Total Riding Time:  230.34 hours, which translates to 9.6 days of pedaling

Total Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches:  100+  ( I stopped keeping a tally but I had alot)

Total flat tires:  3

Total bonus miles:  95.85

Overall average speed:  14.74 MPH

Max Speed:  49.9 MPH

Times getting lost ( not including Seattle ):  0  (some riders had a little more difficult time)



There is still more to come on this last entry, some final thoughts, feelings  and whatever else I decide to write about this amazing and unforgettable summer with 50 awesome people.

Miles:  56.44

Riding Time:  4:11:38

Average Speed:  13.4

Cum. Miles:  3395.85

This morning somehow we all slept through one alarm but was awakened by the second.  This morning was the last packing of the tent as well as breakfast out of the truck.  Breakfast this morning had Starbuck's coffee too, which was awesome.  Right before breakfast was open, Ben and I helped Helyn change her flat tire.  Of course, since I was hungry, her tire put up a fight with us and took a little time to get on.  We then ate breakfast and were ready to hit the road.  It started out rather cold as we were leaving the campground, but it soon warmed up.  We had to be at the first waterstop by 9:30, and we were in plenty of time.  I had time to drink 2 cups of Starbuck's coffee there too that Kathy was nice enough to provide us with.  A couple former big rider's meet up with us at the stop too, I guess they road the rest of the way in with some of us riders.

For just about the whole trip today we passed tons of cyclists on the roads flying by us.  We are so use to just seeing us on the road, it was almost a little weird to pass so many more cyclists all decked out in their uniforms too.  We also passed some rediculous sized mansions as we approached D.C., that looked nothing like anything we have passed the entire trip.  We made our way onto this bike/jogging/walking path that took us all the way into D.C.  The path was covered with joggers, walkers and other cyclists going both ways.  I was in the front navigating through the crowds and I would of loved to see from a walkers perspective what it looked like for 5 kids in matching biking uniforms weaving in and out of everyone.  This path basically opened up to the Potomac river and then the Lincoln memorial.   As we were going around the Lincoln memorial towards breakfast, I spotted my family waiting up on the side of the road.  It was cool to see them even though it wasn't the finish line yet, but it was weird to just say hi and bye to go eat lunch.  Ane also had a surprise run in with her mom and brother.

On our way into lunch we got stopped at a red light.  Then about 5 or so cars back we saw some random guy stand up in his sunroof and yell something like " Hey Big Riders! Welcome to D.C."  For some reason that felt so good to hear a random guy yell that, and thats kind of when the whole end of the ride feeling started coming to me.  Lunch was free and hosted to us by a former big rider in the old post office building at the Greek Taverna.  After eating we had our last group photo and then it was time to head out to cross the finish line in groups of 2 or 3.  Ane and Liz finished right in front of Ben, Michael Yee and I.  It was crazy to see all the people lined up on both sides of the sidewalk yelling and cheering at us as we came in.

Then it came to the point where it was time to walk around and say goodbye to the 45ish riders and support staff who we have spent our entire summer with.  That was a weird feeling to just go up to all of them and basically say goodbye, knowing that I probably wont see a good majority of them ever again.  We all then wondered our way up to the gear truck for the final unloading of it.  After unloading, I said a few final goodbyes and then I was in the car with my family on the way home.  All of a sudden, my entire surreal summer, not living in the real world or worrying about  anything, was just over.   I went home, had a cook out with some family and friends and then feel asleep quite fast on my own bed.

Special thanks to all the people who came out to D.C. to welcome me home.
-Mom, Dad, Jessica, Danny, Chelsea, the Hartranft's, Uncle Andy, Matt Ng and family, Andrew, Praveen, Erik and Katie

PICTURES FOR THE DAY! 

