Apologies for the delay

It's strange. The internet was such an intergral part of my life pre-B&B that I never imagined it to be so elusive. I am here for 14 more minutes on this library computer in Clark Summit, PA. I am trying to upload some photos, so as long as that works as I'm writing this, you can check them all in "Terra's Gallery" here.

I have been having a wonderful time and can't even begin to explain the trip in words, much less rushed words. Yesterday I woke up with a song stuck in my head, but the only lyrics I could remember were "sun, sun, sun"...it's a song called Burgundy Shoes by Patty Griffin, if you care to fill in the blanks. I awoke in a cabin in White Lake, NY to a beautiful sunny day and a large brown cow outside my window. It had migrated over through the woods from the farm next door. A bit of a rude awakening as I stumbled out to the bathroom and remembered Pastor Dave's warning about the family of bears nearby. I had a great day biking with Amelia as sweep riders - maybe even the best day I've had so far. We passed over very hilly but less mountainous terrain (two days ago we climbed a 4-mile long hill...followed by an AMAZING 2 or 3 mile decent). Nothing beats hitting nearly 50mph on a bike.

As we came into the Delaware river valley, we stopped to take pictures and were approached by a woman from the Narrowsburg (sp?) River Reporter. She took our names, a photo, and our story and will likely be publishing an article next Thursday or Friday, so be sure to check it out. Amelia and I crossed the river after a while and stopped to take a picture at the Pennsylvania state sign. Luckily, there were a row of cars for sale parked randomly beneath the sign (weird, right?) so we had a perfect prop for the self-timed camera. As soon as we passed into PA, the road size and form changed. It was suddenly made of some red material and there was absolutely no shoulder. The drivers were a little more cranky, too, but overall not too bad. We biked on and on, eventually hitting our lunch stop around 12:30. We left lunch for the remaining 40 miles around 2:15. By the time we had covered the rest of the route it was almost 7pm, but the scenery we passed through was so beautiful I couldn't complain one bit. Also, at the slower pace, my legs felt extremely strong, the strongest they've felt so far. Even still, they're enjoying the day off today.

Today was supposed to be a build day, but instead, we helped out a local high school Habitat Chapter in raising money for their trip to West Virginia to build in the spring. They held a car wash in the parking lot of the church where we're staying - Our Lady of the Snows. So, we all rolled out of bed at approximately 8:45am (I couldn't believe I actually slept that late) and right out to the car wash at 9. It ws the most successful car wash I've ever been a part of - we raised $847!

Tomorrow, we're off to Towanda, PA. We have about 7,000 feet to climb, but over the whole course we'll actually be decending a few hundred feet. Oh, and last night over a few beers, Tommy and I just may have made our Seattle-San Francisco trip approximately 1,200 miles longer...Sante Fe, anyone?