Penn Ride for Cancer - Travel Journal

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noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:50:00 +0000

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Happy Holidays!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 04:37:00 +0000

Well, it's been just over four months since we rolled into San Francisco. I think I speak for everyone when I say that Penn Ride really was the adventure of a lifetime! Traversing the country's varied geography and passing through dozens of small communities really changed the way that we view America. We learned an incredible amount about ourselves and about the country through our journey.

Thank you very much to everyone who supported us! We met a ton of great people during the ride who went out of their way to help by providing us with food and accommodations. The members of our communities really showed their generosity in helping us meet our fundraising goals as well. Several weeks ago, we had the pleasure of writing a check for $27,006 to the American Cancer Society. Several other donations are being made directly to the ACS on behalf of Penn Ride, bringing the total amount donated to the American Cancer Society on behalf of Penn Ride for Cancer to $29,206.

We're hoping to post some pictures from Penn Ride over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more updates and have a happy holiday season!

4,300 miles later...

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 18:36:00 +0000

We made it!!! Yesterday we arrived in San Francisco a day earlier than scheduled. Everyone started getting a little antsy once we reached California, so we decided to go 110 miles on Sunday to West Sacramento. We rolled through fruit orchards and into a stiff headwind yesterday to reach the ocean. Now we're in San Francisco exploring the city and celebrating the completion of the ride. We're having a party at a yacht club in Half Moon Bay tonight courtesy of Tim's family friends. We have limited internet access right now, but we'll write more about the last few days of the ride later. Right now, everyone is feeling great and ready to celebrate!

Far Too Long

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 03:51:00 +0000

Well, it's been over a week since our last blog entry and a lot has happened since then...like all of Utah and half of Nevada. We last left our heroes in Escalante, UT, where Joe's derailleur had exploded and Terence was dead of cholera.

We don't really have time to recap all of the rides, so I'll give you the highlights. The rest day at Bryce Canyon was great. The park is beautiful and we managed to do a lot of cool stuff. Tyler and Robin went horseback riding, while Tim and I went hiking. Parents, stop reading here. At night, Joe, Terence, and Tyler decided to become professional bull riders so they entered the Ruby's Inn Rodeo. Not smart...all three ended up off the bull within two seconds. Terence's take: "I'd rather be mugged." Ok parents, you can start reading again.

Western Utah reminded us a lot of Western Kansas, hot, windy, and boring. When we reached Baker, NV, the mountains of Great Basin National Park came into view, giving us a welcome break from the monotony of the Utah desert. Most of Eastern Nevada followed a pretty predictable pattern, climb a big mountain, descend into a windy basin, repeat. The climbs haven't been too bad though, Nevada has actually been a lot easier than we expected. There aren't many towns on Highway 50 ("The loneliest Highway in America"). We're getting pretty used to signs that say "84 miles to next services." Nevertheless, Stan's been doing a great job of setting up SAG stops and providing us with water and peanut butter and nutella sandwiches. We may be the most pampered cross-country cyclists in history.

The big Nevada highlight came on the ride from Ely to Eureka. Halfway up our last climb of the day, Tim was...parents, stop reading here... [Joe now writing] chased for about 4 or 5 minutes uphill by a mountain lion. I was at the top of the hill, and Tim arrived, panting like crazy, and looking kind of wild. It turned out that he had seen a lion cross about 100 metres (this isn't Tim writing, I swear) in front of him, and then, when he passed it, it gave chase and ran after him up the hill for around a mile. I knew he was serious when he met me at the top saying, "Joe, do you have cell service? We have a legitamite [sic] emergency." We flagged down two cars to warn the others still en route of the danger. Luckily everyone made it into town safely, and we have a lovely stay in the county fair grounds. [Joe done writing]Parents, you can start reading again.

Tonight, we're in Middlegate, NV, a "town" of about 20 people. We're having a ton of fun hanging out and playing pool at the Middlegate Station Motel though. If you're ever in Middlegate, you should definitely check it out. You can't really miss it, since it's the only thing in town.

