August 12, 1998 - St. Clairesville - Washington

DISTANCE TRAVELED: 50.14 Miles

TIME: 4 Hours

AVERAGE SPEED: 13.6 Miles/Hour

TRAVEL CONDITIONS: Sunny all day but surprisingly, I wore my wind breaker all day while I was riding since it was so cold out.

ROAD CONDITIONS: Most of the roads were in fairly good condition although some had some cracks and potholes.

TERRAIN/DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Rolling hills that were difficult since they were steep eventhough the longest one was only about 2 miles long.

DAILY JOURNAL COMMENTS:
I woke up at 7:30 since we had to be out of the gym by 8:00. I packed up and ate a breakfast of some cereal. After eating, I wrote down the directions for the day and then started off. About ten people went to breakfast but since I wasn’t too hungy any longer, I decided to continue on.(Picture95) I started the trip around 8:40 and rode on for about twenty miles. Unfortunately I had forgotten my wallet with my clothes in the SAG so I didn’t have any money to buy food since I was so hungry. I tried to get a Subway donated but I was unsuccessful. I decided to keep going and hopefully the SAG would pass by me soon. A little while later, I passed by a bike shop where I talked to the people for a little while since they hadn’t had Bike-Aid come through for three years. They adjusted my headset again since it had loosened up and then I talked to the owner about Spinergys. I thought that the new six spoke ones would be great since they are truable and they have replaceable spokes unlike the old ones which would have to be thrown out after a spoke broke. However after talking to him, I learned that the old four spoke version was much better. He had only had one set come back with a defect or broken but with the new six spokes, almost half have needed to be repaired or replaced! Finally I left to finish the ride and where I had some great downhills and went into West Virginia. About 5 miles later, I was into my next state Pennsylvania. I continued on and finally at 1:20, I reached the fairgrounds where we were to stay. Katie had unloaded all of the gear from the SAG before I had arrived so I quickly changed and then worked on cleaning my bike for a little while. About an hour and forty minutes later, Jen Wells finally arrived and then people kept on coming in slowly. I played frisbee for a while and then around 6:00 we had dinner. We started with a six inch subway each which Dan had gotten donated and then we had salad and pasta. There were a few left over sandwiches so I was able to have an extra one to help fill me up. I set up my tent just as it was getting dark and was prepared to sleep in it that night. However I then discovered that since a carnival was being set up, there was a stage that had just been erected. Because of this, I decided to let Lana sleep in my tent while I slept on the stage which ended up to be great since we had the fresh air blowing right over us. I worked on my computer for a while and then talked before going to bed around 11:30. It was the first time that I had had to zip up my sleeping bag since Montana!

TRIP ROUTE:
Go to Main street and go right. Follow until Washington. In Washington, Make a left on main and follow for about 5 miles until you reach the fairgrounds on the left.