Miles:  54.13

Riding Time:  4:19:23

Average Speed:  12.5

Cum. Miles: 3339.41

Today was the Big Ride's first and only $5 breakfast.  I enjoyed this because it was an excuse to delay the riding some more and relax in Gettysburg.  We rode back in town and found this place called Ernie's.  I bought a scrapple egg sandwich with some coffee and french toast.  Right before we were about to pay and leave, Dan Scott decided to pay for everyone's breakfast, which was extremely nice of him, thank you Dan, so we all covered the tip.  We crossed into the final state of the trip today, as well as my homestate, Maryland!  Everyone almost blew past the Maryland sign but I noticed it, stopped and told everyone to turn around.

Today we rode with Helyn for just about the whole day, as well as other rider's here and there.  Once we got to Kathy's waterstop, a couple of us found some soft grass under a shaded tree, and before we knew it we were waking up from an hour and a half nap.  The next main stop was downtown Frederick.  Our original plan was to go to this old Medical Museum which sounded pretty neat but we ended up spending too much time at lunch, and certainly we didn't want to miss dinner.  We ate lunch at this place called the Orchard.  It was a vegetarian's dream restaurant, but they also had meat too so I got some chicken szechuan stir fry, which was excellent.  As we were on our way to Little Bennett campground, Helyn ended up getting a flat tire.  We changed that real quick on the side of the road and then we were back headed for camp.  Today we cut the time pretty close.  We showed up at the same time the first shuttle to dinner was leaving.  Basically we changed clothes and sat down for a few minutes until the second shuttle came.  The shuttle took us to the local Applebee's.

Once we got to Applebee's, we found out the ALAW was going to cover the full bill, minus alcoholic beverages.  Thank you ALAW.  That made my decision pretty easy, it was definetly going to be an appetizer, dinner and dessert meal.  It was extremely hectic in there and I felt kinda sorry for the poor servers trying to keep a group of 50 hungry biker's satisfied.  I started with some onion rings, then a NY strip for dinner and finally an ice cream sundae for dessert.  The oldest rider, Bob Jone's gave a nice little talk to everyone about his experience, as well as a little talk from Liz to represent "the younger riders."  Dinner was really fun tonight to see everyone together for a while, but the fun certainly didn't end there.

Soon after we got back to the campground, we held a surprisingly well thought and planned out first and last Big Ride wedding between Adam and Margo.  It was really cool the way they incorporated stuff from the ride into the vowels and stuff and we all had a good laugh for about an hour.  There was father Bob Jones, Rabbi Rodney, Helyn was Adam's mother and Greg was Margo's dad.  Barry was the ring bearer, or should I say front tire bearer.  It was really cool, and then Jodi had a song, as well as Kari also performed a song for everyone.  Phil and Brian gave out a few select rewards for random stuff to some people which was pretty funny and everyone just kind of hung out and talked until we all went to bed. 

We had our last slumber party in my tent that I set up in the dark with Ben on these little gravel pits they had because it was a little hilly.  The insects in the woods were insanely loud and surprisingly we all feel asleep somewhat fast with anticipation of tomorrow.

PICTURES FOR THE DAY!

So last night for some reason I don't know who but some guy decided they needed to drive back and forth a few times across the fields in a cart at about 3 AM.  They didn't run us over so that's alright.  I woke up to the sun and the heat from the sun that started getting to intense to lay outside.  I moved to a chair in the shade on the side of the building and updated my journal real quick since I didn't do it last night.  Ben slept even later, but Ane and Liz got up earlier and headed to the Lincoln Diner for breakfast.  Ben and I got there and ordered our food before they got theres.  I got 3 huge, probably atleast 10 inch blueberry pancakes with SCRAPPLE!  I knew Pennsylvania wouldn't let me down when it came to that awesome breakfast meat.  One the way back we stopped by the library for a short time just to check email mainly, because I didn't want to spend my last rest day at a computer updating my website.

We spent the next who knows how many hours at the laundromat.  This was because the other 3 put there clothes in the washing machine, they got the soap cycle and then basically we heard a loud crack of thunder followed by the power going out on the whole south side of Gettysburg.  A huge storm came through for an hour or so and the power was out for a while.  We sat around taking naps and entertaining ourselves with cards and whatnot in hopes the power would come back on.  Ben, Liz and I ended up going to KFC and eating the last of their warm chicken and mashed potatoes right before they locked the doors.  We sat around for some more inside, the power was still out when I got a call from my uncle. 

