Day 127-Atlantic Highlands to ATLANTIC OCEAN!!! (7 Miles)

I woke up feeling lucky that no one tried to rob my room last night and dragged the cart on its side to fit it through the narrowest doorway I've seen. The weather was absolutely miserable with pouring rain, cold temperatures and crazy wind. Luckily I didn't have to spend very much time in it. I got back onto the Henry Hudson bike path, took it to its end and reached the last bridge of the journey I had to cross.

As I got up the bridge deck sidewalk, the winds became like nothing I'd ever felt before. They pushed from left to right and I had to work pretty hard to keep the cart from blowing over into the roadway. As I turned north on the other side of the river, I faced the winds head on and could barely even open my eyes to see my family outside of the rental car further down the path. I didn't run to them, but instead opted to climb over a little dike and run across the beach as soon as I could. The sandblasting the wind gave me was actually really painful, and any plans to go for a long swim were ruined by my fears of the pretty big waves. There was no sitting at the shoreline to contemplate the achievement, just a mad rush to get to the van to stave off the hypothermia. 

And with that, it was over....

We drove back to a hotel in Neptune that Jan and Todd from Grundy Center generously gave my family for a couple of nights. I shaved my beard except for the mustache (which I intend to keep through Movember), showered, and hit the road to Seacaucas, NJ where we took a train back into the monstrous city of New York.

A drive to Philadelphia waited for us tomorrow and I would continue south on a bus to Baltimore. This distance, which would take me a week to run, would be covered in just a few short hours. I suppose I will re-acclimate to distances as I take the long way home.

Day 126-East Brunswick to Atlantic Highlands (22 Miles)

I started the day with a pack of Pop-Tarts before checking out of Motel 6 and hitting the road for my last real day of running. I wanted to get done somewhat early in the day in the off-chance that I could catch a ferry to New York City for the evening. After running through a maze of side roads and busier state highways, I eventually got to the head of the Henry Hudson bike trail. This trail pretty much marked the end of running where I had to share the same piece of pavement with a car.

A few miles into the bike path, there was a break in the trees that had continuously lined the trail. To the south there was extensive home re-buildings, most likely from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. To the north was where the picture below was taken. It's hard to describe that sight, but I savored it at nearby park bench for quite some time. The last few miles into the Leonardo Motel-by far the sketchiest motel of the trip-flew by.

Without wasting much time, I walked 2 miles to the SeaStreak ferry to catch the 5 pm boat into New York. The ride was about an hour long and cost me $45, but there was no way I was going to run this far and not go into the heart of the city. Waiting to board, I struck up a conversation with Glenn, an avid Civil War reenactor going to visit his girlfriend who was in town for the holiday with an elaborate costume. He gave me the advice to walk from the northern ferry stop and catch the returning boat further south.

Walking from 35th St up to Times Square, across half of the Brooklyn Bridge, and then down to Wall Street to Pier 11 was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. During these four hours I probably saw more people than I had seen in the past four months combined. The fact that at least half of them were dressed up for Halloween added to it all.

Back at 10 pm at Pier 11, I met back up with Glenn and took the last ferry from New York back to Jersey. Him buying me a candy bar on the boat and driving me back to the motel would be the last acts of kindness I received from people who had once been strangers.

Day 125-Somerville to East Brunswick (16 Miles)

I woke up and milked yet another motel check-out time before proceeding through a construction zone that would take me to the Deleware-Raritan Canal Trail into New Brunswick. At the end of the trail in town, water was spilling into the river from the canal over the cobblestone path. It took several minutes to push the cart over the very rough surface through a few inches of flowing water.

Getting into the city that contained two of Rutgers' main campuses, I decided to head towards the local bike shop to get some route planning advice. Google maps showed an upcoming highway crossing to be "bike-friendly" but the satellite image of no shoulder and a clover-leaf interchange had me skeptical. Two guys at the shop told me it'd be alright and that was enough for me to proceed.

After running through Rutgers' Cooke Campus I got to Ryder Lane's crossing of Highway 1. I noticed that there was a sidewalk on the other side of the guardrail over the bridge so I decided to go down an exit ramp a ways to get around it. Getting around the guardrail on the other side of the highway was a different story, however. Because the guardrail extended all of the way down to the highway below, I would have to go over it. With the cart being too heavy to lift over, I worked at unpacking all of my stuff then lifting it over. The ridiculousness of this whole situation became very clear when a couple of walkers passed me by.

The Motel 6 on the other side of a busy highway was my home for the evening. After taking a nap and cleaning up, I head to the nearest restaurant, a Chinese Buffet. The water they gave me tasted like molding compost and completely made me lose my appetite. It took the whole length of the country, but I finally found disgusting tap water.

The Jersey Turnpike

Day 124-Clinton to Somerville (24 Miles)

I started the day with what I thought was a free continental breakfast until a bill was handed to me as I started to leave back to my room. It was a bit of a bummer, but I was able to fill up until eating hurt. I had a noon checkout time here that I took advantage of until 11:30. 24 miles seemed like a pretty long ways today after the previous few runs.