Anyway, that's it from here. Hopefully we'll have better Internet access over the next couple of days and we'll be able to bring you more frequent updates. Until then...

-Jon

Hot to Trot

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 01:26:00 +0000

Still cycling through the desert. It feels like we can almost see California on the horizion, only one more state. But, hey, what's one more state between friends.
The scenery has been beautiful; the climbs and heat have not. Joe's deraileur exploded today (that'll happen). He's taking tomorrow and maybe the rest day to try to find civilization to get a replacement.
Morale is high. Terence K. died of cholora. We hired an Indian to ford the river. Looking forward to the next trading post, for we are running low on salted meat. However, we were able to barter with some fur catchers for several sacks of potatoes.

More to come....
Joe & JP

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 22:55:00 +0000

We rolled into Utah this afternoon, and boy is it hot here. The current temperature here in Blanding is 95 degrees. Apparently, Utah is experiencing some unseasonably hot weather. Cycling through the heat hasn't been too bad though. We're all filling out Camelbaks on a regular basis and drinking plenty of Gatorade.

Yesterday we made our way out of the Rockies by summiting 10,300 foot Lizard Head Pass. The pass apparently got its name from a nearby mountain whose summit looked like the head of a lizard. Unfortunately, the top of the mountain fell off years ago, so when we got there it didn't look like much of anything. We still had a great view from the top though.

We left the Rockies with a mixture of sadness and joy. We're happy that we won't have to face any more huge Rocky Mountain climbs, but we really enjoyed the scenery in the Rockies. We're going to miss camping at the base of huge snow covered mountains. Hopefully Utah will give us some scenery to cheer about as well. The group consensus is that Colorado is definitely the best state we've been through so far.

Today we left Colorado and headed for Blanding, UT. The southwestern part of Colorado reminded us a lot of Kansas, but with more hills. As we rolled into Blanding, a few mountains appeared on the horizon. Despite the fact that almost everything around here is flat, we suspect that the nice folks at Adventure Cycling will send us right up into the mountains. Those masochists....

We're all planning to get to bed early tonight so that we can get an early start toward Glen Canyon tomorrow. To that end, I guess I should stop writing and go try to find some food. We're going to be in primitive campgrounds for a couple of days, so we probably won't be able to blog. Hopefully we can write on our day off at Bryce Canyon though. See you then...

-Jon

Leoti, KS ---> Pueblo, CO

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 23:24:00 +0000

Ok. So it's time to blog again. At the end of our last entry, we were about 15 miles away from the Colorado border. On that ride, we met a few trans am bikers going in the opposite direction - which is fun as always. Whence we arrived at the Colorado border, we encountered a sign quite suitable for climbing. Tim, Terence, Joe and Robin scaled the 25 foot sign. Afterwards, we pumped out the final 50 miles and arrived in Eads, CO. We showered at the city pool and stayed at the park, which had a lovely view of the feed mill (sarcasm). We cooked ourselves up some dinner and relaxed for the remainder of the evening. Joe woke me (JP) up at 2am to put on the rain fly, which was entertaining. Joe asked for the tent stakes, but I thought he wanted steaks. I'm an idiot.

The following day, we left around 10 am. As we arrived at the first lunch stop in Husston, CO - the group decided it'd be wise to skip Ordway and ride on through to Pueblo. The positive: we get two consecutive rest days. The negative: 120 miles in 98 degree heat. We thought it'd be worth it and cycled onward. We arrived in Ordway and took an extended lunch stop. After that, we only had 55 more miles - which went by much more easily than anticipated (thanks to a tremendously awesome tailwind).

The first night, we stayed in Pueblo's city park (where we were also attacked by sprinklerheads - the new PennRide arch nemesis). The following two days, we've stayed in the Ramada and stocked up on supplies not found in the country. Like literature. And 66 cent loaves of bread. Woot. We can see the Rockies on the horizon and tomorrow will be our first day of climbing since the wretched Ozarks. A wildfire that was threatening our route seems to have died down, which is fortuitous. Since ANOTHER WILDFIRE CALLED TEAM PENNRIDE WILL BE ROLLING THROUGH THE ROCKIES.

