bike blog 2013.3

Day 2, Saturday April 6.  (guest blogger:  Dave)

Everyone slept well at Bethany and Micah’s house after Friday night’s feast, even two-and-a-halfmonth old Benjamin.  After less than twenty miles of biking the previous day, I’d say we were all feeling ready toget on the bikes again.  We even agreed to do some weeding and carrot-thinning in Plowshare’s greenhouse, which seemed more than fair given the wonderful breakfast of baked oatmeal Bethany had prepared.  After a sample from the world’s largest bucket of peanut butter and a few final words of goodbye to our gracious hosts,we were on our way to Huntingdon by 10am.  

The beautiful weather we had enjoyed for our sendoff heldfor another day, and we felt very lucky to be on the road on such a beautiful morning. 

As we got closer to Huntingdon, we picked up a couple extra bikers: Laura White and her daughter Sarah accompanied us for the last few miles into town.   Then our group roughly doubled after we were joined by several other riders, includingthree fourths of the Juniata College Cycling Club, after a short stop at the College.  From there, a short ridethrough Huntingdon took us to St. James Lutheran Church, where Pastor Morelliand several others had set up a fantastic potluck spread that included four giant urns of coffee that Greg Anderson had brought from Standing Stone Coffee House.  We stopped at the Coffee House on the way out of town for more refreshments and good conversation.  The several hours we spent talking withpeople in Huntingdon reminded all of us why we’re making this ride:  So many people care so much about so many aspects of the issue of climate change.

Leaving Huntingdon onHighway 22 east was NOT one of the highlights of the trip:  A narrow shoulder littered with gravel and made even narrower by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s misguided attempt to create rumble strips by carving divots into the asphalt.  So we opted to turn off 22 as quickly as we could do so and wound up on a peaceful, tree-lined street along the Juniata River.  Beautiful.  

Thinking we would take a bit of a scenic route down to Orbisonia, we crossed over the river and were about to start down a bucolic highway when some guy pulled up next to a stop sign, got out of his truck, and flagged us down.  He explained that the road was about to get a lot steeper and narrower, and if we were headed to Orbisonia we’d be much better advised to double back across the bridge and take an alternate route.  After consulting our surprisingly pathetic navigational aids, Jon commented that we couldn’t simply discard this bit of serendipitously provided advice. Long story short:  Our guardian angel was absolutely right:  We were much better off, and the rest of the trip to Orbisonia was pleasant and uneventful.  

Ed, the local Methodist pastor in Orbisonia, could not be more helpful and welcoming.  He has put us up in the local community center, where I now sit in a comfortable, spacious room, typing and getting drowsy and deciding it’s time to sign off…

Dave (and the gang)