Day 8. Saturday, October 2nd. Adelaide to Pittsburgh. 42 miles.

Our last day on the road together.  The day dawned misty, cool and damp.  Fog-your-glasses kind of weather.  My friend Wayne and I, along with a couple of others, all left camp about the same time, having packed our gear up for the last time.  The road was flat, the bed of limestone and dirt hard and easy to ride.  After some few miles, the sun peeked out and it turned into a  beautiful day for riding.  I don’t know about others, but when I exercise for a lengthy time, I find that my mind has gone off into its own place, somewhat removed from my body.  That often happened on this trip and used to happen a lot when I ran. Such was the case today, as I thought back about all the fun, the challenges, the way the tour was led and supported.  Not a hitch and all we had to do was show up and ride.  After all the training and planning, we had experienced a great accomplishment.

As we rode into the suburbs of Pittsburgh, we rode through old neighborhoods where empty factories stood rusting in their decline and where abandoned rail spurts turned off into..... empty land.  Every now and then, we’d see signs of rejuvenation as new office and light manufacturing buildings rose, like the phoenix, out of the ruins of an old deserted industrial park.  You can’t tell a book by its cover.



In Pittsburgh, Loading Up to Head
Back To DC

And then, suddenly, there was the bus up there on the right, with those who had preceded us loading their gear on the bus and their bikes onto the truck for transportation back to DC.  Several of us pulled up, found our gear, changed out of our riding clothes into traveling clothes and after an hour or two, when everyone had completed the journey and was all packed into the bus, off we set for Washington, DC.  Was it really over?  Were we really not going to see these folks again? Were we done?

Yes, well, maybe and yes! 

The ride back to DC was quiet, for we were all exhausted and soon most were asleep.  Again, the miles flew by, except this time, someone else was doing the work and we were all left to our dreams, our quiet conversations and the passing view.

I woke up once just in time to see the turn off for Uniontown.  I'll be back soon to take the turn off and continue my search for family history.

We stopped at a roadside rest area where a large commercial store greeted us with clean restrooms and all the junk food you could want.  Wayne offered to buy us an ice cream and so not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I ordered a double.  I rationalize this by thinking that my body did not know it was not going to be on a bike the next day for another 50 mile jaunt. Sorry, Wayne, but thank you again.

And then.  Home at last!  The Virginia Suites Hotel about a week to the hour we all were first meeting in the same hotel conference room.  Well, almost home.  Rather quickly the gear was unloaded off the trucks, cars were loaded and started, goodbyes were said and rather quietly and sadly, the 8 day trip along the C&O Canal and Great Allegheny Passage passed into history.