Google Maps proved to be money as I arrived into Somerville with zero stress with regard to traffic and no shoulders. The run really opened my eyes to the fact that most of New Jersey is rural farm and forest land. This was true until getting into town where, for the first time, I felt like I was in the suburb of a huge city. It reminded me of the southern suburbs of Chicago I crossed over a month ago.

The motel I was staying in was a couple of miles from the main drag of town. After walking through Somerville and what claimed to be the oldest continuous hotel in the US, I started running east and north to the motel off of the really busy Highway 22. After cleaning up, I went next door to the Houlihan's where I ate dinner at the bar with a couple of businessmen who had just gotten off of work.

Today was again pretty low key. I'm liking these low mileage days as they seem almost effortless. Three more days!

They claim to be the oldest continuous hotel in the US

Day 123-Belvidere to Clinton (20 Miles)

The owner of Hotel Belvidere sat down at breakfast with me and gave me a history lesson on the town dating back to before the Revolutionary War. It was great to have such a knowledgeable host and it made me appreciate how much older the history is here compared to out west. After breakfast I just lounged around a bit before the 11 am checkout time.

I started on the run despite not getting my map (phone) to turn on. I knew how to tackle the first eight miles or so from memory, and hopefully it would start working after that. It eventually did, and it proved to be necessary to navigate through the labryith of local roads that climbed the steep hills that dove through farmland and mill towns. One quarter mile stretch of roads was undoubtedly the steepest of the entire trip outside of Day 1 when we climbed through the Coastal Range on forest roads. Even walking up this monster needed three rest stops along the way.

Even with a later start, I finished the day at the Holiday Inn around 3 pm. I took a nap, showered, and ventured the half mile into town. The downtown had amazing old buildings and was bustling with several small business that were out of my price range for dinner. I walked through town to a Subway where I loaded up before going back to the hotel to relax for the rest of the evening. Me knee is just starting to feel a bit better.

Downtown Clinton

Day 122-Stroudsburg to Belvidere, NJ (17 Miles)

By the time I had woken up, Jamie had already left for work. Graydon was the next one awake and we ate cereal together from his fancy new bowls with straws built in before he had to catch his bus. My cart had been in the back of Lawerence's pick-up all weekend so we didn't have to load it up. We waited for Brian to show up to start work for the day and started out to the Stroudsburg. On the way out, we stopped at the Jonas gas station where we ran into Lawrence's dad and his paving crew about to head out for the day.

We eventually got to the Sunoco station and I had to run my last few miles in Pennsylvania. I said goodbye to Lawrence and Brian after Lawrence had stuffed something into my cart and told me I wasn't allowed to see it until he left. I soon discovered the note telling me to keep a positive attitude and to pay it forward along with a Visa gift card. I was extremely lucky to cross paths with Jamie and Lawrence on this journey. Checking up on me on the side of the road, taking me in for the weekend, and this final gesture were all acts of great kindness that showed what amazing people they are. I look forward to hopefully seeing them again soon as they are looking at taking a trip west.

After climbing a massive hill and arriving to Delaware Water Gap, I crossed the famed Appalachian Trail that stretches from Maine to Georgia. I proceeded down 611, which lost its shoulder and gained a Jersey Barrier as it carved into the walls of the valley made by the Delaware River. Several miles passed where I could see New Jersey but remained in Pennsylvania. In the familiar sounding town of Portland, I crossed the border into my 10th and final state of the trek.

A few miles passed on a busier US highway before turning onto a quiet county road into the town of Belvidere. I checked into the only hotel around for several miles, Hotel Belvidere, and talked for a while with the owner. The hotel was originally built in 1826 and had been beautifully restored just a few years ago. The owner let me store my cart in a storage closet outside.

I showered, walked around town with beautiful old Victorian homes for a bit, before stopping into the local bar and then a deli when I realized the bar didn't serve food. I ate on the back balcony where I could absorb the sun's rays like a turtle, as the owner put it. It was a pretty easy day that was only hindered by my lingering knee pains.

Crossing the Delaware River

Day 121-Rest in the Poconos

I started the day off with an icing routine for my knee which really needed the rest day. The morning was perfectly relaxing and Jamie made a huge breakfast. After a few hours of watching football, I left with Lawerence to help winterize a couple of the houses he manages as part of his company.

The first home was the one he offered to have me stay in in Effort. I'd never really seen a foreclosed house before, and it was interesting to see what can happen to a pretty new home after over a year of being vacant. The drywall was ripped up in a lot of spots where the copper pipe had been stolen and several of the walls were tagged with spray paint. The stolen pipes made winterizing very quick as the water lines didn't need to be drained.

After taking a bit more time winterizing the second home, we went to Lawrence's cousin's house to catch the start of the Eagles game. I've officially left Steelers/Penguins territory and am now very clearly in the land of Eagles/Flyers. We finished watching the game at Lawerence's parent's house where we had a great dinner of grilled cheese and tomato soup. I also got my first taste of apple dumplings which were amazing.

