Day 45, Bedford to Gettysburg, PA

Well, here we are. The cue sheet reads, "Huge day on the bike. This is the "final exam." The first 40 miles features several big climbs and treacherous descents..." Joy. Oh, it's raining for most of the day as well.

Cindy, who is driving the route in support of her husband, Noel, loves to quilt. I think she may have missed this shop in Bedford.

Margaret and I talked a lot about how we would handle today's ride. We decided to discard any timetables but our own, and ride today the way it felt right to us. That meant we would not push on the early hills, but rather spin up them. No reason to expend all our energy in the first half of the day. Once through the worst of the climbing, we would re-evaluate how we were feeling.

Our day went very well. There was some very stiff climbing, and some sections of very busy and confusing traffic. We actually went through the middle of Breezewood, PA on route 30! The picture on the left is on the climb after leaving Breezewood. We also went through some beautiful Pennsylvania farm land. We took pictures when it wasn't raining too hard.

Lunch was at 52 miles and after that the hills flattened out a bit, and we were able to pick up some speed. The last 20 miles or so into Gettysburg were mostly down hill. All in all, today's ride was not as tough for us as the previous day's was. We had a great time today.

If this was indeed a final exam, I'd say we passed with top grades.

Rest day tomorrow, then two more days of riding until we reach DC.