Day fifty-five. Steubenville, Ohio to Pittsburgh, PA via W. Virginia

Yes, we were in three states today. Most probably only in West Virginia for an hour or two, but was the hardest hour or two of the day. We climbed over 500 feet over less than a 4 mile stretch. But actually that wasn't even the worse part of the day. After that we were on a bike path for 38 miles which was suppose to be hard packed dirt, but turned out to be mostly hard packed dirt with enough areas of loose sand to cause everyone to be on constant alert for a sandy patch. Everyone, but Hannah, agreed to was pretty terrible. She has far tires so it may have been easier for her. Howard,who rode the ride last year said that it was fine last year and thinks that super storm Sandy was the cause. At one point there was a sign saying "Caution - loose gravel. Sorry for any inconvenience". It took Kim and I forever to bike the trail. Also it started to pour half way through, so by the time we got to the synagogue we were tired, sweaty and dirty. We are staying with host families for Shabbat and were told they would pick us up at 4:00. Also our bags were in the back of the synagogue and our hosts were picking us up in front and it's a big building. Mine wasn't so bad, but Kim has a very heavy duffle bag which she lagged to the front of the building. And we waited for our ride to pick us up. At 4:20 a car pulls up for Kim and I plus 6 other riders and all their luggage. Good thing Kim and I are outside waiting with our luggage in the front. This person is there to drop us off at our host family so we have him take us first and come back for the others. Than we get to our host house, bring our bags up 7 steps, ring the door bell and there is no answer. This is not good. Luckily our driver is still there and says he will call on the phone. No answer. I ask him to check the address. He can't find the paper with the address. Wait, it's in his pocket. We are at the wrong house. Only one house over. And yes they are home. Back down 7 steps, back up 7 steps. I am now showered, but still need to get dressed. We are having dinner at the conservative synagogue at 5:30. Whoever decided the time for dinner was not thinking about the riders. And we are staying with an Orthodox family. Not sure how we got them, but we probably will not be seeing too much of them. Usually they put the more religious riders with the religious hosts. Oh well. At least Kim and I are together. Time to walk to synagogue. This is our last Shabbat weekend. Maybe more on thoughts about that tomorrow.

Day fifty-four Cochocton to Steubenville

Yes, we are staying in Steubenville , Ohio and we are even staying in the infamous high school. It's a nice looking school. A lot of natural light, round tables in the cafeteria, nice showers in the girls locker room. Staying inside is so much better than camping. No putting up tents, no Mosquitos, much better showers. Yes we are all in one big room, but I guess that doesn't seem to bother me. I had planned to write about eating and finding places to pee while on this ride but right now I'm feeling the same way about writing as I do about biking. I'm going to chalk it up to bad karma from being in this high school. Pittsburg tomorrow and our last Shabbat.

Day fifty-three. Columbus to Coch

There was a lot of drama today, but all is well now. It's so interesting how everyone has a different take on things. Garth rode today, which shouldn't have made much difference, but for whatever reason he seemed to come down hard on the young riders. He got really mad at one of them for riding too far out in the road on a fairly busy street, and restricted all three of them to riding with an "adult" I'm not really sure what that means, but it must be pretty annoying for them. They are all really good bikers and seniors in high school. I'm really enjoying having them on the ride. I do think Garth overreacted, but he's in charge. Than later in the day Eli was driving the van and two of the riders asked him if the could draft off the van. I had no idea what that meant, but apparently it meant driving the van about 30 miles an hour and having them bike behind it so they are kind of pulled with the van. Not the best idea, but they were all between the ages of 19 and 21 so to them it didn't see so bad. When Garth found out he saw red. It took him a while before he was calm enough to even talk to them. I think everyone got a warning to never do it again. Now we are all back at camp. This is a pretty nice camp. Lots of trees, bathrooms close by. Dinner crew busy making dinner, young Ilan looking for firewood to make a fire. I'm sitting off by myself sipping my wine, writing this blog. Having wine is always a bit tricky. We can buy our own wine or beer, but than what about if others want some. And if you give some to one what about ten others who might want some. So I have decided it is just much simpler to buy my own wine making sure it has a screw top, put it some where on the truck or van out of view. Otherwise it just gets too complicated. Life is tough on the ride. I glass of wine after a long ride always make things a bit easier. I think dinner is at 7:00 tonight and than we will have our usual community meeting. Hopefully it will be short and we can all go to bed early, but I have a feeling we will be rehashing all the events of the day. Time to refill my water bottle with another glass of wine. Only one more week and a day until D.C. Hoping for clouds and cool weather. And yes I know it's August and we are heading for D.C. I can still hope.

Day fifty-two. Springfield to Columbus, Ohio

Thinking about why I decided to do this bike ride I realized that I still may not fully know the answer, but I did come up.with some things I've learned because I've been doing this ride.
Here they are in no particular order of importance.

1. I can now tell you the geographical order of the northern states and their approximate size in comparison to each other. No small feat for someone that has lived on the east coast her whole life.

2. Truck drivers are very considerate of bike riders.

3. Washington state, northern Idaho and most of Montana are very beautiful, actually breathtaking in many parts, western North Dakota, northern South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio not so much.

4. I am very fortunate to be living in New England.

5. There is something wrong with using this much land for growing corn and soybeans.

6. Railroad tracks at a almost parallel line with the road are really dangerous for bike riders and even experienced riders can get caught in the tracks and fall.

7. Always stop at a bathroom when it is available because you never know when the next one will turn up. ( I knew this one, but I did pass this advice on to others).

8. A dirty bathroom is still better than peeing in the field.

9. That many people are not bothered by riding next to someone with a squeaky bike (even though it would drive me crazy).

