Our Big Bike Trip Day 1

Are you all dying to hear about our trip?

No?
hmmm.

oh well.

You get to hear about it anyway!

Day 1. McKeesport, PA to Confluence, PA (71 miles on the trail. + another 3 or 4 to get to food and sleeping arrangements.)
*A little background- We were riding the "Great Allegheny Passage".  This is approx. a 155 mile trail that goes from McKeesport, PA to Cumberland, MD.  The trail then turns into the Cheseapeak and Ohio Tow Path and runs another 150 some-odd miles to Washington DC.  Both trails are designated for hikers/bikers with no motorized vehicles permitted on the trails.  The "GAP" trail runs along side the Youghiogheny (pronouced "yauk-ah-gain-ee") River all the way to Cumberland.  This makes it 'relatively' flat.  Emphasis on "relatively". 

As you can see, we are pretty excited and ready to go.  If I was really optimistic, I would say this morning's weather was 'crisp'.  But in reality, it was just plain cold.  The high was 44 degrees.  Brrr.  

I didn't really think about the fact that I would be going 10-15 mph with the wind in my face.  We loaded up the bikes with our backpacks and put on our camelbacks and  took off around 9:30 am.  By mile 15 I was REALLY cold.  I put on another layer and we pushed on.  I think the boys were REALLY excited about today because they really pushed me the whole time today.  We took a couple short breaks within the first 20 miles to take some pictures.

These were both taken when we thought the waterfalls were a novelty.  We probably passed 50 waterfalls on our journey! 
We pushed on, and on.  The whole trail was very well maintained today.  We stopped at mile 45 or so for lunch.  My home-made turkey sandwich never tasted so good in my entire life!  It was still really cloudy and cold.  I had warmed up enough to be comfortable while I was riding, but after about 10 minutes of a stop, I was shivering.  So we got back on the bikes and took off in hopes of seeing the sun.  Mr. Sun finally made a brief appearance about 10 miles later.  I was struggling to keep up with Tannon and Bryan all day.  They wanted to ride at about 14 mph.  I wanted to ride at about 11.5.  This didn't work out so well for me.  They road about a 1/2 mile ahead of me for at least 2 hours while I muttered nasty things about the both of them under my breath.  
Much to say, I really wasn't loving the first day of the ride.  We started nearing Ohiopyle State Park around 3:00 PM (60 miles out!)
We took a short break and I gave myself a pep talk and then begged Bryan to slow down a little.  I don't know why I was such a slow poke all day.  I think I had it in my head that I needed to pace myself and not go as fast as possible the first day because I had no idea how my body was going to react to a 71 mile ride in a single day (followed by 4 more days of the same thing).  
We finally reached Ohiopyle.  It was beautiful!  There are great views and some really cool bridges to ride across.

  We got to the train station at Ohiopyle at just the right time.  It started hailing.  We took shelter and I think I ate about 4 lbs of food.  I was STARVING! And it was excited to know we only had 11 miles left to go before our stop point for the night.  
This was quite possibly the longest 11 miles of the entire trip.  The boys were kind and slowed down to below 11 mph for me.  My body was a little stiff by this point.  
We reached Confluence, PA by about 5:00 p.m.  After 3 failed attempts to find a place to eat that was open, we stopped at "Sister's Cafe".  It was a tiny, locally owned diner.  Super Cute.  And low key.  They whole town of Confluence might have 1,000 full time residents.  After eating the best chicken pannini in the whole world, we got back on our bikes (ouch! My butt was a tad sore) and rode another 2 miles to the Paddler's Lane.  It was an AWESOME bed and breakfast with a campsite on the side.  Bryan and I enjoyed a very comfortable bed with a gracious host and crazy Tannon slept outside in the camp site.  (did I mention he is nuts?!) The only down side was that it was about 10 feet from the Rail Road tracks.  I could have slept through an earthquake though.  I was vaguely aware of the trains passing and honking all night.  But barely.  
Overall, I would sum up Day 1 as the hardest.  It was all up hill.  And cold.  And the longest mileage.  So, yes, it was hard and not my favorite day.