We left for home after a heartbreaking Eagles' loss. I got to meet Jamie's 8-year-old son Graydon before he went to bed. I spent my last night in Pennsylvania watching the Packers get mauled by the Saints. It wasn't a very good weekend for my sports teams, but my new friends in the Pocono Mountains made it a great one overall.

Jamie, Lawrence and myself

Day 120-Effort to Stroudsburg (16 Miles)

After breakfast, I left with Lawrence and Jamie on their way to get flu vaccinations. They dropped me off at Lawrence's uncle's car wash which I had passed on the way to the foreclosed house yesterday. I quickly found myself lucky to be running without the cart as the first few miles proved to have quite a bit of traffic with no shoulder at all.

I eventually got to run a few miles on a less busy cutoff road through state game land before getting onto the super busy Highway 611. Running with the cart through this would've been a nightmare as dodging the traffic to the strip malls and big box stores would have been pretty tough. After going through the busy outskirts I arrived to the bustling small-town downtown and crossed I-80 and waited at a Sunoco gas station for Jamie and Lawrence. They got me a Poconos Mountains t-shirt in Stroudsburg while they waited for me to finish.

They drove me back a different way than what I'd run and we got home just in time to watch Oregon State get whooped by Stanford. After this disappointment we drove up to Penn's Peak for dinner with Lawrence's parents and sister. It was just dark enough to not get a full appreciation of the view, but it was a very cool restaurant and concert hall with lots of memorabilia from the pretty big names that have played there. We got home and I crashed on their couch, falling asleep during what ended up being an exciting Penn State game.

Didn't see this until Day 122, but it was close to my end point today

Day 119-Albrightsville to Effort (11 Miles)

After waking up I met Erva, who had returned home last night just after I left for bed, and enjoyed a massive breakfast. She is a sales rep for Scentsy, and left me with an air freshener before Cliff drove me back to the Exxon station. The beautiful weather seemed like it was weeks removed from the pouring rain of yesterday.

The string of four long hilly days left my knee feeling like someone had jarred an ice pick into it. I took an extended warm up walk to an abandoned pool supply store where I started doing some stretching. As I was laying down a pickup truck stopped by worried that I had just been hit by a car. I started talking to Lawrence and Bryan a bit and Lawrence offered me a foreclosed house that he was managing in Effort to stay in for the night. I was originally planning on staying at an overpriced dumpy motel and was glad to take him up on their offer.

After kind of limping through the run and climbing one last final hill to the house, I met back up with Lawrence and Bryan who informed me that they wouldn't be able to turn the water on for me because someone had stolen the copper pipes out of the walls. Lawrence then offered to let me stay at his place back in Jonas, a town I had passed earlier in the day, which I gladly accepted.

Before driving back to his home, Lawrence wanted to show me one of his favorite sites in the area that he had just recently discovered. We drove awhile before stopping at some state game lands that were probably less than a half mile from Cliff and Erva's home that I stayed in last night. After about a half mile hike, Lawrence made me look down at my feet while I got into the clearing before revealing the gorge carved out by the Lehigh River. This was probably the best view of nature I'd seen since western Nebraska.

We arrived to his house after stopping at the family farmhouse that he would be moving into this winter. Here I met his girlfriend Jamie and took a shower in the first spa shower I'd seen on this run. Lawrence's sister, an avid runner, came over to meet me and we had dinner from Mike's Pizza. After hearing my plans for the next few days, Lawrence and Jamie offered to pick me up from Stroudsburg tomorrow and host me for an off day on Sunday. I was really lucky to meet such a great couple who would give me a great last few days in Pennsylvania.

Lehigh River Overlook

Day 118-Hazleton to Albrightsville (27 Miles)

While the rains continued from yesterday, I attempted to wait it out before the 11 am checkout time arrived. I started out east through the very busy beltway around Hazleton, a surprisingly large city, in the rain. After a lunch at McDonalds, I started down a a less busy highway that had a pretty good shoulder.

After passing through the highest borough in Pennsylvania, Freeland at an elevation of 1972 feet, the bike route started going down country roads again before getting to the Lehigh River valley. At Lehigh Tannery I jumped onto Highway 534 which took me through the large Hinkley State Park. After a massive descent and climb into and out of the main valley, I passed the empty campground that I would have stayed in for the night if my uncle Jason hadn't found me a connection through his church.

I gave Cliff a call outside of the Exxon station in Albrightsville at the junction of Highways 903 and 534. The shelter didn't do much as the wind drove the rain. Soon enough, he arrived, we loaded up the cart into his car, and drove south to his home in the woods outside of Jim Thorpe-a town named after the Olympic decathlete.

After showering and getting situated in their guest area in the basement, I joined Cliff for an amazing steak dinner and great conversation. I learned that he and his wife Erva, who was out at a Halloween parade, were originally from Idaho and that Erva was from the small town of Soda Springs, which is very close to where my grandma is from in Bennington. They moved out to Pennsylvania from Utah several years ago for Cliff's job with a foundry. One of their sons back in Utah was an ultramarathoner who has completed several 100 mile races.

