Day 99

Barn
It took me a while to get out of the woods because I waited for there to be no one on the road. The hills were brutal. The temperature was cold, but the sun was warm. So every time I went uphill, I got really hot, and every time I went downhill, I got really cold. Google was giving me se complicated directions, so I decided to just take the highway the whole way. It had great shoulders. About halfway I stopped at a pharmacy. Postcards! On the first try! I hoped this would save me some miles, but it didn't. I still had to go up to Uniontown to connect up with the Great American Passage. More crazy hills... The rail trails have really spoiled me. I keep forgetting to talk about it, but my bike has fallen enough times now that my basket is all but destroyed. I really am impressed it has lasted this long though. It's rated for something like 9 pounds. I have mpre than that in it almost constantly. I was a bit worried it would fall off while I was going 30 mph down a hill, destroying everything in it. Hopefully that doesn't happen. I was on the road just enough to get another flat tire- yep, I am in a new state. The hole was small enough that I couldn't find it. I probably should have ridden on it more. I switched out the tube and discoved that I only had one spare tube left. Either I miscounted before or I lost one. Crap. I only have two weeks left, but I don't want to risk it. Luckily there was a bike shop only a mile or so off my route. They even had thorn resistant tubes! I really wanted the giant ones that lasted over a month, but they didn't have that size. They did have som odd sizes that he said might work. We decided to try it out. I wheeled in my bike and took everything off. We took off the front wheel and tried it- no luck. The only other tube we thought might work didn't. Oh well. I bought two of the smaller ones instead. I think they lasted about two weeks last time, so I should be solid. I filled up on water here and got back on the trail. It was great- so much better than I was used to. Some guys passed me. They were carrying gear too, so I pumped hard to keep pace with them. Soon they stopped to take a break though and I passed them. I figured they'd be on my tail again soon so I continued to push myself. It was such a beautiful ride. Some leaves have died completely while others are still green, so you get the full range of colors. Enough leaves have fallen by now that sections of the trail are completely covered. I crossed bridges over rapids. There was a tunnel, but it was closed. The bypass trail was probably a mile long. The tunnel was maybe a hundred or two hundred feet. I felt so silly when I got back to the other side of the tunnel. They should really open that up. There was a porta-poty infested with spiders. I guess this trip has made me much less cautious, because I still used it. Towards the end of the day, I saw a bunch of spots that would have probably worked for camping, but I still had 20-30 minutes. After a bit I was near a town so I had to find a spot. There weren't many options. To the left, there was basically a cliff down to the river. On the right, there was another cliff. Finally the rigt side opened up a bit. I found a spot hidden enough. It was slopped, but I'm used to that. A dog barked accross the river. That will be annoying. I set up my tent and crawled inside. I checked my phone and it imediately started ringing- I recognized the number from my old high school. One of the teachers there had a local radio show. He wanted to interview me- I knew this before the call. I hesitated to answer. I had wanted a list of the questions he would ask so that I wouldn't just have to come up with answers on the spot. If you listen to any professional interview, you can tell that they already know what they are going to say. I had thought about just about every question I could think of over the past week though, so I felt prepared enough. I answered the phone. We talked for a bit and then he asked if me cell reception was good. I thought it was, but there was a long pause after I said this and then he acted like he couldn't hear me for a bit and then hung up. Dang. I guess I am in a bad spot. He didn't call back. Maybe some other time.