Days 8-10, I think. i lost track

Somerset to Connellsville
So if you didn't hear or guess yet, we got a ride into Somerset. It was pouring, and we couldn't see anything. I was miserable and willing to start knocking. I was lucky on my first effort to find a willing soul. I can't remember his name, but hopefully he checks this or writes to us. He has a home business, and I didn't understand completely what it was about. He hauled stuff. He was very kind, and he chatted with us.

We left Somerset with hopes of getting to Brownsville. By then we were spoiled by the hotels and rain, so we got yet another hotel. When we got to Connellsville, I wondered if we would beat the rain again. Thinking back to the day before and the ride into Gettysburg, I felt like stopping and letting the weather be what it may be. It did rain that night, but not until we were asleep. Unless that was just dew, but the clouds in the morning were still somewhat ominous. We could have made it to Brownsville, and I was pretty disappointed I didn't just take another chance on the rain. After all, we had been taking chances so far and coming out on top. Since I found a lucky penny the other day, I'm wary of running out of luck. After stopping at a dirty cheap motel (the same price as camping at the KOA in Washington, PA), we walked up the road to Duke's in Connellsville. Cindy was our server and a good conversationalist. We chatted about the odd PA beer laws (not liquor it seems, just beer) and played on the electronic game machine. The food was also great. Mashed potatoes that looked like thick clouds of deliciousness and pierogies filled with more mashed potatoes and cheese. Mmm, cheese.

The next day we went through Brownsville. When we got to Brownsville, we had hoagies at Fox's Pizza. They advertized Thursday All You Can Eat Spaghetti, so we were hoping that wasn't just a Thursday serving. They only make spaghetti on Thursdays, but the hoagies we ate put us in a good food coma.

At Brownsville, we needed to get on the Old Hwy 40, but twice we ran into construction trying to get there. First there was construction, and a car returned to tell us there wasn't any way to pass through. That might have been true, but since the look to see was at the top of a long uphill, we sat down and took a breath. I took a looong breath. Then another. We went another route, and that was closed off, but we went through anyway. We expected the construction guys to yell at us, but they didn't even glance at us. One guy saw us, and took caution not to run into us. I guess the bags make us look legitimate. Maybe its the spandex. We took a long uphill (as is most of PA) detour to the regular 40, and we made it to Washington later in the evening. This was probably our longest day since the first day.

We've driven near Washington plenty of times so we expected that the hills were soon behind us, and the next day we only planned to get as far as Wheeling, WV to recover.

This morning we left Washington in a bit of a slow fog. The clouds looked ominous but the Weather Channel again claimed no rain for a while. Finally, it was true. We went over more PA hills, but as we got into WV the hills disappeared along with the shoulder of the road. The weather forecast was for high winds, and we felt them, at least I did being in the front, in WV. Fortunately, though, the road-builders in WV thought to make the road between mountains instead of on them, and the hills seems to just disappear. Did I mention that the hills disappeared in WV? Maybe we'll stop using hotels soon. After Columbus. or whatever.

We're having a better time now, and over all the trip has been worth the pain. maybe. we'll see.

Nadel, approved by Jim