Well Now, That Was Fun!

October 9, 2019

Another very cold night convinced us that we were correct in making a shorter trip back. Even as we have moved to lower elevations and the days are warm, it gets pretty darned cold at night! It’s something we will have to keep in mind for next fall, when we are planning to cycle around in Europe. We will begin in August in Amsterdam and wind our way around until we reach Paris at the end of October. Not too sure about camping in October over there, but if its anything like here, then we may have to plan to hotel it for that month. But, back to this day. We had a nice chat with Keemo in the morning before we all set out in our separate directions. We had some bananas and things to eat along the way and were hoping that there would be a coffee shop somewhere to warm us up. With this in mind, we packed quickly and hoped on the bikes, headed first for Confluence, 15 miles from here. Other than spotting the occasional deer, it was pretty and quiet on the trail early in the day. It was pretty cold and we were both wearing our warmer gear, but Jim’s gloves didn’t provide much protection and so his fingers were pretty cold, poor guy! I have some mittens that I put on over my cycling gloves. I have tried all sorts of other gloves, but have never found anything as effective to keep my fingers warm as my mittens do.

Cycling as fast as we could, we covered the distance pretty quickly, which was the good part. The bad part was that the coffee shop we had hoped to warm up in at Confluence wasn’t open – darn!!!! We consoled ourselves with some of our goodies (some cinnamon roll kind of thing) before setting out once again towards Ohiopyle, another 10 miles away. When we finally reached town, we were both desperate for something hot, even though the temp outside was now warming nicely. Thankfully, the restaurant here had hot coffee and the most delicious beef barley soup – heaven! Filled up, warmed up and stripped of some of our layers, we jumped back on the bikes. Our next goal was the town of Connelsville, where we might have stopped for the night if we really couldn’t make the last 10 miles but hoped we wouldn’t have to. We were thinking of having dinner there at the place where we had eaten breakfast before, but by the time we arrived, we were both still full from our light lunch at Ohiopyle and so chose to take a quick water and grocery break before taking off for the last 10 miles.

Fuelled up and happy, we head over the Ohiopyle bridge again

The mile markers are helpful, but sometimes I just get hung up on getting to the next one - only 18 more to go today!

By this time I was getting pretty tired. I had pulled a muscle in my calf either last night or early this morning and it was really beginning to bother me each time I pushed with my right leg, which made for some very uneven pedalling. I told Jim my strategy for this last 10 miles would be to ride 2-3 and then stop for a break. Doing it this way, we made our way, but at a much slower pace than previously in the day, but finally, we rounded the bend and saw the entrance to Round Bottom campground – hurray!!! The first lean-to was taken, but the other, which had been the domicile of our buddy Catman Kelly, was now empty and we thankfully put the tent up inside, knowing that we would have a little more protection from the cold this night. By now we were both hungry, having skipped the planned dinner in Connelsville. Luckily, we had one more emergency dinner in the food pannier and dined on some Backpacker’s Kitchen Chicken, Rice and Beans. It was perfect – filling and hot and we followed it with our deserts (which had not gotten smashed, despite a day in the pannier!). By the time we finished eating it was getting dark, so we jumped into the tent, thankful that we had our warm little home to come to at the end of this long, long day. Tomorrow we will be back in Homestead and at the hotel and this part of our journey will come to an end.

A very interesting rock structure at a church in Connelsville - also, a good chance to stop and take a break while Jim took pictures!

I think this is Oriental Bittersweet, an invasive species, but I didn't get a great read on it with my app, Seek, so Bill, if you think its something else, let me know - thanks!

Two reasons for posting this pic. One, the arch outside of Connelsville is very pretty and was the last pic we took this day - too tired later on; and second, just to prove that occasionally Jim gets his fingers in the way too!

Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 706 km (438 miles)

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