I’m at Dravos campground tonight. There is quite a few other cyclist here. It is a great place to camp, one of my favorite places on the GAP. There is always a festive vibe from all the cyclist who are just starting or will be finishing the next day. But the best part for me today is my brother and his wife drove down from Tionesta to visit me! It was really good to hang out with them for the evening. Plus they cooked chicken and pork chops on the fire. A free meal for me, score!
Actually thats 2 free meals today. In the little community of Whitsett, Pa every one seems to grow a garden. Along the path there was free vegetables at several places. I really wanted the big zucchini and if I would of been closer to camp I would of taken it. But i didn’t want to haul the extra weight.. I did take a little one and a green pepper then sautéed them for lunch with some cajun seasoning.
It has been an amazing day of good fortune! Dan and Emily coming for a visit, free food and my first cold water since Cumberland! Along a particularly exposed part of the trail, hot, and in full sun, a family has chairs and a cooler under a beautiful shade tree. The cooler had ice and the water was so cold! Since my water is always filtered from rivers and creeks its never really cold, so this was a nice treat.
The ride today was really uneventful. Even though it was a Sunday there wasn’t very many people out biking for most the day. I didn’t really talk to any one all day until evening when my brother and his wife met me at the campground.
I left Connellsville around 9:30. After I had packed up I spent an hour working on my bike. The chain needed cleaned and oiled and a few other things. On day 11 dureing the first leg of my trip ( the trip through WV.) My bike developed a rather annoying click with every revolution of the pedal. With a bicycle a noise is really difficult to track down. The bike frame is hollow and sound travels through it, making it impossible to pin point the source of the noise. Every couple days I would do something to try to fix it. I even took the crank arms off and greased the bottom bracket bearings. Thats a pretty big job to do at a campsite. Today I happened to drop my shoe when I was putting it on and guess what? Yep, it clicked. This whole time the cleat on the bottom was a tiny bit loose. A 10 second fix with an Allen wrench! I bet I don’t make that mistake again.
Around West Newton the path started filling up with day users. It was a perfect day to be out. The West Newton parking area was almost full. But by then I wanted to get to camp and didn’t feel like talking to any one so just kept my head down and pedaled. I did stop and say hi to Spike though. He didn’t feel like talking either so I got back on my bike and hammered out the last 9 miles.
The good fortune continued! Later in the evening two people contributed towards my trip. THANK YOU, Teresa and Robin. I appreciate it more then you can imagine!
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