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.
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
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