Day 55: Chambersburg, PA to Lancaster, PA- 82.37 miles, Total 3419.6 miles

Thanks to our new friends from yesterday’s diner, we knew the lay of the land. One climb faced us today- South Mountain. Though, nothing like it’s predecessors in terms of grade, we should have a nice gradual slope. We made it out pre 9am, which is early for us, as of recent.

Edie and I covered some amazing farm roads to start and resumed on them post climb. Apple orchards abounded and we even managed to get a few apples for ourselves. Most of the trees had been plucked clean, but plenty of pristine apples found their way to the ground below. So many, in fact, that we had our pick of hundreds of apples. As we progressed, some trees still carried a few apples. Doubtful that anyone would be going back for them now, we grabbed some for ourselves.

The quiet backroad through orchards brought us upon a man in lawn service. His mower appeared stuck in a ditch and he attempted to pull it out with a second tractor. From the look of it, to no avail. Edie asked if we should try to help him in order to scoop up some karma points. I agreed and we turned back to assist him. The task- drive the tractor to pull him out on the mower. Edie nominated me and I rose to the occasion. We saved the day.

All the while we rode just north of Gettysburg. The farms and houses we all very unique. Crafted of stone and brick, each one seemed to exude history from it’s being. We even came across a field of horses. We stopped to say hello. The young ones were very interested in us and came to the edge of the pasture to investigate. We entertained them for a bit (no wonder we never make it to our daily goals).

The terrain mellowed out, as promised by the locals. The mountains were behind us, but we still found ourselves in the motion of up and down. The towns grew closer together- all full of brick and stone houses and unique main streets. York, in particular, showcased an interesting path through town. Plenty of historic buildings and businesses kept our eyes wandering.

Shortly after York, I heard the sound of flat tire number four of the trip (two for Edie). Our Conti Gatorskins are beginning to come undone. I blew out a spot on my sidewall, but we only need them to last 2 more days! With a new tube and a bit of Tyvek as a boot, we set out for our final push.

It became another grind to get to town and in trademark fashion, we arrived in the dark. We discovered that the Courtyard lacks some of the qualities that we’ve come to adore of the Hampton Inn and Fairfield Inn. Though, tomorrow’s rain storm remains at the forefront of our minds.

Day 54: Bedford, PA to Chambersburg, PA- 63.74 miles, Total 3337.2 miles

I’m not going to write about our breakfast, a late start or revisiting certain routes today.

Though, I will write about the torture chamber that is Pennsylvania. Up and down and up and down and… Edie and I cursed the state for most of our ride. Edie did pause periodically when her prettiness proclivity took over, but she’d revert back and join me in anger.

Locals in McConnellsville were both informative on the terrain and thoroughly amused by what I’m sure they perceived as our stupidity. I hope, deep down, they admired our tenacity and found our adventure impressive. They did admit that some people (I’m guessing themselves on various occasions) call Pennsylvania, “hell.”

One may find it hard to believe (we did), but we gained more elevation today than yesterday. In total, we climbed 5,022 ft. Two main climbs (2,195 ft and 2,123 ft) comprised the majority of our efforts. AND, they both came with the reward of a sign. The iPad went a bit haywire with our last batch of photos, so we lost the previous summit signage. Two today makes up for it, I suppose.

After another intense day in the saddle, we wouldn’t make our hoped destination of Gettysburg. We’d settle on Chambersburg and cut our losses. On the up side, Edie and I found a Panera bread. We haven’t had it once yet on the trip and it trumps any other chain. Somewhat out of our way, we made a loop around the city to indulge. Our nightly shower, food and TV ritual ensued and we both went to bed.

Day 52: New Stanton, PA to Bedford, PA- 78.04 miles, Total 3273.5 miles

I realize that most posts start with a mention of breakfast, typically at a hotel and involving waffles. This morning, however, left Edie and I scratching our heads. First, why vomit in the hallway on the way to breakfast? Second, why were there twenty or more people in a breakfast area that was designed for ten, max? Third, why were the majority of said people from India? We’ll probably never know the answers to these questions. We do know that if ever in New Stanton, PA again- avoid the Days Inn like the plague. It’s no wonder the Fairfield Inn was booked solid.

We cut breakfast short due to the crowds and poor waffle maker (undercooked). Today marked our finale into a rest day, making tomorrow our last rest day. We plotted a 71 mile route for the day, knowing that we would be facing some serious hills. Our route took us over the “mountainous” climbs that the S Route avoids with a very off trajectory bike path. I doubted I could coerce Edie back onto a crushed limestone bike path again. After her distaste for the Katy Trail, I knew we’d better stay on pavement. Besides, they couldn’t be that bad, we already conquered the highest pass on the trip and all the tough stuff was out West.