Crossing the Lehigh River

Day 117-Danville to Hazleton (40 Miles)

Today was another case of leaving the motel earlier than I could have in order to get done before dark. I started back down the highway towards Danville before running on what claimed to be the oldest rails-to-trails in the United States, an old Reading Railroad line that was converted in the 1800's. After walking through the main part of town, I continued east after town on a small back road that

After the town of Catawissa, I continued down back roads towards Hazelton. Even though I had crossed taller mountains earlier in the state, I climbed them on highways which took the steepness out of them. These country roads were something else, a sign warned of 14 percent grade for a half mile on one of them. The curviness of the roads always

As I turned down Tomhicken Road, the road that would take me into Hazleton after about 10 miles, the forewarned rains started. The worst of this Nor'Easter was to the east, but I The forest I ran through provided some shelter, but it still got plenty wet. When I got to the b

Outside of my room at the Forest Inn I met Anthony, who was about to start a seasonal job at one of Amazon's largest plants in town. After showering and getting situated I went with him to dinner across the street at Denny's. It was interesting to learn his involvement with the 12 Tribes, a religious based farming community in upstate New York. After dinner, I went to bed exhausted yet again happy that tomorrow would be under 30 miles.

Beaver Valley

Day 116-R.B. Winter State Park to Danville (33 Miles)

I woke up after about 12 hours of sleep that was pretty uninteruppted. It was actually pretty warm last night, and I ended up shedding some unneccessary layers. The combination of 40 miles yesterday and sleeping on a blow-up mattress made packing up and getting ready for the day a little slow.

After receiving a Gideons Bible from a fellow camper, I made my way through the rest of the state forest and across more farmland to the town of Lewisburg. I would've loved to stay in this home of Bucknell University a little longer, but my stop was limited to just a lunch of pizza.

I continued east on my bike route for the second half of the day until arriving at the busy divided highway that would take me south into Danville. I opted to go a mile north towards I-80 for a cheap motel room at the Red Roof Inn. A dinner at McDonalds capped off a pretty uneventful day.

Old homes in Lewisburg

Day 115-State College to R.B. Winter State Park (40 Miles)

As much as I wanted to savor the noon check-out time at the Country Inn, I knew 40 miles would be tough to finish before dark if I didn't get a somewhat early start. After breakfast and getting a map and small football from Amanda at the front desk, I headed east where I had a campground waiting for me.

After a few miles on bike trails, I met up with Pennsylvania Bike Route G which took me around Mt. Nittany into the town of Centre Hall where I stopped for lunch at a pizza place. After this, it was just before 2 pm and I had about 27 miles to go. I continued east for a few miles before rejoining Route V, which I had left to visit State College.

For the next several miles, I was yet again in the heart of Amish country. Whereas in Indiana the alternative to horse and buggy was bike riding, here in Penn Valley the scooter was the method of transportation of choice. I got to see several Amish harvesting their corn. The horse drawn combines were a far cry from the massive machines I saw further west.

After 35 miles, I just wanted to be done for the day. The sun was starting to set and my legs were given quite the shock after a day off. The only thing keeping me from pitching a tent in the state forest land earlier than expected was that the campground had hot showers. I wearily arrived with just a smidgen of daylight left, set up camp, and took a shower in the handicapped stall. I ended up needing the bench in that stall as standing was a tough task after 40 miles. It was completely dark after leaving the showers and, not having the energy to cook, I enjoyed a dinner of dry ramen, a couple handfuls of almonds, and a can of pineapple. I fell asleep a little after 8 pm while reading under my headlamp.

Mt. Nittany

Day 114-Rest in State College

It was a pretty low key day that started with a large continental breakfast and laundry that desperately needed to get done. After this was taken care of I took the shuttle into downtown again to camp out in a coffee shop for a bit and grab lunch. Walking through downtown it is amazing to see how many Penn State gear shops there are. There was at least one store selling t-shirts and other Nittany Lion stuff every block. I took the long way home walking through Penn State's campus. The fact that it is about twice the size of Oregon State made it pretty impressive. In my unbiased opinion, however, OSU's campus is a whole lot nicer.

After dinner at the Happy Valley Brewing Company I spent the rest of the day relaxing and route planning for the rest of the trip. Less than two weeks to go if all goes to plan!

Old Main on Penn State's Campus

Day 113-Phillipsburg to State College (28 Miles)

I felt a million times better this morning and left the motel an hour and a half earlier than I had to as I was pretty excited to get to State College and see Penn State. I walked through the town of Phillipsburg before running up the climb outside of town. After a few miles, Bike Route V turned to the north and I left it by staying on 322. It was kind of unsettling not knowing if the roads were going to be good, but State College was a place I wanted to see while I was in the area.

After a mountain descent, I arrived into the town of Port Matilda. After a short break here I began the climb of Skytop Mountain and then the descent into Happy Valley. Following Google's biking directions I ended up in a subdivision north of town looking for a bike path that would take me into the heart of Penn State's campus after 4 miles. I soon found out that this "bike path" was a little single track dirt trail. I had to walk a ways on it before it opened up into a wider rails-to-trail path.