I meet up with my Uncle Scott and cousin Steven and we went to the local deli-mart place and got a ham and cheese sub and this soda called Frozen Run, its really good and its like a clear birch beer that I haven't had in like 10 years.  While we were sitting outside eating our sandwiches we watched a delivery truck guy run into the awning on a building which was pretty funny.  Lots of people were just standing still staring at this truck driver until the police came.  Next we went into some of the random tourist trap shops until we meet up with the rest of their family, Aunt Boo, Faith, Philip and Andrew.  We started by driving to the observation tower, which was like 200 steps up, just what I needed on my rest day, more climbing.  It was pretty cool though, it gave you a nice view of the fields and the surrounding area.  Next we went to Devil's Den and Little Round Top.  We walked around reading some of the different statues and plaques that they had up in various places.  We did that for an hour or two and then went to the Appalachian Brewing Company for dinner.  I had my 14 oz. NY Strip steak with a salad and a rootbeer float for dessert.  It was excellent, thanks Scott and Beth!  I then meet Ben, Liz, Ane, and David back at the Pub and Restaurant place again, and since they hadn't actually gotten their food yet, I decided to ask for a menu and ordered the Cobb salad.  Yup, dinner number two for the night, back to back.  I have realized that I eat a ridiculous amount of food on this trip and Im going to have to cut back when I get home. 

Tonight we slept under the awning of the front of the middle school.  It was me, Liz, Ben, David and Andy.  There was a random 2 minute rain , but other than that it was fairly cool and I actually ended up getting great sleep.  It was nice getting a break from setting up the tent for these past two nights.

PICTURES FOR THE DAY!

Miles:  105.51

Riding Time:  7:51:16

Average Speed:  13.4

Cum. Miles:  3285.28

Today is what they call "Final Exam" day.  It is the Big Ride's last century and it is full of alot of climbing and downhill, both steep, long, and rolling.  As if 100 miles of that wasn't enough, the weather decided that today it would be over 100 degrees with alot of humidity.  It was an extremely hot and sweaty day for everyone and some people weren't able to finish.  Also, I was pretty tired from all the climbing I did yesterday by not taking that bike path. 

Early on into the ride Ane ended up having two blowouts.  The first one we are thinking was just because of too high of a pressure in the heat.  However, the second one, the tire actually came off of the rim before the inner tube blew up.  It kind of blew up in Ane's face because she was bending over it to let the air out before it exploded, but she was too late. She then just changed the tire because she didn't want to take anymore chances with all the hills we would be on the rest of the day.  Last thing you would want would be to go down a hill at 40 plus and have a tire blowout.  Our second breakfast was once again at McDonald's this morning.  We were told that was where the first waterstop was going to be, but it wasnt.  I got charged only .29 cents for an extra hashbrown and the guy charged me for a small coffee when I ordered a medium.  Ben also decided to eat a pancake syrup packet for breakfast.

Today we have been craving slurpee's since the beginning.  The closest we got was a slush puppie from a local pool because once again we didn't pass any 7-11's.  It tasted so good in the extreme heat while we were at the checkpoint and I ended up falling asleep for a few minutes.  I woke up and basically said it was time to go because I didn't really want to take a nap.  We also stopped at multiple gas stations for cold drinks and air conditioning.  It felt so good to go inside them, but then that always made it that much worse when we left the AC.

