- Day 9
- Day 10
- Day 11
- Day 12
- Day 13
- Day 14
- Day 15
- Day 16
- Day 17
- Day 18
- Day 19
- Day 20
- Day 21
- Day 22
- Day 23
- Day 24
- Day 25
- Day 26
- Day 27
- Day 28
- Day 29
- Day 30
- Day 31
- Day 32
- Day 33
- Day 34
- Day 35
- Day 36
- Day 37
- Day 38
- Day 39
- Day 40
- Day 41
- Day 42
- Day 43
- Day 44
- Day 45
- Day 46
- Day 47
- Day 48
- Day 49
- Day 50
- Day 51
- Day 52
- Day 53
- Day 54
- Day 55
- The End
- Retrospective
We hung our clothes outside during breakfast for the last bit of drying. I am super excited that it is cool out. I hope we can get a few less hills and maybe even some nice weather.
We left late. Breakfast was good, but not that good. Packing, re-packing. We hit the road at eleven. It is well about the seventies it was when we set our clothes to dry.
Luckily most of the morning was down hills and small climbs. I was excited to be in the saddle but not killing myself. Of course it was in the nineties shortly there after. It was a lot of work. But this isn’t a pleasure cruse, and I can’t expect to get across the country with ease.
We pushed our way into Pennsylvia. The hills were more of the same.
It was nice that there did seam to be some what of a break, there were hills but… were we already feeling stronger? Were these hills smaller? In a long tour like this I think it is mostly mental. I kept telling myself I am not prepared, but I will be in much better shape by the time we get to the Rockies. I kind of forgot about the hills of the North East.
We rode, a bit relaxed. No need to kill ourselves on Day 2 of 45(?). But the hills fell beneath us much easier, there were some nice long down hill coasts and we are starting to find our stride.
It is still hot. Too hot for me. Twice I was riding when a sudden a deep chill came across me. And in an instant I am freezing. Now, it’s mid to high nineties, I’m peddling this bike with ALL my stuff on it, up hill, I can not actually be cold. I had to stop, this does’t feel like a healthy thing. I don’t really know what it means or if it was actually that bad. But I feel pretty confident that in these conditions, if I am suddenly freezing, it’s time to pause.
It’s getting late so I look up where a good hotel/ stopping spot will be. Eighteen miles down is the closest place that has a hotel and food. Not necessarily what / where we wanted but timing this is what it is. We’re riding and riding, the sun is setting and we’re not there yet. Finally we get into the town. We feel the calm of the day ending. I am feeling anxious that by the time we check in and shower we might miss food. I see the Palmer House, excitedly I pull right up the handicapped entrance. Through the first door I feel this isn’t right. The second door is locked and Jerry says this isn’t right. I check on the phone and sure enough the Palmerton Hotel is a block away. Back on the bikes. We pull up to the Palmerton Hotel and it looks more like a bar. I say I will scout it out. I climb the ten steps to the front door just as some one exits. I ask, mostly knowing the answer, ‘is this a hotel’?
After some extreme disappointment and some advice on what to do in an area that names things fun names instead of what it actually is, we gear up for another eight miles. We angry ride, sun is setting, food is closing, hotel might not even be a hotel. But what choice do we have other then to press ahead.
We pass two open restaurants that gives us hope for the last quarter mile. We get in to the hotel lobby very excitable. I think we each asked five questions at once. But as we check in and find a pizza place that delivers that is still open and suddenly we are feeling much calmer. We took our showers while we waited for our food to arrive. The food wasn’t great but as bad as the end of the day was looking it actually ended pretty ok.
The miles were under what we’ve hope for, for both of our two days. The hills have been steeper then we anticipated. But as Jerry said, “It’s better that we’re getting the shit out of the way now.”
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