As promised, after crossing through the Penn State Arboreteum, I was spit out right at Penn State's enormous campus. I walked on one of the main roads that took me right past the 106,000+ capacity Beaver Stadium. Penn State football had a bye today, but it would've been pretty cool to be passing through during a game day. I walked the remainder of the way to the hotel I would be staying in for the next couple of nights that my mom donated to the cause, the Country Inn.

I was at first bummed out about how it was two miles from town, but then I learned it had a shuttle service. After getting situated I got a ride to Pickles, a taproom in the heart of downtown, where I enjoyed dinner and company with State Collegians. I ended up sticking around quite a bit later than the 10:30 ending time of the shuttle service and had to walk back.

Beaver Stadium

Day 112-Clearfield to Phillipsburg (13 Miles-Mostly Walking)

I originally was planning on heading to Black Moshannon State Park to camp for the night which would have split the two days to State College pretty evenly. My sickness ruined these plans and today became simply about making a run to State College possible the next day.

As I left the room for the first time at 10:45 I met a cyclist who was riding from Canada to Florida who had stayed in the same motel last night. He complained about his late start and how the weather has been pretty crummy for him. He was a former swimmer at Auburn and told me "you're welcome" for Auburn beating the ducks a few years ago in the football national championship.

I checked out and started my walk thankful that the skies were starting to clear up. I still felt miserable though. I hadn't eaten any breakfast, and I had very little confidence that anything I ate would stay down. The orange juice I got at a gas station two miles in confirmed these fears. Soon the slow pace of the walking became unbareable as it felt like it was taking forever. I just wanted to get to a bed and fall asleep. Running was the only way to speed things up, but after a mile, throwing up again ruined those plans.

I eventually got to the Best Travel Inn a couple of miles from the main part of town and slept for a couple of hours. I felt a lot better after this and was actually able to eat a meal of breakfast for dinner at the diner across the street. As the night went on, I started to recover more and more and making it to State College tomorrow seemed like a certainty.

Photo from yesterday-I was too sick to bother with pics today

Day 111-Reynoldsville to Clearfield (35 Miles)

Knowing that today would be a long day with probably some more hills, I didn't milk the checkout time at all this morning. I still had a couple of miles to get into the actual town of Reynoldsville and during my warm up walk, a nice older lady made a U-turn to give me a five dollar bill. She asked me if I was the same guy she had seen pushing a stroller through here from New York just a couple of months earlier.

Right before town I was greeted with a sign congratulating me on reaching the summit of a hill. Although the elevation was only 1712 feet, it was the first such sign I have seen in a very very long time. After this hill and turning off of Highway 322 to head northeast, I arrived in the town of DuBois where I stopped for lunch at Sheetz. I had heard of it's legend as a Pennsylvania icon and it lived up to expectations as I'd never seen a restaurant where you order on a touch screen before.

After leaving DuBois, I began my climb of Rockton Mountain. I had no idea that there was going to be a legitimate mountain on the run today, but here it was. Despite it being much longer than the hills conquered previously (3 miles vs. the usual half mile to a mile) it was a pretty manageable 7% grade. At the top it had that satisfying feeling of being on top of a mountain as I could see for several miles in every direction.

After the summit I had a six mile descent into Clearfield which was a bit steeper than the climb. Despite not having a brake, it didn't end up being too bad. I eventually got into town, but still had about three miles to get to the Budget Inn motel. Because there was no shoulder and curbs lining the highway, I ended up walking most of this distance.

I got a room, showered, and had a dinner at Dairy Queen. While staying up until 2 am to watch Oregon State lose to Utah in double overtime I started to get really sick. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but suddenly I was throwing up all night and had a debilitating headache. My plans to get to State College in two days were in jeopardy as travelling tomorrow seemed impossible. I eventually was able to fall asleep with a cold rag on my head.

View of Clearfield from the summit of Rockton Mountain

Day 110-Shippenville to Reynoldsville (31 Miles)

I woke up pretty early and finally met Mike and Ruthie during breakfast. Before they dropped me back off in Shippenville they showed me around Old MacDonald's farm, including their Scottish Highland cattle. Mike also gave me a Pennsylvania license plate from his old truck that Ruthie, Mike and Tristan all signed. I was very fortunate that Craig set me up with such a great family.

After they dropped me off where I had left yesterday, I proceeded east down the shoulder of 322 where I would be all day. The hills continued some more, but weren't nearly as bad as yesterday. Despite them being a bit more mild I can definitely feel them starting to take a bit of toll on my body. My calves and hamstrings are a lot tighter than normal and flashes of knee pain will come up every once in awhile.

I passed through the beautiful town of Brookville and about halfway from their to my end point I got a call from Mike about a family that was willing to help me out for the night. I then gave them a call, but realized that they lived over a half hour away and they were hoping they could pick me up in Brookville. They offered to come get me in Reynoldsville, but knowing there was a very cheap motel that I was very close to, I opted for that. I really appreciated their offer to help though.