After that, the only major event really on the rest of the ride today was the fact that I still hadn't completed my goal of 50 MPH, and there was only one mountain left between us and Gettysburg.  Once we got to this mountain, of course it ended up not being a super steep up or down.  I still tried on the way down and I started pedaling hard, and it seemed as if there was a slight headwind.  I got up to maybe like 38 so I slowed down, until the hill got a little steeper.  I started pedaling hard again and this time got up to maybe 42ish.  I slowed down, waited a little bit and gave it one final attempt.  I was pedaling really hard and got up to 46ish.  I was going to stop when I saw in my mirror a big rig truck was coming by in the right lane.  I kept pedaling and as soon as he passed me I tried pedaling even harder and got into his draft.  I felt and instant burst of speed which was awesome, because I only had 3 or 4 more MPH to go.  I kept going till I fell out of his draft when I would have no chance, I looked down, and sure enough my max speed on my speedometer read 49.9 MPH.  You would think a computer would just round up to make the biker feel good, but my computer decided to rip me off .1 MPH.  O well,  it was close, maybe some other time I will find a hill and go 50.

When we got in camp we were surprised by "The Girls" from Bob Jone's office.  They brought all kinds of snacks and treats but I didn't want to eat too much because at that point I was really hungry for a good dinner.  After relaxing for a little and getting cleaned up, we meandered to this Pub and Restaurant for dinner.  Ben and I both had to order the 1 pound bacon cheeseburger, which ended up disappearing pretty quick.  It was very good, as well as my fries, some of Liz's fries, and some of Mary's salad. We didn't really do a whole lot after dinner, everyone was exhausted.  Ben, Liz and I slept outside on the middle school soccer field, there was no bugs, it was cool, but still humid.  Basically what ever body point wasn't under the sheet was cold, and what was under the sheet was sweating.  It was still better than inside though, they were sleeping in the hallways, where it was hot and the lights couldn't be turned off.

PICTURES FOR THE DAY!

Miles:  78.17

Riding Time:  5:42:25

Average Speed:  13.6

Cum. Miles:  3179.77

This morning we had the option of taking the same bike trail for another 30 miles or take a route on the road that was 4 miles shorter, but included lots and lots and lots of climbing.  6 of us, Liz, Andy, David Lambert, Kari, Steve and I choose to take the road.  We had enough of the flat path through the trees and felt we would get to see alot more countryside and scenic views if we took the roads.  Liz, Kari and I started out last from camp because Liz's chain broke again.  Once we got on the road we realized that they were not joking when they said it involved alot of climbing.  In fact we climbed Mt. Davis, which was the highest point in Pennsylvania.  That was really neat to be able to do that and the three of us got a picture at the top of the hill with us holding our bikes above our heads.  Then my sunglasses broke so I had to duct tape them back together for the rest of the day.  One of the climbs to get up there was a half mile long and 14% grade.  For this one we were basically standing up on our bikes in our granny gears pedaling at about 3 MPH.  In the end though, it was completely worth doing the climbs to get off of the trail.  I personally at this point don't mind and kind of enjoy climbing, so I was definitely glad I choose to take the road, as was the other 5 who choose to climb all morning.

Even though the 3 of us were last to leave camp, we still beat all the riders who too the bike path to the first checkpoint.  Liz spotted a coffeeshop on the hill up to the checkpoint so we obviously had to stop and get some coffee.  Once we were finishing up, alot of other riders started pouring in for coffee and breakfast, and the two of us hit the road infront of the pack.  Once again it was a little foggy this morning which I have thoroughly enjoyed riding through because it makes the mountains look that much better.  The rest of the trip was still fairly hilly so the climbing was not over.  We were flying down this hill until we realized the next turn was right at the bottom of the hill, and sure enough it turned and went right back up another.  Once we got to the top of this hill, we saw the United Flight 93 memorial right on the other side.  This was also a waterstop so we spent a little time looking at the memorial and all the stuff people have written and hung on the fence in remembrance of someone they lost.

