Pictures globbed in here - most are of the Insane Asylum -Look at the pictures of the lobotomy - eww!
One of PAC Tour Girls Gone Wild (Susan, Ann, Janae, Michelle, Susan, Me, Cynthia, Cov, Veronica - missing: Priska, Chris, Rebecca ) I know this sounds vain - but I look horrible in all these pics! Oh well, I'm better in person anyway! ;-)
Ok - I just wrote 'Day 27' and all I could think was 'yer sh--tin me!' Seriously!?
Today started out cool and dry - perfect! We were at the Red Roof Inn last night and Michelle and I's room was right outside the 'staging' area so I wasn't as anxious about getting everything ready to go since it was so close. We had an early start today - breakfast at 6:30, roll at 7:00. It's hard to eat sometimes in the morning (I know that's just plain crazy talk coming from 'The Guppy') but really it is. I try to eat at least a half a cup of granola, a cup of plain yogurt and a cup of blueberries - all in the same bowl and then a piece of toast with cream cheese on the side. You have to think that this is 'fuel' for the body and force yourself. Plus I make up a bottle of Perpetuem and Sustain Energy that is about 300 calories to drink in the first 30-40 miles. It has saved me a few times. Today, unfortunately, I didn't eat enough and really felt it on the climbs. So, tomorrow I have to make sure to eat more at the stops as we have a lot of climbing to do.
The route today was sensational. We are finally out of the corn and soybean fields for good now. We were surrounded by big beautiful trees and the foothills of the Alleghenies. I absolutely love the mountains, love, love love them!!! I think that at some point we will wind up living somewhere in the mountains. Don't worry Sue M, not anytime soon but one day. They have such a majestic beauty about them. The sunrise today was amazing - there were clouds with the sun behind them and the rays bursting around the outside - picture perfect - but of course I have no picture. Whala! I do have a picture - thanks Micheal! (I took poetic license and stole it from his blog - I also have to credit Scott with some of the past pics I posted - The Hill and the Smiley face water tower - thanks to both contributors!!!) As we rode this morning we came upon a guy, Gary riding his bike to work. He has an 11 mile commute one way to the machine shop that he works at. It was nice talking to him and hearing about the route that we had ahead - his words - "Hilly".
Today we all rode together yet separate - no formal pace line. I had warned Paul that I had a lot on my mind and that I was thinking too much to be responsible for that. I was thinking about the trip ending, coming home to 'real life', work, my family - it was all just a bundle in my mind. I let the first climb gobble it all up and get it out so I could live in the moment and worry about all that other stuff later.
We rode the first part on Route 50 which had some fun, long descents and long climbs but nothing to crazy maybe a 6% grade, then we went through some great windy twisty roads - my favorite - "Meathouse Fork Rd" - it was fun and shrouded with trees to keep us cool. It was a back road and there would be very 'poor areas' and then a beautiful farm home would pop up out of no where. There was also a Post Office in the middle of "No-wheresville", seriously, I don't have any idea where they delivered too.
At lunch we were treated to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (http://www.talawv.com/) - it sits on 666 acres - because the guy who sold them the land thought that the patients where results of the devil - but it actually worked out well because they could grow their own food and have livestock to be self sustaining. The place was huge and used to house over 2,500 patients at one time. The last patients were in 1994 and then moved to some of the local hospitals. There have been 'reputable' ghost hunters that have officially deemed the place haunted. It was pretty interesting and all I could think about was Jack Nicholson in "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" - it really looked like that place! They used to do lobotomies, electroshock therapy, hydro-therapy (can you say water boarding?) - it was actually very depressing. However, they do have ghost tours which start at 9pm and go until 5am - where they break you up into groups of 10 and go to the most active parts of the asylum ----- whhhooooooo scarrrryyyy!! Wanna do it?!
In the afternoon back it was just Susan and I as we were the last to go through the asylum tour and got way behind. Unfortunately, 5 miles from the Super 8 Susan got a piece of wire in her tire and flatted. We pushed into a drive way and tried to get her tire off and re-set. But, we couldn't get the dang tire back on. Thankfully, the 'big strong man' that lived at the house finally came out and we enlisted his help to get those last two inches of tire on the rim - dang new tires!
After we got in we had to go through the usual routines of preparation. You'll never believe it but I cancelled my massage because tonight we decided to we needed a Girls Night Out - so almost all the girls went across the street and had dinner at the Steer Steakhouse. It was so much fun! All you can eat buffet and guess what?! They had baby lima beans - yumm-O!! We walked back to the hotel and Micheal had been to the local Walmart and stopped by to give us a glass of wine to help with our blog writing.
Tomorrow is only 106 miles BUT 9,000 feet of climbing with a huge climb into Virginia and an early start again, so I will sign off and get to bed.
Thanks again for the comments and the cards - I got some more from some friends. I love the butterflies! Speaking of which - we are in the land of the giant yellow butterflies with black tips on their wings - they flutter by and they also land on the wild flowering sedum to drink the nectar - so breathtaking!! I love watching them and one even got caught on my jersey as I was riding along, I gently pushed her off and away she flew. Oh! We also saw a fawn - spots and all about 20 feet off of the road in a field - she bawled for her Momma and scooted away - just precious!
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