After checking into the Pine Crest motel and showering I head over to the Bear Claw for a dinner which was generously paid for by the owner, Ernie. He also insisted on giving me extra money to help cover my motel room for the night which I graciously accepted. I also made friends with two guys who were working at a temporary concrete batch plant for nearby I-80 construction.

County building in Brookville

Day 109-Barkeyville to Shippenville (35 Miles)

Before heading back up to my starting point in Barkeyville, Julia gave me a driving tour of Slippery Rock and the university. After saying goodbye to my generous host, I kept on heading down the left shoulder of Highway 208 where I would see it through to its end in Shippenville 35 miles down the road.

The hills today were mountains compared to the molehills yesterday and took quite a bit out of me. A mile here in Pennsylvania is worth about 1.5 in Iowa. The worst climb of the day was coming out of Emlenton at the base of the Allegeny River Valley. The interstate bridge that towers over the town is the fourth tallest in the entire US interstate system.

Because of the distance and the hills I didn't get finished with the run until close to 5 o'clock. In Shippenville I gave Mike, a friend of Craig's who offered me help for the night, a call. His son Tristan answered and told me someone would be there soon to pick me up. A few minutes later, outside of the Red and White Market, Judy and her granddaughter whisked me away to Old MacDonald's Farm outside of Emlenton. Mike and his wife Ruthie were with a friend down in Pittsburgh who was having surgery for a broken ankle after an unfortunate accident with a ram on their farm. 

Their son Tristan was there to greet me and used his awesome cooking skills to make me burgers from beef raised on their farm. After showering, Tristan and I hung out up in his room where he beat me in Madden but I got him in the baseball video game. We watched a bit of TV before I went to bed. It was too bad I didn't get to meet Mike and Ruthie as they didn't get home until after midnight, but I would get to see them in the morning.

The town of Emlenton on the Allegheny River

Day 108-New Castle to Barkeyville (29 Miles)

I got off to an early start as I said goodbye to Brittany as she left for work. She left me well stocked with food for the road. Although my time with her and Jon Paul was pretty short lived it was awesome meeting them and it was great to wake up to temperatures a bit warmer than 31 degrees. After an extended walk, I started running to the intersection with Pennsylvania Bike Route V which will take me across the entire state. It pretty much parallels I-80 and should hopefully mostly consist of roads with low traffic and/or a nice wide shoulder.
As I approached the heart of Amish country I was greeted by the hills that I had heard so much about for the past month. I figured they couldn't be so bad as the Appalachians were nowhere near as tall as either the Cascades or Rockies which I've already crossed. I was wrong. Although not as tall, the roads are older and therefore quite a bit steeper. There were definitely a couple of climbs that I had to walk to finish them up. The pouring rain early in the day didn't help the cause much.
Right before I got to the Grove City Outlet mall I was stopped by John who was walking across Highway 208 from his home to his auto service shop. He offered me a Mountain Dew and Snickers bar which I gratefully accepted. Lunch at a McDonalds busy with outlet mall traffic soon followed before arriving to the actual town of Grove City. On the college campus in Grove City I had a bit of a scare with my phone as it decided to shut down and not turn back on for about a half hour.
After arriving to the main intersection of Barkeyville, I walked towards I-80 to wait for my host for the evening, Craig, to come pick me up. Craig was another connection made by my uncle Jason and he picked me up outside of a Subway on his way home from work as a mechanical engineer at a power plant.

We drove about 15 minutes south to his home in Slippery Rock where I met his wife Julia. We later enjoyed the great company of Ray, Dee, and their son Ryan, a track and XC runner at Slippery Rock University. We had a great dinner that more than fueled me up for the run tomorrow. The evening ended an awesome first full day of running in the state of Pennsylvania. Hopefully the rest of the state treats me this well.

The route I'll be following for the next couple of weeks

Day 107-Lake Milton to New Castle, PA (34 Miles)

I woke up to below freezing temperatures as there were several patches of ice on the sidewalks in the park. For the first all trip my beard actually served some functional purpose of keeping me warm as my mouth was the only part of my body not covered by my sleeping bag. I packed up my gear and hit the road, excited to cross into my second to last state of the trip.

After a few great warmup miles of open roads, I arrived into the Youngstown suburb of Canfield. The road suddenly picked up in traffic dramatically just as the shoulder completely disappeared. My running was pretty limited to the gaps caused by red lights. I was rewarded for braving the several miles of busy streets with a bike path that would take me into Pennsylvania.

I had plans to stay with Brittany, a friend of Jayme and Tyler in Monticello, who went to vet school with Jayme at Iowa State, but she didn't get off of work until 8 pm. I spent a couple of hours with friendly Pennsylvanians at the Branding Iron while I waited for her to get off of work. Many of them were pretty disappointed in the Steelers' loss to the Cleveland Browns earlier in the day. This was a pretty clear sign of entering a new state as almost everyone at the bar last night was rooting for the Browns.

At around 8, Brittany came to the Branding Iron and guided me back to her house just a quarter mile down the road. There I met her husband Jon Paul, showered, and relaxed with them for the rest of the evening. It was great to stay in a warm bed without having to worry about hiding from the police tonight.

