Day 26 - Circleville, OH to Parkerburg, WV

Ok today I was a little worried about but to no avail, it wasn't bad at all well, as far as climbing goes. We started out leaving Circleville, OH with some storm clouds lingering ahead. I didn't even think it would rain at all today, so of course I only had my light jacket (which I always carry). I didn't even put my rain gear in the bag on the truck - dumb!! Oh well, we started out and Susan and I led at first, stretching the legs and waiting for Hocking Hills to start. We had Mark and Paul too. At about mile 13 ish we started feeling the first real rain and had to pull over to put on rain gear and my barrier jacket (aka nothing much to write home about). As we rode on I had to take my glasses off and then put them back on because of the visibility issues. I finally decided it was better to have the fogged up, rain splattered glasses then to have the rain beating down into my eyes.
At about mile 14 I thought ok, just 15 more miles to the sag, but then guess what my very favorite - lightening! I hate that! As we rode on that got closer and closer, at the time the lightening hit the telephone pole (3 up from us) I shrieked and expletive and said, I don't care what anyone else is doing, I'm hitting that porch. I guess it scared a lot of people because there were about 7 of us under the porch and Kurt and Priska around the corner on the other side porch! After about 15 minutes everyone decided that even though it was still raining that it was still ok to leave. Fine! I'll leave too. I hate riding hills when it's wet - I know what a TMB! (titty milk baby) The rest of the day was fine and the hills not much to write home about. We entered into another state, WV and arrived safely at our hotel. We all had tons of work and clean up to do on our bikes to get them lubed and ready to go for tomorrow - 9, 500 feet of climbing - fine - nothing to worry about!
I also had to do my laundry of course - so I have some pics below of what that entails. So, as i get in the shower, I put all the clothes that I've worn that day in the back of the shower and anything else that I want to wash. It gets them all a good pre-soak while I'm showering, then after I'm done in the shower, I fill the tub up a little and give them all a good washing with laundry detergent - again, just like me the clothes are full of road grime - so then I let the water out fill it up again and rinse and then rinse again. My very least favorite is wringing them out then after that I put them in towels and roll them up and step on them to get all the last bit of water out of them - then I either put them on a luggage rack outside or hang them up in the room closet to dry (tonight I did the latter) then you cross your fingers and hope they dry by morning, since we entered the more humid states that's a big wish!!
We went a few blocks away for dinner tonight at the Mountaineer Steak House and ate with tons of people, the outside looked questionable but the food was actually really good. I had ribeye beef tips (med rare ,mmmm) with onions, green peppers, whipped potatoes, broccoli and a salad - it was really good. You may wonder why the heck is she telling us what she's eating well, actually it's for myself - it's amazing how easily the days blur into each other!! We stayed at the Red Roof Inn and both Michelle and I had massages tonight - mine was an hour lovin' it! Then Micheal came down and we had a yummy bottle of Robert Mondavi's Cab (What?! Walmart's selection is slim!) it was so nice to sit back and kabitz with another rider on all the 'fun' stuff you experience on this tour - sore bottoms, mental stuff, family inspirations, etc. It was really cool.

The terrain today actually changed too - we followed a river valley which was incredible along the way. It seemed a lot like WV when we were in OH, but I didn't care as we had broken through the corn fields after the thunder storm. I received more mail today, thanks so much - again, I can't believe it will be over in a few more days - it leaves me thinking - what's next?! Also, loving the comments!!! xoxoxo
Pics:
Cynthia, Cov, Walt, Tom, Susan, Paul and I take shelter on someones porch
Dinner at the Mountaineer, Susan, Me, Cynthia, Cov, Micheal, Tom, Mark, Janae, Ann (next booth over back of Greg (young), Wes, Steve, and Craig

Washing step 3 - after rolling the clothes in the towel, I step on them to get all the excess water out (look at those shiny toes!)

Rolling out my towel and laying my clothes in it to begin the roll up process - step 2 (step one is Wash, rinse and wring out- yes I know that's three steps)!

Clean up of the bikes

If you close up on this you can see the rain really coming down, but not the lightening (my fave!)