I'm Not Pregnant!!

For those of you who know me, you understand the titled statement!!
See ... life is just a matter of perspective's as compared to other ones. I've always believed that even though things can get really bad ... if you just turn around, compare to the other direction, well ... things aren't quite so bad after all.

Today we took a route that wasn't complete in existence, that would disappear then, a few miles down the road, again suddenly reappear.
We started today at Morrisville, PA and finished at Hancock, MD. Much like yesterday - continuous straight up with straight down hills. Over and over and over. Spokane cannot compare to this (thank the goddesses of hill and dales).

Mark started and completed his 50 miles. Near the end was his 'hill from hell'. He even became irritated and exhausted with it. The good part of this, was the weather was again near perfect (not the 109 degrees my friends are experiencing traveling in Oklahoma!!).

Ken took up the next 50. Still very hilly over and over and over.

Then it was after 2:00 pm, and my turn. Ken was finishing his ride (somewhere back there), so Mark drove me ahead so I could start. Which I did. Abruptly uphill. I believe it was actually climbing up a tree while riding my bike. I'm really not sure bikes are made for that .... or did the guys sign me up with 'thee Tour' and just didn't tell me???? Then the same confusing road signage, with the route we were on suddenly disappearing. But I continued to climb. Mark kindly drove ahead on the winding, straight up road; and within 5 miles realized this wasn't the road we wanted to take. So back to me; I load back into thee van. Ken calls as he is done with his ride. We drive back into the town and pick him up. We'll try the Freeway for a few miles; and again found the route we wanted. I get back out and restart the whole process.

This took me up, not only the abrupt hills with curves you couldn't see around, but over two mountains - the second being higher than the first. By this point, I'm doing a lot of hill climbing standing, which then causes my left leg/foot to go numb, and I'm thinking, "I'm doing this why??".

The guys are sagging me nicely. At one portion of the climb, as they drive by they ask, "Am I OK?". My reply, "I'm not pregnant". Which means - at age 53, post menopause, spouse with vasectomy, kids grown and gone, grand kids starting adolescence ... that would be horrible!!!!! So see, life really is good and I'll just keep pedalling. All a matter of perspective.

The top and second pics are views from the "easy rolling hills" the three of us climbed over and over. Makes roller-coasters look simple. The third pic is from the top of the second mountain I accomplished. Beautiful, wickedly steep country. But really really pretty.

So we are starting the final 2 day grind into Atlantic City. We'll 'put the hammer down' as Ken's wife is flying out to meet him Saturday and we need to be done by then.

It's impressive how abruptly the architecture of the buildings change as we merely cross a state line. You wouldn't think the buildings would know that stuff. There are suddenly very tall, slender buildings built very close to one another; much more brick and stone; sharply sloped roofs; balconies. Everywhere are cemeteries, getting older and older as we near the coast.

We now again see "Share the Road" signs with a bicycle posted. Doesn't mean they do, however, these last few days people have been kind regarding the road sharing process.

Saw 2 Confederate flags flying outside of a house - one today and one when we were in Iowa. No American flag ... just Confederate.

The guys are in bed awaiting me to wrap this up and turn the lights out. Another day of hills awaiting ....