Journal entry June 23


Our first century ride. Well for some of us anyway--the rest of us made it to about 99 miles. It's hard to muster up the energy for another mile just to make the number, but some did. The ride was from Berwick to State College, PA. Jose had told us that this would be one of the hardest rides of the trip, but other than the length, the general consensus was that we have had harder rides.


Along the ride there were a bunch of notable things. Towards the beginning of the ride there was a mountain lake beach where a bunch of people decided to stop and go swimming and have a snack. We rode through Amish country and saw several people traveling by horse and buggy. We saw lots of farm land and laundry lines too. There were also lots of signs pointing us to Penn's Cave which when we finally got close turned out to be a $13 50 minute tour of a cave, which the group I was with decided was not worth the time and money. Apparently this part of Pennsylvania has lots of caves and caverns. Another stop along the way was at mile 95 when Skip's friend, Sarah set up an iced tea stand and served us homemade iced tea made from mint in her garden and energy cookies with nuts, seeds and chocolate chips. We also went on her rope swing into a small creek she has running behind her house. What a great roadside refresher! Next stop--Meyer Dairy for ice cream. Then finally to Clay's place at State College where we were staying. Riding 99 miles was tough, but it was really great to complete our first century ride!


Showers at the YMCA. Dinner was at Clay's house. The food was great because it was different from everything we had had so far on the trip. We had sweet and/or spicy chilly and some sort of curry soup which was also really good. It was a little big cramped with 30 of us in a college apartment, but it was cozy and we were all thankful to Clay and his housemates for having 30 of us over for dinner. After dinner Kyle introduced the butt slap game which will commence after Pittsburgh. Points for safe butt slapping and 25 for Jose's butt. Only on bikes, only when safe. Those are the general rules.


Sleeping was at Clay's place and 10 people went to his neighbor and friend Chris' place. Both hosts were cycling team members and really great to us. We also want to thank their housemates for putting up with so many extra people in the house and being so friendly and hospitable.