Adventures of Pennsylvania

I have four days of riding under my belt! The first day was 67 miles from NYC to Hillsborough, NJ. To get out of NY we crossed the George Washington Bridge. I rode with Linsey, Ellie, Jan, Lauren, Christian, and Yang. At one point Christian got a flat so Linsey, Ellie, and I went into Shopper's World and I bought nail polish for the girls. When you decide to trek across the country on a bike, you kind of commit to a let's say, less feminine lifestyle than I am used to.Arriving third to the stayover, we were warmly welcomed by the Thakkars with full platters of fruit and veggies, hummus, and sports drinks! I was very thankful to shower too! We were definitely spoiled!Day 2 of riding was 83 miles to West Philadelphia. This was a beautiful route through rolling hills colored in bright green and dotted with gorgeous houses. Ending the day with the great fall, we finally arrived to the church. Some of us walked to a food place to get Philly cheesesteaks. I was stuffed after half so I brought the rest back to Jan. No food goes wasted in I4K that's for sure!Day 3 in my opinion was much easier than day 2 but there were definitely mixed feelings from everyone on the team. Day 3 we rode through Amish country which was so picturesque! We stopped and bought fresh strawberries from 2 Amish girls. They were delicious! Never had better. The downfall was that I realized I lost my ID and credit card at one of the rest stops! Looks like I won't be driving until after Chitown. Arriving 2nd to Lancaster, my group made an assembly line to move all church sleeping bags upstairs to where we were staying in the church. It was funny. Teamwork is key! After Ellie and I (being total Gleeks) watched the season finale of Glee, we hit the sack for a full 78 mile ride ahead of us.I love the trip and the team so far and I have a great feeling about the rest of summer. I will write about the ride to Chambersburg in a whole new post because it was quite the day!Also I would like to thank Greg Bopp (it) for fixing my bike wheel. I don't know what I would have done without him!Also, Linsey and I developed a very efficient way to make our sandwiches at lunch stops. She spreads the peanutbutter while I do jelly and then we trade! It is PB&J the K-L way! Nothing beats it. Everyone thinks I will lose weight on the trip but i feel like we are always being handed something to eat! Like donuts!I feel my legs getting stronger already though. Which is good! Time to rest up for tomorrow though! 65 miles mostly uphill. My joke is "for every uphill there is a downhill...or a plateau." But the way I see it is that every city, pretty flower, landmark we see is a reward for every tough mile we ride.I'll write more tomorrow! Peace, love, bikes.