Day 07 Pennsylvania has hills.

Imagine a giant washer board. That is was we traveled today.

We left Enola at about 6:44 am and headed south. The bike rode a lot better than it had before the repairs. Big surprise, fixing things makes the machine work better. We rode much of the same 5 miles we had yesterday on our way to the bike shop.

We wended our way to Route 15 south. We stayed on that route for quite a while. We ran into a terrible intersection with construction and a lot of traffic.

We got onto 15. It was a limited access road with an excellent shoulder. At 16.5  miles we stopped at Dillinigham  at an Arby's for toilet, food, and drink. At this point we decided to get off the limited access road and get on old route 15. The reason was the traffic and the noise. The problem with old 15 was the hills. They never ended. We would climb, then descend, then climb again. It was exhausting.

We stopped again and had a slice of pizza in York Springs. This was at about mile 28 or so. Then we took off on Old Gettysburg Road. It started with a long and steep hill, but after that it was not too bad most of the time. At least the road was not heavily trafficked.

Now the unwelcome surprise. A bridge was out and there was a detour. It took us over hill and dale and in the wrong direction. It was very hot, we were tired, the road surface was poor, and tempers became frayed.  At mile 40 or so we came to the connection to Route 34 which finally goes into Gettysburg. We stopped for  a drink at a pizza place and ended up having a sub. Their bread had just come out of the oven and the aroma was to die for. The proprietor told us we were only about half a mile from the city center.

Off we went. Getting through the city was not terrible. It was uphill most of the way and there was a traffic circle where 15 crossed 30. We continued on to the Quality Inn Gettysburg Motor Lodge at about 46 miles. It was $83. The room is nice but the WI-FI signal in the room was too weak for my netbook to connect so I am in the lobby writing this.

Today’s ride: We rode 46.3 miles.

Debbie’e emotionometer: It was all over once we were on the detour: Crabby City!