Towards the end of the ride we got to the point where they had these huge hill signs where  trucks had a 20 MPH speed limit and they would say the grade and how steep and curvy the roads were.  It was a fun and fast finish to a great day.  Once I got into camp I was finally able to wash and dry all of my clothes!  It felt so nice to be able to walk back to my tent with clean dry and fresh clothes.  We had Papa John's for dinner and we never actually got around to making lunch until it was dark and around 9 or so.  This was because we got an awesome tour of the Cannondale factory.  We got a walk through of the entire factory including seeing there oven and testing room which we weren't allowed to take pictures of because it was their little secret.  Even though we didn't get to see production, it was pretty cool to see the whole logistics of how the bike starts as pieces of pipe and components in cardboard boxes, and 2 or 3 days later were fully functional bikes.  After seeing it tonight I was tempted to go back again in the morning to see production, but we have a long day tomorrow and no one planned on going back.

We got back from the tour, made lunch and went to bed soon after, falling asleep to lots of heat lightening.

PICTURES FOR THE DAY!

Miles:  91.13

Riding Time:  7:01:15

Average Speed:  12.9

Cum. Miles:  3101.60

We began the first 40 miles or so of the trip on alot of steep and hilly country side with beautiful views.  The parts of Pennsylvania that we have traveled through so far have been gorgeous and the best part is there is alot more than just cornfields to look at.  After the first 40 miles, we road the last 50 or so miles on a crushed cinder bike path along the Youghiogheny River.  This was an extremely flat trail and apparently the average grade was .212%

Before getting onto the bike path, I was riding down the last big hill into the checkpoint when I hit a little pile of gravel and got my second flat tire.  I stopped mid-hill, and Liz and I changed my flat tire.  I was at the point of putting the tire back on the rim when I poked the new inner tube with my tire iron.  We heard a little hiss and knew that I had poked a hole in it.  I put my second spare inner tube in the tire and this time we just used our hands to pry the tire back on the rim, then finished the little decent down to the checkpoint.  Once we got on the trail for a little while, we climbed over two fallen trees and got hit by some rain.  We had to be a little more careful when we were riding because the path had turned to being wet with random mud and puddles.  Eventually we got to the last water stop which was hosted by a guy named Fred, who was a Big Rider from 2000 I believe.  We showed up with our bikes and ourselves covered in mud and sand from the path and when we looked around everyone else was clean.  Apparently just about everyone else beat the rain to the pavilion and looked at us kind of confused as to why we were all completely dirty.  Fred and his wife had subs, fresh fruit and soda for us.  They also brought some Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer which was excellent.

Once we got back on the path Ben realized he had a slow leak so we stopped at this opening in the woods with a beautiful view of the river.  We sat there and relaxed while he was fixing his tire and David Lambert and Andy caught up to us.  Andy went ahead, but David tagged along with us for the rest of the trip.  The rest of the trip was through the woods on this path, minus 1 or 2 road crossings.  On of these crossings was in Ohiopyle and as we crossed the road and passed this family walking the other direction, I thought I might of recognized a voice.  I turned around for another look and sure enough it was my cousins, aunt and uncle coming back from a rafting trip.  I basically cut everyone off, stopped and went back to talk to them.  It was really surprising to see them then, on the one opening of the path which was pretty cool.  I planned on seeing them in Gettysburg but sure enough there they were walking down the road.

We made it into camp and my first thought was I need to do laundry because I am carrying around all my clothes that are soaking wet and smelly.  Camp was all of our tents shoved up on a small little hill with geese poo all over the ground.  However we were right by a little lake that fogged over at night which was really cool to look at.  We find out at about 7:55 after dinner that the laundromat closed at 8.  Liz and I decided that we still wanted to maybe look for someplace to do laundry so we went to the ice cream place right outside of camp and talked to a few locals.  One guy said he would offer us to use his except he was at his vacation trailer and didn't have any.  At this point I was getting a little more agitated that I had only one semi dry set of clothing to wear,  but there was nothing I could but wait for tomorrow.  On a final note for today, we passed our first 7-11 of the trip!  But we didn't stop for a slurpee.

PICTURES FOR THE DAY!

