Today took much more stamina and mental fortitude than any of us could have imagined. We dedicated the ride to Marissa's friend. The hearty pancake breakfast provided by Everett Church of Brethren started off the day with one of the best things that has happened to us so far. Then the rolling hills began... Followed by a very steep climb up a big mountain, which happened to be shaped like an exponential function... of 1,500 feet and as we later found out was 14% grade. Oh and by the way there was no net elevation gain! See the altitude chart below! We had several awesome descents today, of 2 then 4 miles each. Today we climbed 6,000 ft over 78 miles, and when we finally reached the stayover in Mount Pleasant, we were quite exhausted.
Ravenously we enjoyed a meal of rotisserie chicken and baked potatoes from the United Methodist Church. They kindly drove us to showers at the YMCA. Thank you so much to tonight's church for providing dinner and breakfast! We are all excited to arrive in Pittsburgh tomorrow and have a rest day!