Sept. 8, 2007 - PITTSBURG TO WASHINGTON DC
Sept. 8th – Vellen took Myran, Trina, Ilene, and I to the airport at 4:45 a.m. Myran and Trina left for San Diego to go on a cruise and Ilene and I left for Pittsburg to meet friends and go on rails to trails and canal bike trip.
The plane ride was really quite nice, even arrived in Las Vegas 15 minutes early – we didn’t have to get off. Sitting in the front seat of the airplane we could see them open and close the door at least 6 or 7 times. Finally the plane backed out but was brought back in for an emergency package. We left 45 minutes late, but arrived on time. Marilane and Jerry were waiting for us in the Pittsburg airport. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and our room even had a view of the putting green (8 feet round).
September 9th – Getting ready to ride: Put Friday together but forgot to tighten some bolts. The fork slipped into the wheel and rider went end over end. We rode along the Youghiogheny River trail out of Pittsburg. The road was gravel and not being used to Friday’s seat, my butt was a little sore. There were lots of old mines and people canoeing. Being a Sunday there were also a lot of bikers out (20). We rode 50 miles.
September 10 – We rode 56 miles today (5 hours 26 minutes actual ride time – dawdle time made it a little more.) It rained the night before so the trail was soft, not muddy. The trail had a tree canopy and a view of the rapids on the river which translated into meaning we were going uphill all day long. There was a lot of heat in the humidity and my butt got very, very sore. There were a few things to see along the trail, like a vein of coal and a few other things – a great ride and yes I was very sore from working so hard on the ride. Marilane and Ilene had quite an exciting time following the 3 x 5 highway signs (Ilene was surprised they didn’t use post-it notes). It was easy to go in circles. They didn’t see each town once, but twice and sometimes thrice. Country Dreams B & B was easy to find once we turned around in the right drive way and went 10 miles. The scenery was beautiful – Corn on the Left and Corn on the Right.
There was one spot that was downhill and we got up to 33 mph, then the trail turned into sand and I thought I was going down and Jerry was going to use me for traction.
Sept. 11 – Cyndee and Elliot joined us today. They arrived late the night before. Thankfully Cyndee brought a big can of Bag Balm. I think I used half of it on my sore butt. Marilane, Ilene, and Elliot went to see Falling Waters; a house designed in 1935 and built for the Pittsburg department store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann by Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright designed the house to rise above the waterfall. It was completed with a guest and service wing in 1939, and constructed of sandstone quarried on the property and built by local craftsmen. It cost $155,000. Everything was built on the horizontal and looked like a very modern design for its time. It was used until 1963 and opened to the public in 1964.
It was appropriate that Falling Waters was seen on this day because there truly was a lot of FALLING WATER everywhere. A big rain storm went through while we were riding – visibility was around 100 ft. at times. Cyndee took off her shoes and POURED water out of them. The good part was it was warm and only Cyndee got cold. We rode 50 miles today.
September 12th – Good-bye Pittsburg, Hello Maryland. We crossed the Mason Dixon line today.
Marilane and Ilene had a short ride – only 45 miles. We on the other hand rode 64.5 miles. We met a homeless person on the trail and gave him a power bar and some water for taking our picture. Riding along the trail you have to marvel at how much manual labor was put into the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. It was all dug by hand and horses. Being shy like I am, we met two parties who wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise or side-wise, or corner-wise. I hardly had time to say “yes.” We did get a lot of real good information from them, so humbling me was a good thing.
History lesson for today: This place was one of the Civil war areas and there was also a cement factory that produced 220 tons every week from 1886 to 1909. It used to be a great apple growing area that produced 75,000 barrels of apples a season. There was also a building that had sand washed down through a pipe and then put in the building and shipped by train. There were also caves with fossils in them.
We stayed at the 1928 Trail Inn B & B. It was an old house with a lot of rooms and floors and steps everywhere – but very nice. They told us that there once was a German prisoner of World War II who was made to pick apples in the area. After the war, he bought up all the apple orchards and swore he would never pick or have anyone else pick apples there again. This helped ruin the economy in the area.
September 13th – 59.8 miles.
Jerry went to put on his tire. The brake shoes had gone together. They wouldn’t slip in until we pried them back open. They were hydraulic brakes. The wheel then went in easy, but it squeaked a little. After about 10 miles of squeak-squeak, I told Jerry, “Let’s fix this” because Cyndee and I were doing everything we could to ride where he wasn’t. We took the brake apart and scraped it and it squeaked. We took it off and scraped it some more and it squeaked. We pushed it this way and it squeaked and we pushed it that way and it squeaked. We put water on it and it squeaked. It was getting louder and louder – very annoying. I told Jerry he should just take it off and ride with one brake. After another 5 miles, he thought this was a good idea. Off it came. We wrapped it in cloth and bungeed it to the bike. The squeak was louder than ever. Cyndee could hear it on the other side of the wheel. I squirted the other side of the wheel with my water bottle and it quit! We put the brake back on. The rest of the day when it started to squeak, Jerry would squirt it and it would quit. Cyndee and I were giving him a bad time wondering how far he could ride between squirts. Water is a very poor lubricant and I don’t know why this worked but it was keeping us riding with Jerry and keeping him sane.
Elliot did dinner – Cupcakes with beautiful rose frosting that was about two inches tall and homemade apple dumplings from the Catholic Church fundraiser in town. They were about a pound apiece and delicious. The beverage was beer.
Ilene and Marilane drove through 3 states in about 5 minutes – Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
September 14th – 43 miles
I saw a live box turtle in the middle of the road. He was real colorful and we took a picture of him. We met two riders who showed us how to eat paw-paws. Picked up some of the paw-paws and tried them. They tasted a lot like Mango’s. The riders had full gear and were going to ride 100 miles that day. The canal, after a few days, just seemed to go on and on. It was downhill and a very scenic ride in the shade. I stopped and read all the dates on the civil war battles and crossings. Cyndee, who riding behind Jerry and I, remarked how we would first sit on one side of the saddle, then stand in the middle, and then sit on the other side of the saddle and pedal. There was just no way to sit that it didn’t hurt. It was really nice that Marilane picked us up and took us to the bed and breakfast after a long day in the saddle. Cyndee, Elliot, Marilane and Ilene visited Harpers Ferry.
September 15th – 43 miles – our last day of riding.
I saw more people on the bridge overlooking the falls than was on the whole rest of the trip. The closer we got to DC the more people were on the trail.
We went back to Fredrick, VA to Jerry and Marilane’s daughter for a very nice fajita dinner and surprise birthday celebration for Jerry’s 65th birthday. After dinner Jerry and Marilane took us to our motel near the BWI airport.
September 16th – We got up at 4:30 a.m. Eastern time - We left Baltimore at 8:15 a.m. and headed for home. Vellen picked us up at 12:15 p.m. Pacific time. It was a very long day.
This ride would be a lot of fun if it was only about 4 days long. The scenery was beautiful but very repetitious. It was great to be away from cars and people. There were campsites with toilets and water about every 5 to 10 miles. Total miles: 366.3.
