Confluence, PA

Well, we are on our way. It was quite a busy and strange weekend. Bob finished school on Thursday and Maggie on Friday. After a hectic and tumultuous school year, we were glad for the chance to sleep in on Saturday and prepare for our trip. Oddly, though maybe not for us, we were expecting our baseball-park rider(s) on Saturday and Sunday, so most of Saturday was spent finalizing our packing and organizing. We knew that Jim, one of the baseball-park riders from Arizona, would be arriving at dinner time, so we were poised and ready.

The weather forecast called for late-afternoon thundershowers, so of course just as he called us from the cloverleaf in Hays with a flat tire, the skies opened, the wind whipped up and his walk from Rte. 837 to our house was about as miserable as it could get. He arrived at our house wet, dripping and ready for a shower, a beer and dinner. We had invited our friend Gary over to join us for dinner, so we had good food and conversation until the cycling and the work caught up with us and we called it an early night.

After breakfast on Sunday, Bob and Jim got Jim's tire fixed and other mechanical issues settled. After lunch we sent him on his way to the Pirates game while we continued our trip preparations. A quick dinner with Maggie's mom, and we set off for our first destination: Ward and Terri Cochenour's. They are good friends who live near the bike trail in the area where Maggie works. Their house put us about 20 miles on our way and made Monday's ride about 65 miles to Confluence, PA on the bike trail.

So it's Monday evening and we are enjoying dessert on the deck of the Lucky Dog Cafe, where we had dinner. Our tent has been pitched at the Outflow Recreation
Area, an Army Corps of Engineers Campground (kadoos to our friend Bob) and life is good. It seems quite strange to be on a bike trip in areas where we've cycled many times, and of course we are already revising our schedule of stops for the next few days. We're hoping to avoid the thunderstorms that are forecast every day, and looking forward to a good night's sleep.