Still in PA...

Hello all!
Sorry it's been forever, when you're traveling through teeny towns Internet is hard to come by. I am doing fine. I will start with today. We biked 68 miles from Knobsville (don't bother looking it up, not kidding) to Berlin, PA. That included two climbs, about 3 1/2 miles each, the second climb being 2800 feet. I've climbed mountains! On my bike! The biggest news from today was that one of our riders, Cooper, fell and hit his head, so he had to be taken to the hospital by an ambulance. The shoulders of Pennsylvania have not been very impressive. He then had to be airlifted from the first hostpital to another because they didn't have the best equipment to check out his head. He had a concussion, but is back with us. He'll be in the van for at least the next week. Other than that, today was an overall nice day. I took the climbs slow and steady, and the views were very nice.
Yesterday was a tough day to me, as I had a screaming pain in my lower back for the 13 miles before lunch (so from mile 27 to mile 40), and then for the next 18 miles afterward until I finally stopped and one of my trip leaders massaged me. By that time I was in major pain, but it helped. Then we had a terrific (aka terrifying and difficult) climb. 3 miles into it I stopped and another trip leader gave me another massage and I took off my camelbak and left it in the van. There was still a 1/2 mile left of the climb, but my back was feeling mostly better. We stopped at the top at an overlook and took lots of pictures. The total mileage ended at about 87.
The day before was a really nice day, it was rolling hills for the most part, beautiful scenery, nice weather, and good company. The road was the least busy so far.

I can't remember much else right now, except one adventure where we ended up going 88 miles when it should have only been 70. That was a rough day.

Until next time
Rachel
ps. I am up to about 10 cookies a day. A good host is one that provides ice cream. the end.