Love, Joe & JP

Goodbye Kansas

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 16:00:00 +0000

Kansas is flat. Kansas is windy. We are ready to leave Kansas.
We are currently in Tribune, Kansas and 15 miles from the Colorado state line. We've just crossed into the Mountain Time Zone so we're 2 hours behind of you all on the east coast. Let us know if anything exciting happens. We're en route to Eads, CO and stopped at the Public Library to blog for the die hards.
OK, Larned smelled horrific. There was a cattle feedlot on the outskirts of town with 4000 head of cattle. The cows are sent there to be fed before being 'processed'. We were told they can gain 4 lbs a day for up to 4 months. Sounds like first semester freshman year.
We camped at the beautiful Larned City Park beside a duck pond. JP got a little friendly with one goose. He got to first base. It was funny. They made loads of noise all night. That was not funny. We swam in the city pool and I (terence) was narrowly defeated in an underwater swimming contest by the able-bodied brit. I think he was cheating.
Dinner was spaghetti. If anyone would like to fedex new york pizza or pasta to Colorado we will be picking up mail general delivery in Silver Cliff. Robin would also appreciate another couple of jars of Nutella.
I ran 8 miles in Larned. It was good. You cannot stop me.
The rides out here have been monotonous. We've been on the same road for almost a week. Without turns, hills, trees, buildings, or landmarks of any kind, the mind begins to wander. I accidentally rode off the highway on the way to Ness City. JP enjoyed this immensely. I recovered. We've devised a few games to keep ourselves busy on the road. My favorite, of Tim's design, is called Drink While You Think. Similar to the name game, where each player must think of a celebrity whose first name begins with the same latter as the last name of the previous celebrity (britney spears, sam jackson, jack kerouac, etc.), Drink while you think also incorporates military cadences. Each player must make up a rhyme including the celebrity's name. Each player must drink from his or her camelback while thinking. Longwinded explanation for a simple, fun game. Some fun examples: "There once was a man named Carey Grant, Robin'd rather be his girlfriend than his aunt." and "Hayden Christiansen sucked as Darth Vader, probably due to probes from an alien invader. A very fun game to play while in oxygen debt.
2 days ago, we celebrated the ASC's Bike-a-thon during our ride. As this was Stan's first time missing the event in 7 years, we decided to wear index cards dedicating our ride to him. Stan dug it. Some catchy slogans: "Thanks, Stan" "Je supporte M. le Stan" "superathlete for stan" "Stan's a Winner". It was our way of saying thanks for all Stan does for us.
We ate lunch Saturday in Rush Center, a minute farming town with one restaurant. That one restaurant happened to be a real tough bar/grill serving mostly large men in overalls. We stuck out a bit. We immediately started the jukebox up and played some elton John and Queen. We stuck out a little more. Robin and Tim played pool - badly. WE stuck out even more. It was an experience. The clientele stared at us and i heard some whispering. A grey-haired woman of about 60 called me a fairy. So it goes.
Ness City was sweet. We stayed in the city park and got to chill with a transam guy from Philly. JP made us late to the grocery store and it closed 10 minutes before we got there. Dinner from a gas station, again. No big deal. Robin and I went to get ice cream from a parlor that closed at 9:00. We got there at 8:40, just as the preteen manager was walking out to see the city fireworks. Bovine employees are infuriating. A local crazy man named Lee graced us with his presence. He offered "william and mary" (joe) a lawnchair which was in the bed of his truck while he watched "the game". The game was a girls little league softball game and Lee was mostly a nutjob. He called us all rich kids, which was nice, then offered Stan homemade, diabetic, four-grain oatmeal. He asked Tyler what kind of oatmeal he would like, but cut him off before he could reply saying, "it dont matter. i dont like you. you ain't getting my oatmeal." If this trip has taught us anything it's that most of America is crazy. Tyler and Robin attempted the texas twister.
Yesterday we stayed in Leoti, Kansas. I'm a master of accommodation and got us 2 free rooms in the luxurious Hi-plains motel. Dinner was overpriced mexican food served by a cheeky waitress. She accused Tim of passing gas, but we think it was just someone stepping on a duck. We relaxed, watched family guy and went to sleep. Amen.
Ok, Joe is getting a little antsy in his pantsy so I gotta go. 60 miles left today. Ouchies. My butt is sore.
-TK