Wrong, the past few days already had us doubting these statements enough. Today sealed the deal. We hit our first climb leaving Donegal that took us up 750 ft in two miles. It was intense! From there we lost about 400 ft followed by nearly 1,200 ft of gain.

We worked up quite the appetite and broke for lunch around the half point in Somerset. Edie and I found a great independent sub shop and sat down for our meal. The whoopie pies for dessert made the stop and we left all smiles.

A brief tease of rain nearly killed the positive whoopie vibe, but it passed and we rolled on. At lunch we decided to follow the S Route again, as the mileage was the same as Google maps. The route is very well marked with signs and takes some of the guess work out while riding. It mainly followed Route 31, a fairly straight shot. We continued to encounter numerous climbs, but none as devastating as the first two. All in all, we climbed 4,536 ft, with a max elevation of 2,716.

The S Route took us off of Route 31 briefly and much to our surprise (and approval) was all downhill. Even when it deposited us back onto 31, we kept going down. You weren’t going to hear any complaints from us, though. We’ll take it.

Before we knew it we passed the Cannondale factory and landed in our destination of Bedford. We entered on the street the town was built around to reveal plenty of historic buildings and a quaintness. Google steered us 3 miles south of our hotel, but luckily a friendly (now a rarity) local pointed us in the right direction.

Of course, the direction was up a hill for the entire time. We reached our interstate community of commercialism and it felt all warm and fuzzy. The glow of fluorescent signs and corporate logos holds a degree of comfort for us now. After a stop at Sheetz, we checked in to the Fairfield Inn ordered Papa John’s pizza and turned on HBO. Products of our environment, I guess (get us home soon).

Day 50: Zanesville, OH to St. Clairesville, OH- 72.02 miles, Total 3108.1 miles

I think we woke up in a Fairfield Inn… it’s all getting very confusing. The terrain, rooms and continental breakfasts are blurring together. I do know we rode on Route 40 again, though it got quite hilly. In fact, surprisingly hilly. So much so, that I distinctly remember it.

To switch the day up, Google took us on a series of back roads. They proved the prettiest we’ve seen since out West. My wife (is that the first time I’ve called her such on the blog?), loves her New England. Trees, landscapes and the changing leaves produce no shortage of comments from her. A series of “so, pretty” emerged from behind me today more times that I can recount. That’s an indicator that the scenery was top notch. Well, her statements along with the multiple stops for photos knocked the “pretty” ball out of the park.

I’ll even admit, I had no idea Ohio could look so good. We even saw a horse and carriage en route. While on a roll with cheesy baseball phrases, Google walking directions did throw us a curveball with some loose gravel dirt roads. The descents reminded us of the time we got a ride from Pat down the mountain and the climb had me back in Litchfield at this spring’s Rapha Gentlemen’s Race. We narrowly made it safely back to Route 40. Though, this time, happy to see it and be back on pavement headed towards chain hotels.

Destined for Wheeling, WV, we fell short. The days are getting shorter and our end of the day pushes don’t get us quite as far as we hope. Luckily, the town we stopped in for a brief moment to rest had a free hotel. We booked it and rode the additional two miles to get there.

It was a huge Hampton Inn piled high with fresh cookies. After some small talk at the front desk, we hit the showers and took advantage of the Italian restaurant located upstairs in the hotel. The adjacent sports bar had a live act- “Captain Cover-song of the Worst Top 40 Crap You Can Imagine”. If his name didn’t spell out how bad it was, maybe the fact that he started to cover Eminem’s hit from his movie does. I don’t know the title and even if I did, I wouldn’t admit to it.

Our attention wandered to the conversation behind us regarding mountain bikes. Hoping that those telling it would know something about the S Route we’d be on in PA tomorrow, I butted in. They didn’t know anything about the route, but knew lots about racing 4 wheelers or “quads” (as they called them). Both were in town for a big national level race being held at Powerline Park tomorrow. One of the guys, Brian, even frequents NYC as a gemologist for work. We had a great conversation and then parted ways back to our rooms. Now we need rest for our triple header of states tomorrow.

Day 49: Columbus, OH to Zanesville, OH- 64.12 miles, Total 3036.1 miles

Edie and I realized that the chances of us camping again for the remainder of the trip are slim. We haven’t camped in some time and the nights aren’t getting any warmer. Why, then, would we continue to carry around our camping equipment? We’ve been asking ourselves that since Indiana (at least we camped once in Missouri). Well, this morning, post Hampton Inn continental breakfast, the stars aligned and a UPS store appeared dead in our path. I looked at Edie and we both knew it was time to shed that extra weight.

