Today we rode from Mt. Pleasant, PA to Carnegie, PA which was supposed to be a distance of only 55 miles, but ended up being 60 miles and took way too long. The cues were wrong all day and we had to keep waiting for Brad to figure out what was the right way to go, so that was frustrating, but eventually we all made it into the church in Carnegie, which is a small town just southwest of Pittsburgh. We did ride through Pittsburgh, which I always love doing, I think the city is one of my favorites. We also met some fun people along the way, I always love meeting new people and seeing their reactions after they find out what we are doing, and today a woman had us take a picture with her two little kids when we stopped for lunch, which was really funny and cool and I think she donated to the cause as well, I don't know her name, but thank you!!
The last few miles into the Pittsburgh involved one HUGE hill, which of course came just minutes after Conor commented that "its great that they brought us into the city this way, we just missed all these huge mountains!" So thanks to Conor for jinxing that for us, huge climbs in the last few miles is always really tough. There were lots of hills today, but the weather was nice again, still 75 and sunny, and my knees weren't too bad, so It was alright.
After the ride, we showered in one of the creepiest showers I have ever seen, it was basically outside, and was open to the outside world, and then headed to the Fishback's house for dinner. DInner was once again amazing, there were appetizers, fruit, fajitas, brownies, ice cream, and tons more, I could not possibly eat any more, and I am beginning to feel spoiled, I am sure we will not have receptions like this every night out west.
We also had a great talk with the people from Amy's Army, at www.amysarmy.org, an amazing organization that recruits people to join the National Bone Marrow Transplant Registry. Their daughter is Amy, she was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at age 10, and they have exhausted the 8 million person database looking for a marrow donor match, and decided to create this organization six years ago, and are still looking for a match for Amy to cure her. If you want to help or learn more, visit their site, or marrow.org/join to get an at-home swab kit. These kits are usually over $50 but if you register now, you can order a kit to your home for FREE!!! but only if you do it by June 22, so check it out now!! The kit only consists of a simple mouth swab, so it is really easy and you will be saving a life.
Finally, Sean told me the other night that I had hit a new high point in my donations, I have now raised enough for TWO riders, my donation total is $5,187.50, so once again, thanks to everyone I know for all of the amazing support, it's been amazing, and has far surpassed what I ever expected from this trip.
Tomorrow we head to somewhere in Ohio, about a 65 mile ride, so hopefully we can make good time and avoid all the huge mountains between here and Chicago.
States traveled through:7(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA)
Distance today: 60 mi
Total Distance traveled: 665 mi