Nickerson, KS to Larned, KS

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 22:32:00 +0000

Wow, two updates in two days...a new Penn Ride record. We managed to find the public library here in Larned, so let me tell you about the last couple of days. Yesterday, Jerry and I had a great ride from Newton to Nickerson. We had read about a place called Daylight Donuts about 6 miles outside of Nickerson which was supposed to put Krispy Kreme to shame. Unfortunately, when we got there Daylight Donuts was closed (they close at noon), but we met the proprietor on the way out the door and he donated a half dozen leftover donuts to our cause. They were awesome, if you're ever in Heston, KS you should definitely check out Daylight Donuts. We also got some good business advice from the owner, "Location, Location, Location" and "Incorporate as an S corp". School might be over, but we're still learning things on the road. After our yummy donut breakfast, we went on to Buhler (anyone...) where we hit a great BBQ and Bakery and came across an establishment offering "Mules and Psychiatry". Though many people have called us crazy, we declined to seek psychiatric help. We then rolled on to Nickerson, where we stayed at a nice city park. Mapgirl and friends rolled in a few hours later, having gotten lost yet again. They are currently taking applications for a new navigator...

Today we had a pretty uneventful (i.e. really boring) ride into Larned. There were no towns or services along the whole 60 mile route from Nickerson to Larned, so we were stuck amusing ourselves by counting cows and sunflowers. We did run into another touring cyclist, which was pretty cool. He's going to be staying at the Best Western in Nickerson tonight, so we'll probably see him again tomorrow. Nickerson has a really nice pool, so we spent the afternoon playing in the pool and visiting the Dairy Queen.

Tomorrow we're headed for Ness City, KS. It's supposed to be hot and windy tomorrow, so we're planning to get started early. If we can find another public library, maybe we'll go for the blog update three-peat. In the meantime, keep in touch...

-Jon

Pilot Knob, MO to Nickerson, KS

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 21:38:00 +0000

Sorry about the long wait for updates, we haven't had internet access for a while. Whew, where to start? The last week of riding in Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas was quite eventful. We started out in Pilot Knob, where Tyler randomly met the mother of Robin's lab partner at West Point. The invited us over for dinner at their house with some awesome cornflake chicken and chocolate brownies. Terence attempted to remain still for as long as he possible so that a hummingbird to land on him, but that turned out to only be about 15 seconds. We also got introduced to catfish feeding, which was quite intriguing.

The next day we journeyed to Eminence, MO, where we swam in the Current and Jacks Forks Rivers. They were both amazingly clear and pretty cold. We stayed at the Arrowhead Campground in Eminence, which generously donated accommodations for the night. The bus got stuck very briefly on Second St. in Eminence, but a local tow truck operator managed to come by and winch out the bus.

After Eminence, we made our way to Hartville, MO, where we hit our first big storm of the trip. We were setting up our tents on the courthouse lawn when a friendly resident came by and told us that a monster storm was coming and we should take them down. We quickly took down the tents and took refuge in the Subway restaurant across the street. The storm turned out to be as big as promised, with winds so strong they opened and closed the door of the Subway. Our tents didn't blow away, but the big tent got soaked, so Jon, Robin, and Tyler ended up sleeping in the local laundromat while drying out their sleeping bags and sleeping pads.

After weathering the storm in Hartville, we went on to Ash Grove, which had a really nice swimming pool where we practiced our diving. We also met a really nice lady who loaned us a book on the history of the Ash Grove bank.

From Ash Grove, we crossed over into Kansas, where we spent two days in beautiful Pittsburg, KS. We became famous by appearing on local television station KOAM's 1o o'clock news. We also managed to catch a movie due to some good samaritans who drove us to and from the movie theater, which was a couple of miles away. The second night we were in Pittsburg, a big thunderstorm blew in. The thunder and lightning kept us up almost all night, so we got off to a late start the next day.

