Day 45 - Gettysburg, PA

- Email From Patty -

The day started off bad. I got a call from my daughter at about two in the morning (EST), that there was some commotion going on involving my neighbor (I won't go into the details) but it kept me up till about 3 am. I finally fell asleep about 4am but then had to get up at 5am. I just knew that it was going to be a hell of a long day.
I took a shower and then Chuck and I ate breakfast at the hotel before going back to the campground to meet up with everyone else. As we were riding over there we realized that it had rained during the night (that's two rain storms that we have missed because we were staying in a hotel for the evening). When we got to camp, I looked for my bags but the building that we left them in was locked up. I asked Mark, one of our support people, where my bags were. He said that all the bags were loaded on the truck. I hoped that they were, and proceeded to get ready for the days ride. The only bad thing was that my prednisone was in one of my bags. That meant skipping a dose

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Chuck took off before me as he is a strong climber and I am not. Climbing is a very individual thing. Its really hard to climb slower than you like to go and waiting at the top oh a hill really breaks up your cadence. So I rode with Tracy and Diana as we more closely ride at the same speed.

The first 50 miles of the ride was extremely hilly with very steep grades. Our cue sheets for the day at the top of the page even said that this would be our final Big Ride Examination...They were kidding.

At about the time we reached our lunch sag, I knew that I was a hurting pup. Lack of sleep and skipping a dose of prednisone was taking its toll. I I wasn't tolerating the heat and humidity very well either.

The only good thing at that point in time was that the lunch sag was at a lake, so I went down to the lake and waded up to my thighs (after pulling up the legs of my biking shorts). Talk about white legs above the short line and a funky looking tan line. Rachel and Joe were doing the same thing.

- More Email From Patty -

I dunked my head and went up and got a soft serve twist ice cream cone. After the lunch stop I felt a little better and the hills were now rolling instead of having such steep grades.

We had one last long 3% grade climb on highway 30 going into Gettysburg and then the last 10+ miles were don the same % decline.

I made it to camp at about 6:15pm. Janet was already at the camp and took one look at me and knew that I wasn't doing very well. I told her that I had missed a dose of prednisone and I needed to find my bags so that I could take one.

We found my tent and camping gear bag, but couldn't find my bag with everything else in it. I was beginning to worry that my bag had been left at the last campground in Bedford. Luckily Janet had some prednisone (she has bad asthma so needs to take it every once in awhile) so I was able to take the dose that I needed.

Nick, our ride bike mechanic showed up and my other bag was in his car. It was good to have both of my bags but

unfortunately they both had gotten rained on the night before. I found out later that the building where I had left them had had to be locked up the night before. My bags had to be removed and no one bothered to put them on the gear truck.

So I put up my tent up and threw all of my wet belongings into it. My clothes were actually dry because they were in air tight water proof bags (thanks sis Pam).

After a shower I had a couple of pieces of pizza and a pepsi that Sharon had brought out to the campground. At this point in time it was too dark to ride my bike into town to meet Chuck at the Travel lodge where a bunch of the Big Riders had gotten rooms for our rest day in Gettysburgh. Amy and her son Sam offered to give me a ride into town after Mark got back from the grocery store as they were staying there too.

I finally reached the hotel at about 9:30. Chuck gave me a big hug when he saw me because he knew I had had such a stressful day. We called it a night shortly after that. Boy what a day.

Gettysburg Weather Forecast, PA