Youngstown skyline wayyyy out in distance

Day 106-Kent to Lake Milton (23 Miles)

Knowing that today was going to be a short day, I milked the checkout time at the University Inn. I walked south on the state highway shoulder before turning onto back roads where I would be running for the rest of the day. Despite a day off yesterday, the long runs preceding the rest still made my legs pretty heavy.

I arrived to the west shore of Lake Milton and stopped into the Grandview Tavern to eat some dinner and maybe meet a friendly patron who would offer me a place to stay for the night. I didn't have any luck with the latter goal. In fact the people there made it sound like like getting mugged or getting in trouble with the police was a near certainty.

At 8 pm, under the cover of darkness, I crossed the lake and head towards the picnic area on the eastern lake shore. As I was on the bridge I could see a police car doing rounds in the park with a spotlight. I would have to find a pretty good hiding spot when I got there. I arrived, set up my tent in a gazebo using picnic tables to try and obstruct the view from the parking area, and layered up before spending my last night in Ohio in the freezing cold.

The fog coming off of Lake Milton at sunrise on Day 107

Day 105-Rest Day in Kent

After walking through Kent State University's campus and the May 4 shooting memorial, I did absolutely nothing. It was fantastic!

I didn't take any photos today, so here's one from the infamous May 4 Kent State Shootings

Day 104-Brunswick to Kent (33 Miles)

I woke up pretty early and enjoyed an enormous breakfast with the Withers family as Kathryn was adamant that I get the necessary calories. What I couldn't eat I packed with me in the cart to take on the road. After saying goodbye to Brock and Kathryn, I left with Trevar back to Brunswick where he dropped me off in the bank parking lot. Staying with the Withers definitely helped with my recovery following the monstrous run yesterday. My legs were the most sore they've been in a very long time and the run to Kent was no cakewalk at 33 miles. The day started with a long walk to the interstate crossing on the other side of town.

Pretty soon I discovered the first flat tire on the new cart. While fixing it outside of an equestrian center a friendly passer-by offered some electrical tape to help the cause. The patches didn't seem to stick very well and I decided to go for a new tube instead. About a half mile later I discovered the new tube to be completely flat and realized I forgot to take out the two quarter inch thorns that were stuck into the tire.

With the cart all fixed up I descended into Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which was quite difficult without a brake. The leaves changing colors made the park very beautiful, but it was pretty obvious that a National Park in the Cleveland metro area doesn't quite have the splendor of one out west.

After adding to the burn in my legs by climbing out of the valley I got onto a paved bike path that would take me almost all of the way to Kent. I eventually got to the suburban college town and realized I made the correct decision to take tomorrow off. I checked into the University Inn, mostly an apartment complex but with a few rooms checked out nightly. After getting cleaned up I walked around the very nice downtown area and realized I was way too tired to do anything. I went back to my room, cooked dinner on the stove and went to sleep very early.

Entrance to Cuyahoga National Park-before the descent

Day 103-Norwalk to Brunswick (42 Miles)

After eating an omelette, chocolate cream of wheat, and toast prepared by Carolyn I bid her farewell and head back to the Norwalk Wal-Mart with Don. There wasn't a cloud in the sky this morning. I was fortunate to have hosts that offered to pick me up and show me some great sites in the area I wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. I started my typical morning walk before tying the longest run of my life. It was a good thing I got started early in the morning in order to be done at a reasonable hour.

After a jaunt through town I wound back up on the North Coast Inland Trail for about six miles. When this ended, I got back onto the shoulder of Highway 20 where I had once been for about a month straight. Near the town of Wakeman I got off of 20 and proceeded down the wooded State Highway 303 which had significantly less traffic.

Major highways seemed to intersect with Highway 303 every five miles or so and proved to be my benchmarks for rest. I just kind of kept chipping away at the day without thinking about the total distance until I got into LaGrange about 30 miles in. While eating lunch at a Subway I gave Trevar Withers a call, my potential host for the night contacted by Jason, and gave him an ETA of 6 pm into Brunswick. 8:30-6 was a pretty decent workday.

After passing through Valley City, the traffic on Highway 303 picked up dramatically. There was no shoulder to speak of and my running was really limited to the breaks in traffic red lights gave me. After about a mile of sketchy running, a sidewalk appeared and took me all of the way to the main intersection of town at 5:50 where Trevar was waiting for me. We loaded the cart into Trevar's SUV and head 20 minutes south to his home.

At the Wither's home I met Trevar's wife, Kathryn, and son, Brock, who was one of three boys but the only one still at home. We enjoyed an amazing chicken dinner where I replenished all of the calories I lost today. Based on my non-scientific calculations, I probably burned about 8,000 of 'em. Ice-cream and cookies added to this count. After great conversation, I went up to bed and got one of the best nights of sleep of the trip. When Sam and I ran 42 miles from Oregon State to UO a couple of years ago, I laid pretty low for about a week. I have to run 33 miles tomorrow.

