Saturday, July 4, 2009

An Unsuspecting Climb










7/1/09 ~ After a great nights sleep at the Finks and an awesome pancake breakfast courtesy of Keith, we grabbed our bikes and were on our way with the addition of Cooper. Dietrich had just received a new rim and he was confident that he could pull the BOB without any spoke problems. We headed out across the beautiful appalachian landscape of western Pennsylvania.
It was so beautiful that day and we felt new energy as we got closer to home. Cooper also provided much entertainment for us and we were glad to have someone new with us to spice things up. We rode through some mountains and than along a valley into the town of Bedford. There we grabbed lunch at the local Burger King.
After lunch, we pedaled onwards looking forward to some big climbs that afternoon. We had to cross the infamous Sideling Hill before we dropped into McConnellsburg . . . or so we thought. We climbed up Sideling after a drink break in Breezewood. Because we took a break in Breezewood, the climb didn't seem so terrible because Breezewood is probably a third up the climb. We got to the top and thought we were made. Just a long descent into McConnellsburg.
Descending into the valley, we new that we had missed something when we didn't hit the town in the valley. Than we slowly began to climb. Where the heck had this climb come from. We had forgotten about this second climb. We settled in for the climb that never seemed to end. To top of the experience, it started dumping buckets of rain on us. We were absolutely soaked as we put putted up the mountain. 
Right as we finally reached the top, the rain stopped. Completely soaked, we descended into McConnellsburg. We hit the closest McDonalds to use the air dryers in the bathrooms to dry our clothes. It turned out to be a tougher ride but we were done.
Dietrich and Bobby went about looking for a place to stay. They had instant success and met a pastor who gave us the church's youth building to stay in. It had couches, a shower, and a TV. We crashed into that place and might have made it a little smelly but it was great. We rented a movie from red box, ordered a pizza, and relaxed that night as we watched the romantic comedy "Dan In Real Life". It was such a happy movie and we all went to bed thinking about if we would meet that special someone on the road tomorrow... or maybe the next day.... or the next. Ahh forget it, this is a dudes trip.

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