Miles:  57.67

Riding Time:  4:22:05

Average Speed:  13.2

Cum. Miles:  3010.47


For breakfast today after the one in camp, we stopped at a Tim Horton's.  I started with a cup of coffee and a breakfast egg and sausage sandwich.  Of course I was still hungry after that so I went back and bought a chocolate glazed and maple frosted donut, what I always get when I go to Dunkin Donuts.  The Tim Horton donuts weren't too bad, but didn't compete with Dunkin Donuts which by the way, we didn't pass a single one that I can recall on the entire trip.  Here we also meet a guy who says he rides five to six thousand miles a year on a bike.  We talked to him for a while and he ended up giving us 20 bucks for dinner, which was really nice of him.

Today was full of detours and following Dan Henry's on the road because our cue sheets started from a different town then we actually started in.  By the time we actually meet up with our cue sheet we were about 30 miles or so into the trip.  Today was alot of rolling hills and lots of lush green scenery in Pennsylvania.  We also ran into some pretty steep up and downhills today but none good enough to reach my goal of 50 MPH.  Today was a little on the cool side temperature wise and we could see that a rain storm was brewing.  I didn't bring my rain jacket with me on the bike today so I ended up stopping at some store for a trash bag.  I conveniently passed a sign for Bennett Acre's, so I had to stop for a picture and then it started raining.  I poked 3 holes in the bag and made a sweet little black trash bag rain vest that keep my core dry and warm.  It was pretty funny when I took it off because my sleeves were soaking wet but the main part of the jersey was dry.  Today at one of our stops we passed a sweet Apache helicopter that was just sitting on a street corner.  Right after that we crossed a bridge and there was a huge nuclear power plant on each side of us, but we were told that we were strictly forbidden from taking any pictures and if you get caught you can get into trouble.  They had some huge towers and were really cool to bike past.

We stopped at a little diner called Bad Dogs close to camp for lunch because we saw alot of the other cyclists bikes sitting outside.  I ended up ordering a 3/4 pound burger for lunch, which the guy at the place told us he would be impressed if we finished it.  Well about 5 or 6 minutes after getting the burger, I had finished it and ordered some cheesecake for dessert, which was ok, but not great.  Before we left the owner gave Liz and Ane each a free t-shirt, but didn't give Ben and I one, which was kind of a rip off.

The rain didn't let up at all as we got into camp so we were hanging out under a few little tents set up to stand under and also hung out in the truck a little.  Jody even set her thermarest and sleeping bag up under the gear truck to stay dry.  Once the rain died down, the four of us set my tent up really quick before it started raining again and then I grabbed my luggage which was sitting under some tarps.  When I opened my suitcase, everything was soaking wet, like I could wring out my t-shirts.  Basically I found the driest set of clothing I could and took a shower.  There was no dryers at camp so I attempted to dry my clothes somewhat in the back of the truck but it was no hope because they were so wet.  We had an awesome catered dinner, followed by a game of Euchre and then I was on lunch duty.  When we went to sleep the rain was so bad that it was like misting inside the tent and at some points it was actually dripping a little.  Ane ended up leaving to sleep in the back of the truck and I was eventually able to fall asleep.

PICTURES FOR THE DAY!

Miles:  61.58

Riding Time:  4:18:57

Average Speed:  14.2

Cum. Miles:  2952.80

During today's short ride the four of us actually ended up spending more time off the seat than on the seat from the beginning to the end.  We ended up leaving after breakfast around 8ish and didn't arrive until about 5:15.  We took the day nice and easy and ended up staying at Kathy's waterstop for a really long time.

We noticed before we actually left the fairgrounds this morning that Ane had a flat tire.  The plan was to go to Cogan's again for a group breakfast which was a mile away so we just pumped her tire back up so that it would make it there.  For some reason the deal Cogan's worked out with the ALAW was that we could get whatever we wanted off the menu, for 45 people!  We ended up probably being the last people to leave the restaurant because when we got outside we had to change Ane's flat tire.   Fairly  early on into the trip we passed a Mittal Steel and Coke making plant.  This plant was huge and at some parts there would be alot of pipeline crossing the road and power plants on both sides.  It was quite noisy and seemed a little dirty and passing it just made me think how some people could even work in a place like that everyday.

