Bike America Tours
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Bike America Tours
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Bike America Tours
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Bike America Tours
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Bike America Tours
1996 Journal Archives

Tuesday, June 25, 1996
Day 45
Guilford Lake State Park, Ohio to Washington, Pennsylvania
Today's Miles: 85
Cumulative Miles for the Tour: 2991
Degree of Difficulty: Medium
Terrain: Rolling Hills
Find of the Day: Earl and Jackie

The people in the campsite next to us last night had skipped the day in the third grade when they were supposed to be taught social manners. Loud music, screaming "conversations", chopping wood and threatening to "smack the old lady" are not 3:00am activities in anyone's book. It turns out, our "neighbors" were out of jail on bond for theft. The campground attendant said they were going to get booted out this morning. That was a little too late for us.
Lee, Adam and I took a chance as we were leaving this morning and went northeast around the lake instead of retracing the route that had gotten us here. It was a nice ride, taking a couple miles off the route and getting us to Lisbon for breakfast, where we found the "Find of the Day".

Jackie and Earl
Jackie and Earl, our new friends
The Steel Trolley Diner in Lisbon, Ohio

Earl and Jackie bought the Steel Trolley Diner in 1992. The diner was one of the last, original diners built in New Jersey in the late 1950's. But the diner wasn't the find of the day...Earl and Jackie were.
From the minute we introduced ourselves to Earl out on the sidewalk in front of the diner, it seemed there wasn't enough he could do for us. He walked me back into the kitchen so I could get a phone line and not be disturbed while he seated everyone for breakfast in the booths up front. When I came out and told him the phone wouldn't work while the air-conditioner was on, he turned the air-conditioner off. He and Jackie came to look at the computer while I was loading the daily journal and were enthralled by it all.
Earl was intrigued by the concept of bicycling across America. He's 53 years old and has lost 68 pounds in the last few years as he changed over to a vegetarian diet. He's considering riding with us next year for at least a couple weeks of the tour.
Last night was one of the worst experiences we've had at a campground. When we asked Jackie and Earl if there was a place to stay in Lisbon, they both said, "Hell, come and stay in our backyard. It's big enough for everyone!". I think Dave's going to take them up on the offer next year.
Earl looked at the route we were taking and realized there wasn't going to many places to stop for food along the way. As we were leaving, he handed Dave Blair three bags full of apple cakes, cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip/raisin cookies.
There is no appropriate way to say thank you to kindness such as that shown by Earl and Jackie. All we can do is remember them and emulate their hospitality and generosity. Maybe someday it will get back to them.

Back of Sweatshirt
Logo on a Sweatshirt from the Steel Trolley Diner

The ride out of Lisbon took us sixteen miles, to the border of Pennsylvania. When we got to the intersection of Highway 251 and 168, Ken called the cell phone in the van from Washington DC. He's planning on meeting us in Cumberland on Thursday night to finish the ride. He said he had driven the route we were going to take through the Appalachians and we had two, hard days ahead of us. If something looks hard for Ken to bike, I'm really in trouble. That means I'm going to be in my granny gear for the next two days, averaging five miles an hour.
The road down to the Ohio River was a rolling one, with a final 40mph descent into Midland. Midland is right on the river and has a nuclear power plant as it's main center of attraction. It's a blue collar town, most of the population working in one of the few remaining steel mills in the United States. The people at the deli were nice, but they had only been open four days and weren't stocked very well. It reminded me of the place on the Indian Reservation in South Dakota that only had gum, candy bars and soda to sell on their opening day.
We skirted around the southern side of Pittsburgh, staying on the rural roads and ignoring the traffic on Route 18 as best we could. We're in the Allegheny Mountains, now. The land is starting to roll a lot more and the hills are getting steeper.
Donna found a KOA in Washington, up in the hills, about 2 miles outside of town. We've had good luck with KOA's on this trip, so we knew there'd be hot showers and laundry facilities waiting for us.
Tomorrow contains the beginning of our final obstacle of the trip...the Appalachian Mountains. We've been told since the very beginning that this would be the hardest part of the ride. We're all approaching it with trepidation as well as excitement. We've been biking 75 to 100 miles a day for the last month and a half. If we're not ready now, we never will be.
Only 250 miles left to Washington DC...we'll be on the capitol steps, between 1:00 and 2:00pm, Sunday.

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