Rain, rain, and then some more rain. Add wrong turns, backtracks and poorly thought out decisions by my routing software, and you have my day!

Sorry, folks! There will be no wonderful pictures or amazing video today. It was raining when I got up, when I left Pittsburgh, and pretty much only stopped about 1:30pm by which time I was no mood to take pictures. At times the rain was driving, other times just spitting, but it was there most of the day.

Just saying I will still take rain over 100-degree heat. At least I didn't need sunscreen or bug spray today!

Getting out of Pittsburgh was a bit complicated, and there were a few mis-steps and wrong turns. One that had me concerned was half of a bridge that was closed, but I managed to use the sidewalk on the open side to make my way over.

On that crossing I discovered a mechanical issue that will probably affect my ride for several days. I have a "Thudbuster" seatpost that has an elastomer cushion in it - it takes some of the shock out of potholes and such. One of the four pins that hold it fell out somewhere, so now my seat can pivot forwards/backwards, which makes staying comfortable on the saddle more difficult. I found a bolt (on the road!) which I jammed in there to see if I could keep it still, but it still pivots somewhat. With the holiday weekend coming up my chances of finding a bike shop (most are closed on Mondays) that could just sell me a regular seatpost are slim. I may just be stuck with this until Wednesday. 

The routing software issue was the same one that cropped up on Day 6. On that day, it tried to make me climb a steep hill to save a mile, even though the trail just continued to my destination. Today it was similar but seemed to be trying to keep me off of busier roads. I'll definitely take a somewhat busy road if I don't have to climb a monster hill! I'm now studying each day's route carefully the night before to correct those impulses my software seems to have.

I arrived in New Castle about 4pm. It's an old steel mill town like so many in this rust-belt part of Pennsylvania. Someone eating nearby at dinner told me the population is mostly Italian & Polish. Sounds a bit like Milwaukee. 

Tomorrow takes me to Ravenna, which is in a new state - Ohio. I will try to take more pictures, but the forecast is much like today - more rain.