We spent the 4th of July in Chanute, KS. We felt like we were in a war zone, fireworks were going off all over the place. A number of local residents recognized us from our appearance on KOAM news though, which was pretty cool.

In Eureka, KS, Tyler's friend Rebekah came to visit us. All seven of us piled into her SUV with her dog Geronimo to grab some dinner at a local restaurant. The food was pretty good and definitely very filling. Tyler and Rebekah slept outside for the night ;).

Finally, we journeyed to Newton, KS, where we had really nice accommodations at the Best Western. They donated three rooms, which gave us plenty of room to spread out and relax. Jerry joined the ride on the way into Newton and used his fresh legs to set a strong pace into Newton. Tyler and Jon journeyed into Wichita, our first big city sighting in the west. They went to a bike shop called Bicycle X-Change with some really friendly staff who outfitted us with new water bottles and other bike parts.

Now we're in Nickerson, KS, the library is about to close so we've gotta go, but we'll write more again soon...

Central Kentucky to Eastern Missouri

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 20:56:00 +0000

Oh, boy. We have not had internet access for a week. We've travelled 577 miles and traversed an entire state since our last entry. Oof.
We'll start at the beginning: Booneville, KY to Berea, KY. The ride was fine, not much to speak of, but, mysteriously, team mediocre arrived in Berea 2 hours late. It seems Robin got Team Mediocre lost. Mapgirl led the three average cyclists up the area's only hill/mountain. Tim likened the incline to Mt. Everest and JP just sulked. Dinner was the Cracker Barrel. Deep-fried, commercialized southern culture. Tim "the Instigator" Cooke-Huore bet Joe he couldn't eat 15 biscuits before the meal; he was right. Joe left 'the Barrel' with his fried chicken livers in a doggie bag. He attacked the challenge, completing 12 biscuits and making a serious dent in the 13th, but sadly, he failed.
We skipped Springfield, KY as we heard it was budget, and rode straight on to Bardstown, KY. We camped at My Old Kentucky Home State Park and ate McDonalds. We played "In the Green Glass Room" and JP just sulked. Remember: in the green glass room there is the University of Pennsylvania and the College of William and Mary, but there is no Indiana University.
Bardstown to Rough River dam was a st-ruggle. Mapgirl woke us up at the buttcrack of dawn to get done before the heat. We ate breakfast in Hodgenville and were treated by the mayor himself, Stuart (surname unknown). Best buscuits thus far. Paula's Hot Biscuit is a must when visiting Hodgenville, Kentucky.
R-E-S-T D-A-Y. We spent a day at rough river dam state resort park. WE ate a 12 dollar buffet for dinner during which a few unsavory characters tricked Terence into eating frog legs. A raccoon stole Joe's cycling shoe.
The next stop was Sebree, KY. A sweet place, with excellent people. We stayed in the first baptist church which had amazing facilities: a big screen TV, 3 couches, a stellar kitchen, and an ice maker. We met a few members of the congregation who were exceptionally cool. One even lent us her Suburban so we could go to a drive-in movie. We liked Batman begins, at least those of us who remained awake for the duration did. Much thanks to the first baptist chuch.
Sebree to Tunnel Hill, Illinois. We were officially far from our respective homes. We completed our first century. We all made it no worse for the wear. We 'got 'er done'. We stayed at a private campground and were greeted warmly by the owner. He let us stay for free and gave us 50 bucks for dinner. Very excellent.
Tunnel Hill, Illinois to Chester, Illinois. We have reached the home of Popeye, a milestone for every Trans-Am. We didn't have a place to stay when the ride began, but JP lucked out and we were given a little assistance. We met a local cyclist named Sandy in Carbondale, IL who showed us to the bike shop, watched us eat burritos as big as our heads, and hooked us up with a church in Chester. Much obliged to Sandy. Thanks to the First Methodist Church in Chester for giving us some cereal and pasta to take on the bus.
We're currently in Missouri, but too tired and hungry to write about how we got here.
-tk

