Days 3-6: We pause our regularly scheduled program

My friend, Eric Durante, and I are taking a ~700 mile bike tour through Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and Maryland using as much rail-trail as possible.  This ride also benefits Our Children's Center Montessori school in State College, PA.  For more details on the ride or how you can donate, see here.

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In the past four days, Eric and Tom rode their bicycles 300 miles from Greensburg, PA to Washington, D.C.  Some days it was bright and sunny and some it was cold and rainy.  The whole time, they had lots of fun and saw many interesting and beautiful things.  Today (Friday) they are taking a day to rest.  Their legs are tired and their bums hurt!  They will come back to State College soon.  Right now, look at what they saw over the past four days!

Behind Tom is a gas well in western Pennsylvania.  This made Tom and Eric sad.  The gas people had to cut down all the trees and made the animals living there move away to do this.  It was really noisy and dirty!

Here is the Great Allegheny Passage trail.  It was nice and flat the entire time.  Eric and Tom rode on it for a day and a half.  The whole time there was a big river next to them and trees with their leaves changing color.

It was still a long way from Washington D.C.!

                                                

Once in a while, they had to ride over the river or a big valley.  There were long wooden and metal bridges there for just people hiking and biking to use.

Eric and Tom had to eat all of the time.  Biking all day takes a lot of energy!  Here they are eating an egg omlette with tomatoes and green peppers and cheese as well as potatoes and toast.  They probably could have eaten two or three plates each.

Here is an old caboose they saw along the way.

Sometimes the trail would go through a tunnel in a mountain instead of going up and over the mountain.  Here is Eric riding through the longest one.  It was over half a mile long!

At one point they ran into a coal powered steam engine.  It was pulling about 10 train cars along.

For three nights in a row until they got to Washington D.C., Eric and Tom camped out along the trail.  It was really nice except for the night that it rained a lot.  They still managed to sleep okay.

The second half of the trip they were riding next to the Potomac River.  Here it gets really wide and makes some rapids and waterfalls!

Eric is a little crazy after four more days of riding!  (He's okay.)

Tom is feeling a little bit tired after four more days of riding.  (He's okay too.)

Well, that is all for now!  Tomorrow, Eric and Tom will start riding again up to Baltimore, then Lancaster and then back to State College.  They'll probably be back in town in several more days.  Check back to see how they are doing!