Amish shits and our first day off

So it’s been an interesting past couple of days. Last I left you I believe I claimed it was our “hardest day yet.” I spoke wayyyy too soon.

Our night in State College was pretty nice. I got to sleep in a bed which is, obviously, always a perk. We woke up to rain, but when we were ready to go it stopped. However, I noticed my back tire was flat (something I’ve been having major issues with; I’ve changed both tires now and, hopefully, no more problems). I took off near the end of the pack with Annie and Emmy. Unfortunately, we got hit with rain right away. I had to pull over to throw on my arm warmers and rain jacket cause the rain was so damn cold. When I did I dropped my glove on the other side of a fence and, after minutes of figuring out how to get it back, Emmy had found a opening and just walked into the yard.

We caught up with some more people and continued on. And then we were hit with more hills (surprise surprise). Not just normal hills… switchback climbs left and right. We even got up to the Eastern Continental Divide. At one point I was climbing and my chain fell off. I pulled over and changed it and when I started riding again the nipple of my Camelbak came off and started spraying water all over me.

The day dragged on and on and the YWCA (our host site) felt sooo far away. At one point Megan almost got hit by a red truck that we saw in a gas station we pulled into. I asked her if she was gonna confront him and then he walked out. She kind of stared at him and then he asked in a friendly tone, “Whatcha guys doing?” “Biking across the county to raise awareness for affordable housing.” “Ohh, cool.” Then he got in the truck and Megan kept staring until she finally said, “You almost hit me.” He rolled his window down and dropped his friendly tone and said, “Get off the road.” She responded with, “Legally it’s ours, too.” “Get off the road.” And then he pulled away. Scary. Also, that same day Andrea was biking alone and a dog started chasing her. A car almost hit the dog and then swerved and almost hit her, but at least stopped the dog from chasing her. The owner called Bruce’s name and he ran back, but Andrea started crying on her bike for a minute. I tell this story because it comes in handy later.

Going into Johnstown was super crazy. There was a 14% downgrade that I went down alone. It ended really abruptly with a stop sign. I basically had my fists clenched the entire ride down.

The folks at the YWCA made us a delicious pasta dinner and we had an affordable housing presentation that night. Aaron, Jenna, Larry, Denis, and Jodi presented that night. Some went out to a bar after, but the others (including myself) just crashed. We had a 5:30 wakeup to head to Pittsburgh the next morning. This is something I was really excited for because my parents and friend, Liz, were gonna be waiting for me!

So we wake up the next morning and leave. I start the day with Megan and a gaggle of people. The terrain wasn’t too bad. We knew we’d be doing a little more climbing before entering Ohio and it, eventually, getting flatter. We were kind of hungry and thirsty, so planned on stopping at a gas station. However, we saw this cute little Amish grocery store on the side and decided to pull in. I browsed the aisles and settled on a Reese’s Nutrageous and a little bag full of Peach Rings (basically the same as Peach-Os, but sugar-free and homemade from the Amish). When we came outside I offered some of my new tasty purchases to some people, but really just ended up eating the whole bag by myself. After admiring some of the Amish handy work we took off and had maybe 10-15 miles until lunch. It was during this time that I started feeling funny. I sort of thought, “Hmm, maybe eating candy was not such a good idea.” But then the feeling got worse and I was pretty sure I was going to puke. By the time I got to lunch I had absolutely no appetite, my stomach started hurting, and felt like I was going to puke. I saw a nearby family medicine building and walked over there with Ravi to use the bathrooms. You see, Ravi and Christina split a bag of the Peach Rings from the Amish.

We used their bathroom and left after talking to the very interested doctor for about ten minutes. My stomach wasn’t feeling right, but I was glad it didn’t feel like it was going to come out my mouth anymore.

I started biking…super slow. That’s the only speed I could register. I lost a lot of the people I was riding with and, to make things worse, I didn’t have a cue sheet. I threw the wrong one away in the morning, so was relying on others. People do chalk the route, but I thought it was too risky to follow that. Eventually, I caught up with some people. But by this time my stomach was killing me and, ya know what, I’ll just say it: I had the worst diarrhea ever. Good thing I caught up with Christina and Ravi because the three of us started demolishing every gas station we saw. I ended up losing them, though, because I came up to a climb I simply could not handle. I walked into some creepy individual contractor’s building and asked four men sitting in a circle to use their bathroom. They said yes…skeptically.

Meanwhile, I told my parents to wait for me to tell them when to come to the church that night, but they decided to show up at 4:00. I was not going to get to Pittsburgh by that time. Oh, also, sometimes when I was feeling down I thought of Andrea being chased by a dog and that made me laugh.

Even though my stomach as starting to feel a bit better I started freaking out about the fact that I had nothing to eat at lunch, thus putting me at risk to bonk (hitting that wall where you’re body cannot go another inch). I pulled over at a hamburger stand and then saw Andrea and Aaron (who were sweep that day) come up. I pulled them over which was good because they at least had cue sheets. They gave me the oomph I needed for those last 20 miles we did into Pittsburgh. It rained a bit and we had some intense trafficky downhills, but we managed to be safe. I got into Pittsburgh at 6:30/7:00 which is right after my parents left. They stayed at the church a while talking to fellow B&Bers and I knew I would see them the next day.

That night in Pittsburgh was our first official night before our day off! We all got showered (pretty late cause the van wouldn’t start…again) and ready and then Liz came and met us. She recommended this place to go to called Buckhead Saloon. It started out relatively calm with some dude on stage with his guitar, but once a lot of us got in there it turned into a realy fun dance party (with mostly just us dancing, but who cares?).

I slept at Liz’s that night and got to see her really cute apartment. She dropped me at the church the next morning and mom and dad came and met me. We had a good day. I went back to their apartment and used the hot tub and uploaded a bunch of pics. We had lunch, they bought some food for the group, and I must make a special note that us Bike & Builders love to put frosting on EVERYTHING at lunch. Sandwiches, crackers, etc. But frosting does not come out of Bike & Build’s budget. The leaders pay out of pocket sometimes. Because of this when we went to Sam’s club they bought a five-gallon 28 lb bucket of chocolate frosting. This should, hopefully, last us the rest of the trip.

We took naps in the parking lot of Walmart (classy) and then went out to dinner at Fatheads with Liz. I was dead tired after then, so Liz dropped me off, I cleaned my bike, and then headed for bed. Oh, and supposedly I missed all the furries walking around the streets of Pittsburgh. I guess there was a furry convention in town. I only saw a skunk’s tail from around the corner.

The next morning we took over for Cadiz, OH. This was an up and down day. Luckily, it was only like a 60 mile ride. We crossed two state borders, crossed a closed bridge that was lined with fireworks, but then I got two flats in the last three miles, including one that blew my tire out. So I walked my bike the last two miles to our host site which was a camping lodge. I started off with the bike on my shoulder like the ending of Cool Runnings, but quickly put the bike down and rolled it. Four people asked me if I wanted a ride, but I didn’t want to get in trouble so I said no. But a quarter of a mile away a woman in a golf cart asked me if I wanted a ride and I accepted.

I’ll update you about the crazy fourth I had today later, but for now I got to go to our family meeting.

Until then, keep on rolling!