All The Sudden, San Diego Doesn't Seem So Far Away

7/3/09 ~ Today was the day, the closing of chapter 2 of our grand journey. We were coming home. All of our experiences up to this point suddenly came back to life as we looked back on that has happened to us. It will definately take a lifetime to process everything thats happened. 

We woke up at Frank's place and had an incredible breakfast of coffee and hot cakes with King's Maple Syrup. The great thing about King's Maple Syrup is that it is so thick that it doesn't soak into your hot cakes, so they don't get soggy. It was great being able to eat and relax knowing that today's ride was gonna be easy and a blast.

We rendezvoused with our parents, Weston Shertzer, and Brian Link at Cross Keys and geared up for the ride. Joining us was Brian Link, Bill Longenecker, Will Charles, and Weston Shertzer. So we hard quite a crew of riders leaving Cross Keys for the ride today. It was truly exhilarating to ride with so many other people and we cruised through the morning.

Lunch was spent at the Linde's house. It was a great homecoming for Dietrich and it felt weird to think that we were only 40 some days from San Diego. The world felt huge and small all at once. Lunch was great and we had good conversation before saddling back up and heading out for Bobby's house in Lititz.

The ride out of York to Lancaster was beautiful. We took back roads and really got to enjoy the countryside and fields. Crossing the Susquehanna river was a big mile marker and hitting Lancaster soil really felt good.

We climbed up from Columbia to Prospect and than rode back roads the whole way to Bobby's house. The last few miles were slightly downhill and we just hammered them knowing how big of an accomplishment it was to bike from San Diego home to Pennsylvania. It truly was magical; like a dream come true.

That evening was spent celebrating with family and friends at the Longeneckers. We had delicious food and got to enjoy the wonderful July evening. We would like to thank all those who rode with us from Gettysburg, it was great to have new energy and you really made the ride fun. We would also like to thank Betsy Longenecker for all the preparing she did for the picnic that night, the food was great. Thankyou also to all those who came out to the picnic to see us, it was great to relax and catch up with all of you guys. The night was truly magical and it was quite a way to close chapter 2 of our trip. Now all thats left is the final installment - New England. We're excited to begin the journey to Maine on Monday.