Once we got to Kathy's waterstop, the other 3 took a small nap on the grass.  I guess I had enough coffee or something at breakfast I wasn't all that tired and didn't nap.  Eventually we worked our way over to this War Vet Museum in Canfield Ohio.  This was a really cool and rather unique museum.  It was the oldest house in town, built in 1809 and still sitting on it's original foundation.  The museum seemed to be family run and they would let you touch anything that wasn't behind glass, including really old books and newspapers and uniforms.  In the basement they had a bunch of model trains they were still working on and one wall was set up to represent Gettysburg and even had a short little video to go with it, which we didn't see.  One of the coolest part's of this museum was the fact that everything was donated to them.  The museum was 4 floors packed with all kinds of war stuff from all the major wars and every single piece of it was donated.

We eventually had to go to camp because it was starting to get late and we figured dinner was going to be earlier than normal since it was a short day.  After dinner I started setting up my tent as per usual ( I am the one in our group of four who would always be the first to get my stuff and set up my tent before anyone else just because I like getting it done, which is why I was called the "responsible" one) and Liz made me stop in the middle of setting up my tent to lay down and relax.  She felt it was a major accomplishment to get me to stop and just sit down and relax.  Soon after Ben, Andy, Tom and Scott came over and we all just laid out on our sleeping bags and thermal rests talking until it got dark.  That was alot of fun and well worth it.  Then I set my tent up in the dark and eventually went to sleep.

PICTURES FOR THE DAY!

This morning was the first morning of the trip where we got to sleep in while in a tent.  We got up around 8:30 or so because the sun was already up and the tent was starting to heat up.  This rest day was probably the most laziest and relaxing of them all on the trip.  Here is a little timeline of our day.

Laundrymat -> Cogans (breakfast) -> laundrymat ->  library -> coffeeshop -> library -> camp -> library -> Belle's Grill (lunch) -> coffeshop ( for a rather long time) -> Cogan's (dinner) -> gas station - > camp

In Burton Ohio, this is pretty much town. The only thing missing is the one place we had dinner last night, I forget it's name, but there are literally 3 restaurants in town.  The place for us to be was definitely the coffee shop.  This little shop looked like it was put together inside an old house because it was made up of several smaller rooms.  They also had couches which was the main attraction for us.  The first visit to the coffee shop was just Ane and i.  We both bought a coffee and sprawled out on a couch.  Ane decided to take a nap before she drank her coffee, and when she woke up I was just about to finish my coffee, and then I took a nap while she drank her's.  It was amusing.  It was soo nice to be able to just sit down and do nothing just about the entire rest day, even though that did make us a little more tired, hence the random naps here and there.

On our second trip to the coffeeshop we got some fruit smoothies.  I got peach and it was awesome.  At that point it was Ane, Ben, David, Helyn and I at the shop.  We all piled on one couch for a little while for no particular reason, but it was alot of fun, until it started getting uncomfortable.  Eventually I worked my way outside to play Euchre with Ben, Andy, and David Lambert.  We did that for a little while until we decided it was time to go to dinner.  So we went back to Cogan's for dinner, and this time Ben, Ane and I each bought a Cogan's t-shirt, Ane a light orange, me a deep orange, and Ben a red.  For dinner I had my first ever corned beef reuben.  I make them all the time at my restaurant and they have always looked really good, even though I don't really like rye bread, swiss cheese or thousand island dressing.  Anyways I bought one and it was excellent.

Today I didn't get to update my website because there was a line on the computers at the library and as soon as I sat down I got a 15 minute warning.  I decided that I would just wait till I got home to finish because there was no way I was going to do it in Gettysburg, the last rest day.  We finally made our way back to camp where there was a WWII tank, so we had to get a few pictures of it and on it.  That was pretty much it for the day except we also got to meet Lorenzo.  He is going to ride with us for the next day or two in a McGowan Institute jersey for Brack.  That was really cool that someone from his school was able to come out and represent him for a couple days on the trip since he had to leave.

PICTURES FOR THE DAY!