Day six: train and rain

Today started wet. I woke up at around 4:30 to hear the gentle “plunk” of rain falling on our tent. I fell back asleep only to be woken again by Paul at 6:30 like he’s been doing for the entire trip.
We packed up, quickly took down the tent so we wouldn’t get wet, and dove into the shelter of the breakfast tent.
When we had all scarfed down our bacon, bagel, and banana (I think the caterers liked the letter B), we walked up the hill to catch the train in which we would ride the first 15 miles of today’s leg.
Aboard the train, Paul was able to complete his game of Assassins Creed for his itouch while I took a much needed nap.
Once we got off the train, we were faced with a seemingly endless hill. We slowly made our way upward until we reached the eastern continental decide. For those who aren’t geologists, the eastern continental divide (I think I’ll call it the ECD) is basically a marker for water flow. All the water that lands on one side flows to the Gulf of Mexico while all the water that lands on the other goes to the Chesapeake bay.
with a tunnel or two thrown in.

It also means that it’s down hill from the top do the rest of the day was a pleasant series of coasting sessions with an occasional tunnel or two.

The only other major event that happened to us was a mid-ride thunderstorm. It was nice and sunny one minute and then suddenly the sky turned black. It started pouring so we waited under a tree for a couple minutes to see if it would be a quick storm but no, it had to start pouring even harder and throw in a couple lightning bolts into the mix. We decided to start riding and nearly immediately regretted it. Have you ever rode on a trail or even your driveway when it’s raining? The back tire keeps the water just long enough to then fling the water right back at you at make a line of moisture up your back while the front just throws it at you when it feels like.
Unfortunately for us, it was not just water. The water had formed thick puddles all along the dirt trail. It also turned any solid surface into mud which meant that we each ended up with leopard spots on our fronts and a brown streak up our backs.

Paul’s back after a wet day.

Our mud covered bikes

Me after today. Sorry about the fuzziness. Even iPhones sometimes get wet.

When the rain finally relented, we were soaked, tired, and just generally miserable. We needed some geocaching. We ended up snagging around four caches along the last couple miles and everyone was in good spirits when we reached the high school where we would be camping.

Some of the citizens from a nearby town decided to make dinner for us so we had spaghetti and meatballs with a roll and whichever one of the millions of options of cake we wanted (I chose one that I think was Boston Creme). Now Bopa’s getting a massage, Paul’s borrowing my charger so he can continue to play cartoon wars, and I’m blogging about my day. Only two more days of riding left.