Pippa Passes to Booneville

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 02:36:00 +0000

Boo to Kentucky's many hills. Today was quite painful. We climbed over 12,000 feet in all. Team Mediocre's morale was strugg-ling. We left Pippa Passes at 9:30 and got to lunch around noon. We ate at some convenience store along the way (and Robin was upset they didn't make her sandwich with wheat bread). We continued on our way and finished the final 40 grueling miles, to a warm reception at the Holy Family Catholic Church. We had a fantastic spaghetti dinner and chatted it up with the Sisters and Don, a local member of the congregation. Afterwards, we had a chain-lubing party. Woo-hoo. We're ready for some sleeeeep.

Breaks Interstate Park to Pippa Passes

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 02:27:00 +0000

We finally got out of Virginia! We'd actually be excited, if what was next wasn't Kentucky. Just kidding. But seriously, Kentucky's got some real mean dogs. This was also the first day we split into three groups, an event of biblical proportions. The Superathlete Group (consisting of Joe and Terence), the Mediocre Group (Robin, JP and Tim) and the SPECIAL Group (Jon and Tyler). Robin got to be mapgirl. We stopped for lunch at a gas station then continued on our merry way. Terence split off of the group, after meeting a few jub-jubs (Tim's much beloved term for slightly hefty people). We all thought he was doing his own thing, but apparently it's not good to leave someone alone in the middle of Kentucky without a map. Who knew. We arrived at Pippa Passes (home of Alice Lloyd College) - and settled into the hostel. Tyler's Aunt Linda brought us Cliff Bars and copies of the Fincastle Herald, of which we were the cover story. We're much indebted for deeming us worthy of coverage (and to his aunt for the cliff bars and driving our things up the mountain!). We ate at the Lighthouse Cafe, then played a rousing game of knockout. Afterwards, Tim showed us Americans his interesting way of opening Kentucky's own Ale 8 ginger ale. Good times.

Rosedale to Breaks Interstate Park

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 02:19:00 +0000

Ahh, glorious morning! Joe the Tucker made us a delicious batch of pancakes at 7 in the AM while we were sleeping. After this marvelous breakfast, we left for Breaks at about 9:30. We went a solid 20 miles, then ate lunch at Mama's Place (it's a Virginia thing). The service was absolutely pitiful, but it was good food and one person was completely overworked. This place was so understaffed, that they had a neighbor aid in the making of our sandwiches. After lunch, we hit a fairly rough spot of hills. It wasn't too bad though, roughly 45 miles in total. Robin and JP beat Terence up a hill. We rule. Afterwards, we all went to Breaks, which was a mild dissapointment. While it was pleasant scenery, it was a very commercial campsite. Stan bought us some delicious Father's Day hamburgers. Yay.

