Route 66: Chicago, IL to St. Louis, MO

Highlights:

- White Sox vs Red Sox in Chicago
- the Gemini Giant
- Paul Bunyan holding a hot dog!
- Abe Lincoln & family's burial site
- remnants of the old road
- the Old Chain of Rocks bridge crossing the Mississippi, now a pedestrian bridge
- Gateway Arch in St Louis

Done......The End

As you all have known, we have been in Pittsburgh for the past couple of weeks. we have decided at this point to wrap up our journey. We have both come to the realization that we are quite anxious to get back out west and start to settle in our new home. The fact that we are constantly thinking of the months ahead is indicative of where our hearts and minds are....home.
We hope that you all have enjoyed reading along with us. Thanks very much for the encouragement and support. We hope that you all can understand our desire to get home and find some consistency again.

Day 61: C&O Canal Trail

April 1st

Today we stopped over in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia - the site of the radical abolitionist John Brown's rebellion. One of today's photos shows his fort.

Harper's Ferry is a cute little historic town, and we ate dinner on a little patio overlooking the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. It's a very beautiful spot, and we had great weather this afternoon. It's currently raining, but we are snug inside our tent.

Not much to report today, but we continue to meet great folks along the trail. Our camping mates tonight are two schoolteachers from DC who are taking a weekend bike trip on the trail.

Photos today: John Brown's fort, a railroad tunnel leading into town, and overlooking the confluence.

Day 62-65: Washington DC to Pittsburgh

Wow, much has happened since our last blog post. We apologize for the long silence, but our travels took us through areas of poor coverage which made frequent updates difficult.

We rode our bikes along the C&O Canal Trail and Greater Allegheny Passage Trail (GAP Trail) all the way from DC to Pittsburgh. The C&O Canal took us along the Potomac River most of the way through Maryland. From Cumberland, Maryland we caught the GAP Trail, which follows old railroad grade up and over the Eastern Continental Divide, and drops into the Ohio River valley via the Youghiogheny River.

Many aspects of this ride were just great. The scenery and views, cool little trail towns, ease of access to camping and amenities, and almost no riding on roads and traffic made this a great bicycle route. If any of you all are considering a short bicycle tour, definitely consider this route.

Since we are so far behind on our blogging, we won't get into too much detail about each day. Some highlights were an old bar/general store in the town of Little Orleans, MD, a stopover in Cumberland, MD for breakfast and coffee, several old railroad tunnels that the path travelled through, and the Youghiogheny River in Ohiopyle State Park, PA.

On our last day on the trail, Thursday the 5th, we decided in the morning to make a big 90 mile push into Pittsburgh. The trail was smooth and we were making great time passing old steel mills and industry along the Monongahela River in the greater Pittsburgh area when the path all of a sudden stopped in a riverfront shopping center. We fumbled around, trying to catch the trail again, and ended up inside Sandcastle, a big water park. Somehow, we found ourselves trapped inside, and we had to make an escape through a hole in the fence down by the river with our bikes and trailer. By this time, it was close to getting dark and we realized that the only way we could get back on the trail and finish the ride was to ride on a busy road for a bit. So... We called in reinforcements (aka Jen's family) who came and rescued us. Needless to say, a Primanti's sandwich was in order after the big day!

Lots of photos, in no order since I have no control with this iPhone app!

Day 60: C&O Canal Trail

Today we rode bikes! They are so fast! We easily covered more ground today than we would have in two long days of walking.

Tonight we are camped in a hiker/biker site along the Potomac River near Point of Rocks, MD. We've seen more users along this trail in two days than we did in more than a month of walking the Natchez Trace. Although it has been nice to have company along the trail, we've missed the relative emptiness and solace that we experienced along the Trace.

We'll get into details about our bike gear and everything in a few days after we get back into the swing of things. In the meantime, we're taking it easy these first few days until we get our biking legs about us.

Photos today: sunset at last night's campground and the Monocracy Aqueduct, which is how the water filled canal crossed over the Monocracy River (a bridge of water for boats!). There's no water in it now, so we crossed right on top!

Day 59: Escape from DC

Man, what a day. For as much as we wanted to leave DC, DC sure didn't seem like it wanted us to leave. However, after struggling with last minute gear purchases, wrong turns onto busy roads, and a ridiculous subway ride, we made it to the C&O Canal Trail.

As you may have gathered from yesterday's post, we bought bikes. So in two hours today, we traveled what walking would have taken us the entire day. Although this latest chapter is quite a change from our original plan, we are excited about some of the opportunities it will afford. We do not know quite yet where our bikes will take us, but we do know a lot of options will be open to us.

In the meantime, stay tuned for our new bike adventure!