10. How to keep kashrut.

11. How to kosher a stove, a stainless steel sink, and a microwave.

12. That when you adopt a highway you are obligated to keep that portion limiter free.

13. Minneapolis and St Paul are great biking cities. Columbus, Ohio is not.

14. Spokane, WA is very hilly.

15. There are numerous  ways to turn on a shower.

16. I am able to make good coffee in many various types of coffee makers.

I am sure that I will be able to think of many more interesting things that I have learned on this trip, but right now it is again time for bed. We are sleeping at a host family and I want to make the most of sleeping in a bed.

Day fifty-one. Richmond, IN to Springfield, Ohio

Today was another uneventful day - great when your biking  X country, not so good when your writing a daily blog.  I must say Ohio was a lot more interesting than Indiana so even biking 84 miles wasn't too bad. It was a 77 mile day but Kim and I deep in conversation missed the turn on the que sheet and wound up biking 7 extra miles.
Camping tonight - tent is up. Dinner is ready

Thinking today about what I would write about and two things came up.
First was how we have mostly coupled up while biking and secondly why did I do this ride.
I'll do the first one and leave the second one for another day.  Maybe I'll figure it out with a little more time.

At this point most people have a steady riding partner. I ride with Kim.  If we sag we usually sag together. Today I was less tired and was there to encourage her to go the distance. Sometimes she's stronger and does the same for me. And sometimes we both feel like taking a few miles off and sag for a portion or .
David and Gilad always ride together. I think they are trying to solve Talmudic problems, but they have a good time together and they also stop at playgrounds on the way and play.
Freddie and Terry always ride together and usually stop along the way. Terry likes to meet the locals and also I think he'd rather go out to eat.
The teenagers ride as a group and I have no idea what they talk about and I probably would rather not know.
If Danielle is off Arye will ride with Danielle. Otherwise I think he probably rides by himself.
Dena and Ilan usually ride together and love to stop food a real breakfast like eggs or if it's later in the day they'll stop at a bakery. But if Eli is riding that usually means that Dena will be riding with Eli, which than leaves Ilan without a riding partner. I think he has ridden with Dena and Eli, but I also know there have been times he has had to find his own way. Maybe only once or twice.
Today Hannah rode with Dena because Dena was sweep and Hannah offered to keep her company. Yesterday Hannah rode with me and Kim. Everyone once in a while Arye has riden part way with Hannah and she has ridden with Dena and Ilan. And she has also ridden with Kim when Kim was sweep.
So as I write this I'm thinking that Hannah gets to know everyone in the group, but the pairs get to know each other better. I guess it's a toss up.
As I write this it has starting raining. Glad I am all ready for bed and now I am just waiting for everyone to stop talking so I can go to sleep.
One last thing I just thought about. Adrienne has been off for the last week. Before she left, she and David were becoming a couple. She is coming back tonight . Actually David is picking her up at the airport.
So now we have three of the four staff paired up with three of the riders. It 's probably only interesting to us, but I had nothing better to write about.

Day Fifty (wow) Indianapolis to Richmond

Our second to last Sunday.  The countdown has began.  Ten riding days left. Today was a totally uneventful day.  We left Indianapolis this morning, rode 22 miles on a very nice bike path,  after that rode mostly on country roads and rode the last 23 miles on a nice smooth mostly shaded bike path into Richmond. We're staying at a Catholic High School which is much better than a synagogue because it has showers. And it has a walk in refrigerator and a walk in freezer, which means no emptying the coolers or filling the coolers in the morning. The whole cooler just gets wheeled into the Refrig or freezer. I am very relaxed. ( A little glass of wine doesn't hurt).
Word is there is no hot water for showers. Even that is not getting me upset.

Richmond, IN is where Earlham is, which is where Corinne went to college.  It feels nice that we are staying here.

Time for a short nap before dinner. All is well.

Day forty-nine. Shabbat Indianapolis at the JCC

Full disclosure: after our wonderful lunch yesterday Kim and I stopped in at "the Best Chocolate Store" to top off the lunch with a little dessert. I failed to mention it yesterday because, even though I did buy two pieces of chocolate, one chocolate truffle and one chocolate covered nuts, I only really love plain milk chocolate, which they did not have.  But Kim placed a picture of the store with a captions leading people to my blog. Social media can certainly get complicated.
Last night I never fell asleep during services or before dinner. I actually enjoyed services, but not at a participant. It was just the Hazon group and they formed a circle in the middle of a large room.  I was in the room but towards the back lying down, relaxing and as an observer. It was nice.

Today has been very pleasant. Woke up around 9:00, had a leisurely cup of coffee, a simple pleasure that I love and usually do not have time to enjoy.  Left here around 11:00 with Kim, Terry and Freddie to do laundry and go out to lunch. We found a great Mexican restaurant near the laundromat and I ordered huevoes ranchero which is one of my favorite brunch meals and it was delicious. Terry treated both Kim and I which was very nice as well.
We got back to the JCC and I decided to check out the water area which I had been hearing so much about. It was quite amazing. This is the fanciest outdoor water area I have ever seen for a JCC. First of all it's huge. Second it has at least a dozen 18 ft expanse umbrellas (one of which I am siting under now). It also has a huge water slide, a lazy river, a large outdoor pool and a very large area for kids with waterfalls and other things spraying all over the place. And the water temperature is like bath water. And it wasn't crowded. No wait for the water slide. Not sure how many times I went down, but  it was definitely fun.
Came back to Mr. Cohen's room and planned to just rest a bit, but fell asleep for 2 hours. I hear people getting ready for dinner.  Time to go. I may be able to stay up until after Havdalah tonight. This could be a first.