Today we left Pennsylvania, and with it the Mountains.  Although there are more mountains to come we were happy to see them go, at least for the time being.

Yesterday, the ride to Pittsburgh was awful.  What we thought was going to be an easy 55 mile ride turned into an all day fiasco.  There were plenty of hills to climb, and worst of all, our directions were all screwed up, which resulted in an abundance of stops to figure out where we needed to go.  The ride took about 4 hours longer than it should have.  We did, however, end the day with a great meal and inspiring story.  We learned of a 16 year old girl, named Amy, who has had leukemia for 6 years now.  She needs a bone marrow transplant, but to date, a match has not been found.  The family and friends have started an organization called Amy's Army (amysarmy.org) in an attempt to find a match/donor.  The organization has added over 10,000 people to the national bone marrow registry.  Although a match for Amy has not been found, due to the 10,000 people added 25 other people who have been waiting for a transplant have gotten it.  This was very inspiring to me  because I had no idea so many people were in need of a bone marrow transplant and couldn't find a donor.  It is a big commitment, and can be very painful to donate bone marrow, but it has inspired me to join the registry in the hope that I too can save someone's life.

Today was a great ride.  We left Pennsylvania (1st state) and the mountains and found ourselves in West Virginia (2nd state) for a grand total of seven miles that culminated in crossing the Ohio River into Ohio(3rd state) on a bridge that was closed.  A road block for cars isn't very effective on cyclists.  There were a few hills, but nothing like in the previous days. We ended in Cadiz, Ohio, where the people have been extremely nice.  We were given four pizzas by the local Domino's, 8 tacos from the Taco Bell/KFC, a donation from a local teen who gave us everything in his wallet, and I got my hair cut for free.  I would like to thank Barb from the local barber shop for a great haircut and inspiration for the ride.  It turns out that Barb is a cancer survivor who has been in remission for 5 years.  It is great to hear stories like hers, and reminds me of why I am doing this ride.