The final push

July 2, 2013

Johnstown, PA to Pittsburgh, PA

As usual, the day started out foggy and humid. We started with a descend out of Johnstown basically through Jurassic Park. 

My legs were tired so we kept the pace slow to start. We encountered more rolling hills with picturesque farmland and steadily made our way to lunch. 

Lunch was late in the day today and I started to get hranky (cranky because I was hungry). Just before lunch, we went through Saltzburg, PA and I started to vaguely recognize things. Turning on to a huge uphill, I realized we were headed to the Kiski School, the site of USGA Golf Camps where Will went for a few summers and I went for one. Sure enough at the top of the hill was the school! It was so weird being back and biking around the campus brought back a ton of memories of that summer. 

We ended up eating lunch just a few yards past the main entrance to the school along the athletic fields and golf course. Around 2pm when they were starting up their afternoon golf session, I walked across the field and sure enough, Frank, the head pro, was still there! Walking back to set off for the afternoon, Frank came over with Megan, a girl that was a counselor when I was there! It was amazing to see both of them so unexpectedly and after so long. Yet another reason I'm incredibly happy and thankful that I switched routes. Everything happens for a reason. After lunch was a struggle. The hills were brutal and never ending and the heat and exhaustion were starting to get to all of us. We stopped a few times to break in the shade. When we were about 10 miles out, Daniel and I decided we just wanted to be in Pittsburgh and done with the ride. After a water stop at a gas station, we put it in overdrive, averaged about 16 miles an hour, and didn't stop until we got to downtown Pittsburgh. It took so incredibly long to get through downtown to our church because of the red lights, but we enjoyed having some impromptu dance parties to cars bumping their bass at the stop lights. 

After dinner we explored the city at night. I have never been to Pittsburgh before and I actually really like it. It's a beautiful city on a river. 

Tonight no one is allowed to set an alarm for the morning--I can't wait to sleep in!