We set out on the route with a big group. It was that morning that I started noticing the wide variety of road kill we were encountering along the way - I saw at least a dog, raccoon, deer, and a kitty. Very sad.
We had a water stop in a very cute town - the stop location is pictured in the column on the right, where I am riding. Chrissy and I split some coffee cake - yum. The route was mainly rolling hills, with increasing numbers and steepness in the hills. Our group decided to break up the riding with another water stop at a Rite Aid before entering Amish Country.
Amish Country was beautiful. I especially enjoyed seeing all the clothes on lines outside the houses. We passed buggies, waving from our bikes, and were please to receive waves from the Amish people.
As we came out of Amish Country, we had the chance to stop at an ice cream shop in Strasburg, PA. It was a delicious and much appreciated break. Making the final push into camp, I lost the directions clipped to my bike while descending a hill. They just below right off. That meant my navigation had to be put on hold and someone else had to take the lead.
Unfortunately we discovered there were lots of hills at the end of the day when we were very ready to be done. In one particular case we descending a hill just to turn up a large hill - we were always annoyed when this happened with no warning and we couldn't work off momentum.
We made it in to camp around 4:30pm. The Mennonite camp where we stayed was nice. I decided to pay $6 to stay in a dorm. Chrissy, Christa, and I shared a room. Christa and I had some room finding confusion and with our exhaustion from the the day she got frustrated with me. I understood, and we got through it. We all appreciated what the others were going through.
There was a zipline in camp. It looked fun, but I was way too tired to put my body through it. After showering, I was just so glad to go to dinner. Unfortunately, we were towards the end of the line and they ran out of spaghetti. Luckily they made more, but we definitely found that we were all on edge and the little things would set us off. Dinner was kind of hard for me because it was another rider's birthday and her daughter was riding with her, so she had a cake and everyone sang to her. I couldn't help but feel a little sad that my birthday was missed, though I understood that I didn't have a buddy there to plan something for me. On the plus side, I was impressed by the kindness of the Mennonite camp staff. The camp director asked to give a blessing of our meal, and he was extremely supportive of what we were doing.
That night Christa gave a short talk at our evening discussion to overview Clean Air-Cool Plant, one of the beneficiary organizations of the ride and her employer. She did a great job! Then we heard from Point Carbon. Things were running late and I was exhausted, so I stepped out after that.
Cell phone reception was very limited at the camp, and I missed getting to talk to Dave. That was hard, especially given the crazy day 4 to come...
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