Damascus to Elk Garden/Rosedale

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 01:39:00 +0000

We left Damascus and started a good ride to a church in Elk Garden. We were apprehensive about it because the longest climb of the ride was supposed to happen at Hayters Gap. Joe took off up the mountain leaving the rest of us in the dust. Tyler and Jon kept a good pace in the rear and found the bus stuck 2 miles up the-that was Robin, I'll tell the strory from right chere. Welp, I usually stay behind to ensure the safety of less experienced riders, not because of physical limitations by any means. So I was enjoying a leisurely coast up the mountain when in the distance was Jon off the bike right next to an immobile freight train. Upon closer inspection I discovered it was Stan's bus, with the back lodged in the pavement causing the back wheels to be propped up, leaving the bus incapable of successful movement. Meanwhile JP had caught up with Tim, Robin, and Terence. Terence suggested that instead of cycling back down the mountain we should take the NY attitude an go on to Elk Garden. We arrived successfully and decided to not wait for Jon and Tyler to go to Rosedale to get lunch. We ate a service station where Tim was upset with the system that enabled the lunch lady to be completely incompetent. The rest of us agreed that the woman was probably just in a bad mood, not the fault of the system. Tim was livid about paying $6 for 2 biscuits and 3/4 cup of a large mashed potatoes, apparently the problem was that she would neither charge less for the unfilled cup, nor allow him to fill it up later. I would have been upset too if I had understood what the hell he was talking about. Alright back to what was important. Jon, Stan, and I were in a bind. For the second time on the trip the bus had gotten stuck but this time it was even worse. It was on the side of a mountain, on a road that the bus was not legally supposed to be on. Hmmmmm said we. We were very fortunate because we probably met half of the county that day for about 2/3 of every car that passed tried to help us or asked if we needed it. A fireman and drywaller tried to get us out with his truck and some chains. It moved it a couple inches but mostly bent the back of the bus' hitch. At one point there were at least 15 locals trying to help us, and a couple who was on vacation taking pictures because they thought it would be a good story to tell later. A very kind woman called the local wreckers since her brother-in-law worked for them. And it a split second everyone who had been helping was gone. So we waited, with rather jolly spirits I might add, for the tow truck, being entertained by naps and a wild dog and its adopted wild puppy that would just stare at us from a distance. While waiting two cops came from both directions of the mountain, uh oh. It turns out they were good friends who worked for different precinct who hadn't seen each other for quite sometime. So they made sure the tow truck was coming and then started to catch up on old times. They were also very kind and let us go by without a ticket. To make this short. The wreckers came and got the bus out. Stan, with the help of the wreckers , successfully traversed the mountainside and reached Elk Garden where we were staying for the night. We accepted their $550 fee as a donation towards our cause, so we were very thankful. So all in all that was real fun. To celebrate our glorious day we had a feast of egg fried rice, sweet taters, corn, baked beans, and Tang. MMMMmmmmm. good. Trumbo Out.

PS Hose Bathes stuhink.

Rural Retreat to Damascus, VA

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 02:22:00 +0000

Greetings from the Deep South(written from the point of view of a "Yankee"). We arrived in Damascus today after a short, hilly ride and an excellent detour to the lovely state of Tennessee. We were bogged down by fierce winds and and one Jackass riding too fast. PELICAN. The roads around and up Mount Rogers were hellacious, but fun. Fear not, morale is still high.

The last few days have included a wonderful break on the shores of Claytor Lake, where we were treated to a lakeside campsite, waterskiing, and a steak feast. Thanks to everyone who made our two night stay there so much fun -- it was great to drain our legs of lactic acid and to enjoy the state park. I caught three of the group's four fish, which makes me the man. Not to brag, but I shaved my legs at the cookie lady's, and they are both the longest and the best of the tour (Sorry Mr Tucker, your son's legs are strong, but they ain't beautiful, like mine). Back onto subject - there was a campfire, we got to meet the wonderful Charlene, got a visit from the luminous Caitlin Moorman, and Robin enjoyed the 'fruit punch' more than she should have. Thanks to everyone for the happy memories -- It's times like Claytor lake that make the tour so amazing.

Yesterday we stayed in Rural Retreat. Thanks to Rural Retreat United Methodist for allowing us to camp in the yard. We enjoyed a friendly game of 21 with the basketball hoop that was not regulation height. Tim played basketball for the first time and was nearly as bad as I would have been, had I not refused to play due to general malcoordination. I guess JP will have to cancel those "super athlete" business cards he had planned to order me. We enjoyed the cheapest meal of the trip at Pizza Plus.

Today we climbed Mount Rogers, which was fun, and not as bad as we thought it would be. When we got to Damascus, we decided to pay $10 to go tubing for 2.5 hours. Robin won $6 in a bet during the tubing. We all nearly got hypothermia and then ate burritos. We got ice cream at the Dairy King, which was closed, but the cashier saw me and decided to reopen. I am a handsome man.