The only picture I managed to snag in the center of LaGrange

Day 102-Fremont to Norwalk (32 Miles)

I didn't eat much in the way of breakfast before checking out of the Old Orchard and walking to the start of the North Coast Inland Trail. The trail avoided the main drags of town but passed through some amazing old Catholic and Lutheran churches. I started the run hungry, but on a very nice paved bike path.

I arrived into the town of Clyde and popped off the bike path for lunch. I walked the half mile or so north to Highway 20 past the Whirlpool plant for yet another healthy McDonald's lunch. I'm bound to win something big in the Monopoly promotion going on. Walking back to the path the rains really started to pick up where they didn't let up for the rest of the day. The only positive about the situation was that I wasn't running on the side of the highway where I'd get the spray.

The trail had a little discontinuity in the town of Bellevue where I had to use country roads. When the trail resumed it was no longer paved and the crushed gravel/dirt surface led to some pretty tough pushing in the wet weather. This slowed my progress to Norwalk, but I eventually made it to the outskirts of town. I then was able to run on sidewalks to the Wal-Mart where I would meet Carolyn and Don, my generous hosts for the evening.

My phone died while waiting for them outside of the Wal-Mart, but I was able to stand out enough for them to pick me out of the lineup of Wal-Mart characters. We loaded up the cart into their dry mini-van and drove to the other side of the parking lot where we enjoyed dinner at a Chinese buffet.

Following dinner Carolyn and Don gave a little driving tour of the area on the way to their home in the town of Huron on Lake Erie. The highlight of the tour was in Milan where I saw the home where Thomas Edison was born. We got into Huron and made another stop at a beach on Lake Erie. There was a large storm over the lake that looked pretty amazing with the light of the sunset on it. Too bad my phone (camera) was dead for the show.

We arrived at their home where we relaxed for the remainder of the evening. Don was an aerospace engineer for NASA before retiring and had quite the collection of rc airplanes including a pretty large gas powered one in their other mini-van. Both Don and Carolyn offered great company and hospitality and I was glad to be spending the night in their home during a pretty severe storm.

Start of the North Coast Inland Trail

Day 101-Bowling Green to Fremont (30 Miles)

I didn't wake up in time to say goodbye to Lane and Heidi before they left for work. After getting set up for the day I locked up the house and started walking on Poe Road through the north side of town. I started the run in earnest after a good mile plus warm walk that passed the BGSU campus and crossed the interstate. It was a cool day in the mid-40s with misting rain throughout.

After a couple of winding turns to get around small rivers, I got onto the county road that would take me into the outskirts of Fremont. Near one of the several small communities along the road, I was given two homemade banana blueberry muffins by a passing motorist. The run went pretty smoothly with no nagging injuries or any other sort of hang-ups. I've got to say that Ohio drivers have actually been some of the best in the US thus far.

On the west side of Fremont, after getting onto my good ol' friend Highway 20 which I haven't seen since Iowa, I checked into the cheapest motel of the entire trip-the Old Orchard Motel. It was right across the street from the start of the bike path that would take me into Norwalk tomorrow.

After getting cleaned up and situated, I walked to the Big Boy diner a few blocks down through the start of a downpour. I was lucky I started the run an hour earlier than usual as the weather turned bad very quickly. While devouring dinner, the monsoon picked up dramatically and the first close lightning strikes since western Iowa appeared. I went back to the motel to relax and try to do some route planning without the convenience of internet.

I'm pretty popular with dairy cows

Day 100-Napoleon to Bowling Green (27 Miles)

After milking the 11 am checkout time at the the Knights Inn, I walked south into the main part of Napoleon where I stopped for a fuel at McDonalds. All of the recent trips during their Monopoly promotion finally paid off as I won a free medium fries. I crossed the beautiful county courthouse, the Maumee River, and the Campbell's Soup plant before starting the run on the east side of town.

I stayed on one long straight road through the entirety of the run into Bowling Green. County Rd. P turned into 78 before turning into Poe Rd.-typical of the roads in Indiana and Ohio as they cross township and county lines. At the west end of BG, I gave my host for the night, Lane, a call to let him know I was close. Lane would be the first person from Warm Showers that I have stayed with since Idaho. It was wonderful to get connected back to such a great network that had kind of disappeared through the rural stretches I crossed. It is apparently a pretty popular spot as the home is only 200 yards off of the Northern Tier trans-continent bike crossing.

I met Lane and his wife Heidi as they were unloading a new glass shower door after breaking their current one while cleaning it this morning. The were both avid cyclists and Lane had crossed the United States when he graduated high school back in the 80's. He is now a school teacher and Heidi a secretary for the construction management department of Bowling Green State University.

After Lane left to rehearsal for 1776, a musical where he will have the lead role as John Adams, Heidi gave me a driving tour of the town and BGSU. I had heard of the school before, but figured it to be a small school since the Falcons are in a lower conference. I quickly found out that the campus is over three times larger than Oregon State's with lots of new beautiful buildings and plenty of construction.

I got two burritos to go for dinner from the Qdoba downtown at the end of the driving tour. I spent the rest of the evening devouring these and relaxing back at their beautiful home right off of a golf course. I was fortunate to get connected to such wonderful people.

Bowling Green football stadium off of the interstate