Day 6 Monday 10/4/21

  I wake up in Rockwood and have a self-serve pandemic breakfast in the Gingerbread House. While we are drinking coffee on the porch, the skies open up. It doesn’t last long but it is heavy. I meet Marianne, the innkeeper of the Gingerbread House. She tells me that the rooms are named after her grandchildren. A nice touch.

     I pack my bicycle and start towards Ohiopyle on a cool and gloomy morning.

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Today is to be a short day--28 miles according to the map. I stop in Confluence and have some coffee at the Tissue Farm, a historically-named cafe. The owner says he should have maybe thought out the name a little better. Ten times a day, he has to explain that the Tissue Family owned all the land in Confluence and the surrounding area. Hence the name, which has nothing to do with Kleenex. He and his partner are going to use the space in the building as an art gallery. The space is impressive and the coffee is great.

    At Confluence, I get some lunch at Mitch’s Food and Fuel, another gas station restaurant. While I’m there, the skies reopen with a passing shower. I manage to avoid it.

 The ride into Ohiopyle follows the Youghiogheny River. I check into my room, which is connected to the Falls Market. The room is nice, all new with a great bathroom. The price is reasonable. The only thing it lacks is a window, which makes it illegal to rent as a habitable space, just about everywhere. Residential Code 2009 of Pennsylvania, section R303.1, if you’re interested.

   I hike around Ferncliff Natural Area, checking out the rapids and Ohiopyle Falls. There is a cool-looking visitors center I may check out in the morning, if the lack of a second egress doesn’t kill me.

    I can’t find a restaurant in Ohiopyle I want to eat in and nuke some chicken pot pies from the market in the communal microwave. They weren’t that awful and almost a vegetarian meal due to the lack of chicken. I rinse off the bike using a hose by the station/visitor’s center. I think it’s for filling the dogs’ water bowls but it works.