TK from BK

Resting in Roanoke

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 20:32:00 +0000

We started our day this morning with lunch at the Lexington Restaurant just down the street from where we were staying. The food was good, but I don't think we're going to be having any more country breakfasts. Eating all of that food made everyone feel sluggish for the rest of the day. We had another beautiful ride out of Lexington to the Mill Creek Baptist Church just outside of Buchanan. Tyler's friends and family at the church put together a great baked potato and chili lunch for us. After lunch, we sped down Rt 11 into Roanoke where we are staying with Joe's family. We're looking forward to hitting the grocery store and Costco tonight in order to resupply. I think we're going to get some good home cooking from Joe's family as well. One more day until our next rest day, I think everyone is looking forward to spending a couple of relaxing days in Claytor Lake.

Beautiful Blue Ridge

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 22:26:00 +0000

Sorry about the short posts so far. We haven't had internet access for a few days, so we've had to update the blog through text messaging and we can only write about two sentences per text message. We hit our first real day of climbing today and everyone did great. We climbed from Afton up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, reaching 3,330 ft before a fast descent back down to around 1,000 ft. The scenery on the Blue Ridge Parkway was amazing, by far the best we've had in the ride. We ran into a number of interesting people along the Blue Ridge, including a cool Appalachian Trail hiker. We had a little SNAFU and couldn't get into the church in Lexington where we were supposed to be staying, but the pastor of Lexington Presbyterian Church was very kind and let us stay there for the night. Tomorrow we have a pretty easy ride into Roanoke (the website says Buchanan, but we had a slight change of plans). Off to explore Lexington...

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 01:29:00 +0000

We had a short but sweet climb today up Afton Mountain to the Cookie Lady's house. She's really an amazing woman, still going strong at 83...

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 01:16:00 +0000

We had a great stay in Charlottesville last night after a fast ride into town. The folks at First United Methodist were great.

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 17:44:00 +0000

We got an early start today, so we're already in Mineral. More to come about our day later...

Arrvied in Ashland

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 23:43:00 +0000

We had a great ride into Ashland this afternoon. We got started early and didn't hit too many hills. We had a number of detours due to construction coming out of Stafford, but we managed to find our way. We encountered our first loose dogs of the ride today. Five different dogs chased after us, including a mean looking German Shepherd, but we managed to outrun all of them. After arriving in Ashland, we all decided to take a dip in the pool at the Super 8 where we're staying. Now we're at the Ashland Coffee & Tea house having some coffee. More tomorrow...

Nice Stay in Stafford

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 23:41:00 +0000

Yesterday was hot, hot, hot. It was so hot that we decided to alter the route to make our ride 20-miles shorter. We ended up rolling into Stafford at around 6pm after a 75-mile ride. We stayed at the Summit Prebyterian Church in Stafford. Their activity room was very nice and they even brought us a breakfast of bagels and juice in the morning. All in all, a pretty good day...

Made it to DC

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 16:26:00 +0000

We had a nice ride into DC on Saturday. We spent about 26-miles on back roads before hitting the Rock Creek Bike Trail in Maryland. We had a picnic of fruit given to us by Slatevillle Presbyterian before setting off on the trail. The bike trail in Maryland was pretty slippery, but we all made it down in one piece. After riding the trail through Maryland, we hit our first national park - Rock Creek National Park in DC. City Bikes in DC very generously let us store our bikes there until Monday morning. Then we took the metro out to where we are staying. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. White for letting us stay at their house in Vienna,VA!! After settling in, we went to a barbecue with Jeanne Schlegel and Ron Aument, which was delicious. Thanks for all of the wonderful food! Tomorrow we set off for Stafford...

Awesome Stay in Glenelg!

noreply@blogger.com (Penn Ride) — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 16:09:00 +0000

We rode in the rain for the first time on Friday. There was a steady drizzle for our entire 68-mile ride from Delta to Glenelg. The rain was actually pretty refreshing, and we had a great ride. Everyone felt strong the whole way through. The members of Glenelg United Methodist Church were wonderful. We split up and spent the night in the houses of a number of very generous congregation members. They put together a great dinner for us with lasagna and delicious homemade apple and blueberry pies. Our host families made us breakfast as well the following morning, so we had plenty of energy for our ride into DC. Thank you Glenelg United Methodist!!!