After our last stint at breakfast duty Bruce and I rolled out of camp around 6:45 am. We climbed the hill into Bedford, rode through town, and then headed into the hills. The first 45 miles or so featured many steep climbs and drops, through farmland and small communities, and the scenery was really quite beautiful. My legs started out feeling pretty strong but that changed after a bit as they hadn't recovered from yesterday's hills. There were a couple of climbs where I thought EFI might be at risk, but I dug deep and persisted as we're so close to the finish. We came to the first water stop at around 22 miles and refilled bottles, then  proceeded through a busy commercial strip where we saw a souvenir shop that featured items "from all 50 states". We stopped there and were able to complete our pin collections, one for each state that the Big Ride covers. After that stop the longest climb of the day started, about 2 miles long and quite steep. At least we had a decent shoulder, and some construction that kept traffic at a distance without taking away our riding surface.

Today was an interesting day for experiences with wildlife, in fact Bruce and I almost created some roadkill of our own, and almost became roadkill ourselves. During one of many descents, going about 20-25 mph, all of a sudden a deer crossed the road about 20 feet in front of Bruce. It was followed by its fawn, which crossed only 3 feet in front of me - what an adrenaline rush! That's the closest I've come to serious injury on this trip, if I had hit the deer I would have likely ended up with a ride to the hospital - not a good day. Less than an hour later as we were climbing another hill, a flock of wild turkeys, startled by our passing, took off from a field and flew over the road. Several of them flew right by me at head height, almost hitting me, but I again escaped unscathed.

The 7 miles or so before the checkpoint went through Cowans Gap State Park, and while the hills continued they became less steep, more rolling, and the road surface was freshly paved. The checkpoint was setup at a park with nice facilities, a snack bar, and a swimming beach. Even though it was tempting, we didn't swim, but did buy lunch at the snack bar and availed ourselves of the facilities before heading on again. The hills continued (are you getting the picture of our experience yet?), and it became warmer and more humid. At around mile 60 we came upon one of the riders that had been stung by a bee and was experiencing an allergic reaction. We gave her some antihistamine and called for one of the staff members to pick her up and take her to the hospital in Chambersburg, another rider who happened to be carrying an Epi-pen gave that to her, and by the time she arrived at the hospital she was fine. This delayed our progress by about an hour, but we proceeded on.

Much of the rest of the day was riding along Highway 30, which has a lot of traffic but pretty good shoulders. The severity of the hills abated somewhat, and we actually had a gentle downhill that lasted several miles and for the first time we felt we were making progress at a reasonable rate. We were off of Highway 30 for about 15 miles, back through the farms and small communities, and found ourselves stopping more frequently for rest and food. We rejoined Highway 30 with about 10 miles to go, and after climbing a gentle but long hill were met by Bruce's wife Shelley, Shelley's mother, and Bruce's granddaughter Jackie. They are staying in Philadelphia but drove out to see Bruce and have dinner with him tonight; they will then meet him in DC on Saturday. We visited with them for a few minutes and ate some fruit that they had in the car, then continued on toward Gettysburg. We passed some of the historic battlefields on the way into town - these we'll visit tomorrow - and after passing through the town square we arrived at Gettysburg Junior High School where we'll be camped for the next 2 nights. We arrived at 4:45 pm, after 10 hours on the road, quite a long day especially considering the terrain.

After setting up camp and taking a shower, I headed into town for dinner at a nearby Chinese/Japanese restaurant with Zach, Jessica, Jeanette, Alan (the mechanic), Gray, Katie, Scott B., and Caroline. The dinner was delicious and the conversation entertaining - lots of fun! Most of us headed into the town square and joined another group of Big Riders at one of the pubs, where we had a few drinks (some had more than a few but I managed to exercise some restraint) and let off some steam after such a challenging day. The more time I've spent with these folks, the more fortunate I realize I am to have shared such an experience with them, and lucky to gotten to know each of them.