28 pounds later and lighter we rolled away from the UPS store. Our goal was Cambridge, but due to another late start at the hotel and our shipping excursion, we found ourselves already at a loss for time. This morning Edie so aptly expressed that she was “tired to the bone”. A phrase that is becoming too commonplace on this trip to escape the blog any longer. I concurred and one snooze button led to another and so forth. With this in mind, we re-calibrated our goal to Zanesville.

Already in the hole, we stopped for lunch in Columbus proper with only 10 miles under our belt. The Thai peanut noodles proved to be a Thai peanut bomb in our stomachs. Added to yesterday’s cheese pizza lunch devastation we chastised ourselves for two poor lunch choices in a row.

We trudged on with full bellies and the most commercial sprawl we’ve encountered on our trip to date. After ten plus grueling miles of stripmall business wasteland, we stopped at Jolly Pirate for a donut. The surly donut keeper kept us so entertained that we didn’t even question the one and a half donuts each we had (yes, I realize my previous paragraph contains poor food choice content). The only thing that kept us going was the new found information that the sea of capitalism would subside in six stoplights.

We would then encounter “nothing”, which turned out to be a subsequent string of pumpkin patch farms with cute little barns and goodies for sale. Edie managed to photograph them all. Our now hilly terrain added some excitement (we didn’t miss the extra weight, that’s for certain) and a helpful tailwind even made the riding somewhat carefree. We also broke the 3,000 mile mark today!

We took a few nature breaks, but no snacks. We haven’t been consuming candy bars, soda or snacks at our gas station stops lately. Edie and I both remarked on the oddness of this, but can’t put a finger on why we don’t snack. The miles do go by quicker, though and we ended up in Zanesville via a ten mile bike lane.

We quickly located our hotel and decided on the Olive Garden. In hopes of bed by 9:30, we mapped it all out. Too bad our plan was foiled by some dude that heard us mention Pittsburgh. He picked up not a single hint of our disinterest and we ended up edging ourselves out of the restaurant. Now 10:30, I can finally go to bed.

Day 48: Englewood, OH to Columbus, OH- 75.99 miles, Total 2972 miles

We had a hard time getting up this morning. Perhaps it was that we didn’t go to bed until 12:30 AM, or perhaps it was that we were so physically drained after our longest day yet: 106 miles. Either way, it wasn’t until 8:30 when we finally got moving.

Over yet another waffle-filled continental breakfast, we debated whether to take the more direct route to Columbus, spending another day on Rte 40, or to go off course so that we could swing through Yellow Springs, home of my Alma Mater, Antioch College. It was only an additional 5 miles, so we decided to go for it.

Eventually, we got ourselves out the door. It was a beautiful fall day. The sky was bright blue and many of the trees were starting to change color. The roads to Antioch were lined with old barns, gentle rolling hills, and endless post-harvest corn fields. The closer we got, the more I remembered my Antioch days.

We finally arrived in Yellow Springs. Before stopping for lunch, we decided to roll through campus. So many memories came rushing back. I loved telling Brett about each of the buildings and all they conjured up.

Earlier on the trip, I had mentioned something about how Antioch was on the quarter system and started later in the fall than most. Upon noticing that there were no students milling around, Brett asked when school started. I told him it was shut. He asked again, “Yeah, but when does it open?” Sadly, Antioch will not open this year. A decision to close it down was made a couple years ago. The college, that was so progressive and rich with history, had to close when it could no longer sustain itself due to shrinking enrollments and a low endowment.

We wandered around and took some pictures. There were a bunch of construction guys at work. We found out from one of them that Antioch will open again next year for a class of 30. Not sure how that will work out, but then again, Antioch has come back from being shut down in the past…

I really wanted to have lunch at this one place, HaHa’s pizza. That we did. We got a large pizza with olives, pineapple, and banana peppers. Good combination, but bad decision on eating a large pizza. It wasn’t quite as good as I’d remembered it. And now it was 3 PM and our stomachs were loaded down with way over-cheesed pizza and we still had 52 miles to go to Columbus. Yikes! Sun sets at 7 PM, we had to hurry.

The road out of Yellow Springs was as pretty as the road in. We wound through hills, cornfields and farms. Eventually, we got on a bike path that carried us for 15 miles or so. We still had a ways to go and only an hour-and-a-half of sunlight. We (well, Brett) were losing confidence in our ability to get to Columbus.

