Heading Home....Finally!

After six weeks of visiting our dear friends in Berks Co, PA, it was finally time to head home.  Thankfully, they weren't sick of us yet!!

I re-planned the first leg of the trip so as to avoid a few undesirable roads we had traversed on the way down.  This time, we took Rte 183 over Blue Mountain, instead of 645.  It was much more manageable, but also busier.  We sailed down the far side, reaching the fasted speeds we had reached so far - 37mph!  

We appreciated the wide shoulders on most of the highway...

There was a lot of evidence of coal mining in the areas we rode through today.  Towns with names such as Minersville, and Coal Castle.  Chunks of coal littering the banks along the highway.  Interesting...

Neither of us was feeling very well, and the uphills tended to make us feel rather sick, just from the exertion.

 We took a lot of short breaks, and one longer one.  The longer break was after lunch, at a little memorial for a chapel that had collapsed in a winter storm in 2003.  Tuck took a short nap and I snacked and took a few photos.  Here is a little poem in a display, about what happened...

  Only the grotto remained standing...

We continued on, and slowly worked our way up an endless hill.  I briefly thought it was taking us to heaven...it seemed to never stop going up!!  Disappointingly, it was only taking us to big busy highway intersections...oh well.

We had our first nasty driver encounter on this ascent.  We had paused for one of our many breaks, and I noticed a truck coming up the road, but his wheels were well onto the shoulder.  I motioned at him to move over, not sure if he had noticed our presence.  Sure enough, he knew we were there, and then moved over even closer to us!  He roared past, scaring us pretty bad, but thankfully not touching either of us.  After that, we were quite paranoid of truckers, but everyone else was considerate of the two toiling cyclists on the hill.  Some were even friendly!  Also, a few motorcyclists gave us the 'fellow cyclist' wave.  It was nice to feel welcome on the road, even if it was only by a very small percentage of motor vehicle drivers.  

That evening we stayed at a cemetery just outside of Mt Carmel.  I stopped at a Boyer's not far from the cemetery and got peaches and tomatoes.  That, and hard-boiled eggs, is what we had for supper.  I was hungry falling asleep, but my huge calorie needs hadn't kicked in yet, breakfast was only a few hours away, and supposedly it is good to eat a light supper!