Meadville, PA to New Castle, PA:

July 16, 2012

Amish Baked Goods Ahead

Nothing like starting the day with a two mile climb right after leaving the hotel parking lot. Actually, when it's cool it is a good way to warm up. Since we had a second floor room the first challenge was to get the tandem, B.O.B. trailer, bag and helmets down the stairwell in one piece. We lost the rear elastic strap somewhere in the process. Maybe it saw it's chance to escape and sprung into the bushes. My count of lost items this tour include: 2 ball caps, 1 mosquito hat, 2 pair socks, 1 extension cord. We really don't have that many things, so losing items is a result of age related memory weakness as much as anything else. We continued today on Pennsylvania bicycle route "A". I have to say I like the designated bicycle routes because they usually have had good shoulders. We have been traveling through Amish country which is good for a cyclist because motor vehicles are used to nontraditional road users. You can tell when there is a lot of buggy traffic. The first sign is the manure droppings at the bottom of hills. Also buggy wheels make scratches on the shoulders and the road. However there is one hazard. Rhona's scanning antenna go on "high alert" status for any Amish baked goods or strawberry stands ahead or within 1 mile of the road. We'll be cycling peacefully along and suddenly, "AOOOGA, AOOOGA, AOOOOOOGA... Baked Good alert". We pull immediately across speeding traffic to the left side of the road while the Rhona raiding party deploys. At one stand today three little Amish children stood wide-eyed as Rhona surveyed their wares and purchased as much as they could spare. Rhona thinks they were actually more in wonder at the tandem trailer combination, but I don't know. While I used the tire pump to add more air to the bicycle tires so as to handle the additional weight from the baked goods the Amish woman asked us about Niagara Falls and wondered if the man walked the tightrope across the falls all the time.

Although we seemed to climb up and down a lot we saw several lakes and boggy areas.

This seemed to be the day for carved wooden statues.

Actually, don't know what this guy was made of. Probably not wood.

Today's ride: 49 miles (79 km)
Total: 1,841 miles (2,963 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0