The bike path ended and we headed east on Rte 142. Incredible. A tail wind, for once! Brett took a monster hour-long man pull and got us to the west side of Columbus jut as the sun was setting. We held 18 – 23 mph for that entire hour. It felt so good to have the wind behind us for once.

We used some more rewards points, and got ourselves a room at The Hampton Inn. Again. At this point, we’ve got the routine pretty dialed in: dinner, hot tub, shower, TV, bed…. we were exhausted.

Day 47: Carmel, IN to Englewood, OH- 106.64 miles, Total 2896 miles

After breakfast, we left our suburban digs courtesy of Jen and Chris (thanks so much, you two). They left Edie and I alone yesterday and we basically played house in Indiana. We cooked our own meals and, even, went grocery shopping at Whole Foods. The night closed with a terrifying TV program on venomous creature bites. Good thing we already made it through snake territory.

With squeaky clean bikes and new chains, we lowered the garage door and set off. North of Route 40, we’d head east on 32 and 38 to reconnect with 40 in Richmond. Our exit took us on Tour de Strip Mall- passing every chain known to mankind. Though, once it ended, we were back on quieter roads and got down to pedaling. Our lunch consisted of veggie burgers from BK at a reasonable hour with just under half of the projected days mileage.

After lunch, Edie suggested, no- insisted, that she listen to music. I followed suit, but also realized it was a sign of the day and days previous. The terrain isn’t nearly as inspiring or foreign as encountered in the West. The familiarity and repetition as we get closer to home makes it hard to not just want to get home. Regardless, Edie and I are both trying to take in each mile for what it is and not rush things. Like the daily beast report- today’s includes llamas, donkeys and miniature ponies.

After Richmond, we entered Ohio. Unlike the way into Indiana, our new state had signage (and we got Indiana on the other side of the road). From the border, it was another 30 miles to our destination for the day. Google maps, according to walking directions, put us on some back roads into Englewood and we made it to the Hampton Inn well before dark. Today marks our biggest day yet, in terms of mileage. We celebrated with dinner at Perkins. Edie and I swore we would dine there before the end of our trip. Check.

Our day 45 rest day felt so good, we decided to double down. Day 47 will be big- we promise.

Day 44: Terre Haute, IN to Carmel, IN- 43.36 miles, Total 2783 miles

The forecast called for rain in the morning. We slept in with this in mind and tried to compensate for the hour lost in our new timezone (EST). Strongly considering a day off, we got word from Edie’s dear friend, Jen Pixley, that we were to spend the night at her place. She was just north of Indianapolis and we agreed to start riding once the rain let up around noon. Jen offered to meet us near Indianapolis and bring us north to her place. The plan was to call her when we left with an update. The rain didn’t play well with our schedule and remained consistent until noon or so. The sun began to come out just before one, which is when we finally left.

At this point, we aimed to get as far as we could by 6pm or so and Jen would collect us wherever that found us. Though, the sun didn’t last long- within three miles we were soaked and freezing, as a direct result. I contemplated going back to the Fairfield Inn (or any hotel for that matter). We pushed on as the rain would slow to a drizzle and then return as a shower. I plead for a day off in a hotel only to be told to put on some dry clothes and power through. The skies ahead were blue and the sun would periodically grace us with it’s presence.

Edie remained positive, though our progress for the day was laughable. We stopped under a drive thru bank area when a surge of rain hit us and lost some more time and miles. With such a late start, it was lunch time with less than 20 miles of riding. Our stomachs rumbled and we clearly needed food because the bananas we ate while waiting out the rain at the bank weren’t going to cut it.

After Subway (they really should have sponsored us), we were back on the road and set a goal for time and mileage to when we would update Jen, as our deadline drew near. We called her nearly an hour later and planned to meet her in a town 18 miles away in an hour and change. Sidetracked by ponies, goats and a few other photo opportunities, we wouldn’t make our goal of Stilesville. We did, however, see a car pass in the other direction flashing their lights and waving. Jen arrived to swoop us back to her place.

We loaded in and set out for the suburbs of Indianapolis. Jen and Chris (her husband) had this great Thule rack that requires no disassembly of the bike. In fact, it doesn’t touch the frame at any point- the design is similar to bike racks on metro buses. Edie and Jen jumped into a flurry of updates. Both recent brides (we missed their wedding due to our trip) and athletes (Jen cycles and runs and ironmans), there was no shortage to tell.

Soon we arrived to proper suburbia- a fabricated town filled with housing developments, an outdoor shopping mall and various other new buildings on what was a cornfield ten years ago. Edie and I were just happy to be in a big house with a garage filled with bikes (some fancy ones, too) owned by friends. We soaked it all in and will continue to do so throughout tomorrow’s well deserved rest day.