Boo and I parted ways after an eventful few nights in the city. She had work the next day and I left for the train station, I checked the time, thought for a second, checked it again, and quickened my pace. I made it to the station and immediately headed to a kiosk, but the ticket wasn’t available. I called Stephen.
“Stephen, it’s not here. The station isn’t in the kiosk. “
Stephen replied, “Go up the escalator and get to the New Jersey train.”
“Oh,” I said.
After some running around the train station, I frantically found the right train and sat there..waited.
“Excuse me, When does the train leave”
Conductor replies ” In about 15 minutes”
Well all that panic for nothing. I rode the train based on Stephens directions. At the station I gather my things and get off. I see Stephen”s car idling in place. I knock and hop in.
Stephen states in a motivated voice “Were Doing it..Wait what happen to your face”
Moving on…We stayed up all night looking at our bike setups.
Stephen asked, “Why do you have five of the same charging cords and so many socks?”
I replied, “Why do you have two pairs of long pants and your daughter’s computer? That bike light is just going to fall off.”
Stephen “no, its not and that towel is really overkill”
Both of our builds could use some optimizing, but we were tired and needed to go to bed.
In the morning, we pillaged the pantry for all sorts of food for the trip: ancient booze, his daughter’s granola bars, forgotten junk food, and anything that was edible.
“Oh no, we gotta go. Where’s Stephen?”
Meanwhile, Stephen was frantically watering the bushes. After, some nagging about priorities, I found a forgotten Amazon package containing a recently well watered copy of the book Frankenstein. I took that with me, too.
Lena drove us to the train station, and I explained to her the greatness of a makerspace. We got off and got ready for our train to Pittsburgh. On the way to the train platform, I proceeded to tumble down the escalator, thinking a bike could go up one. It cannot. I proceeded to carry the bike up the stairs, as we didn’t believe in using elevators for some reason.
Once on the train platform, Steven had a great idea and suggested we take the front wheel off the bike. If you don’t know, many Amtrak trains have annoying racks that require us to do so. The problem was, when the train arrived, the baggage car was on the complete opposite side of our location. We walked our bikes with no front wheel across the platform while holding said wheel in our other hand. Doing this activity uses muscles we don’t normally use. At the baggage car, the train steward told us to put the wheels back on the bikes as they recently acquired the more upgraded rack… so anyway, Stephen and I were on the train for a quick 9 hours.
After a combination of drinking, napping, and reading a soggy book, during these 9 hours, we noticed something odd. Many of the riders had occasional funny hats and similar shirts. Then it dawned on us in a single text: the people… are furries. So, so many furries. We were surrounded by some interesting conversation about how the costumes are made. Like biking there is only a million sub-categories of furries. Some Furries look realistic some cartoony and many in-between.
We finally arrived. It was a simple ride to the hotel, “The Industrialist,” known for its art deco theme and hated for its noisy air conditioner. We slept pretty good. During the few times the air-conditioner was off.
Day 2:
This is the true start date of the bike trip. Stephen has a friend that lives in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is one of my favorite cities; the building ambiance and its park at the point are some of the nicest I have seen. Pittsburg has some of the richest history. much of there wealth was created by combine the rich natural resource of Pennsylvania Coal, iron and lime and pumping out the steel that built this country. littered all around Pittsburg is evidence of such history. There are Steam engines and gears that once worked 24/7 driving all manor of equipment now sit in retirement waiting for the occasional selfie. My favorite building is the PPG Building, a dark glass cathedral to their craft.
After some touring around, Stephen had an annoying squeak coming from his brakes. It got louder the more we heard it: squeak… squeak… squeak. Ugh, right before a 350-mile trip. This needed to be fixed, or it would drive us nuts.
We stumbled upon a bike shop along the way. While the mechanics resolved the issue, we set out to get some food. The issue was… we never brought a bike lock. No matter, we were at a bike shop; we could hide our bikes amongst the new ones, and they would never notice.
We enjoyed some espresso and sandwiches and returned to a squeakless bike. We rode some more and appreciated some of Pittsburgh’s finest examples of industrial might, consisting of many more leftovers from a past era. Now onward we ride. Stephen’s friend peeled away, and now it was just Stephen and me.
Squeak… squeak… squeak…
Stephen asked, “Is that your bike?”
I replied, “I know, I know. Let’s keep riding.”
On our way to Connellsville we encountered an amazing view of Pittsburgh US steel. A large steel mill still in operation making all sorts of steel products. Massive facility that dominates the view even from ¾ mile away. Along our ride we encounter many examples of earlier industries. In ruins now.
Many coal mine silos and evidence of trains in the form of old telegraph lines and in some cases railroad instruments and the main attraction, bridges. As we moved further from the city the type of traffic shifted from dog walkers, roller bladers and casual cyclists to long haul bikers and the occasional sport cyclist. Like a sailor knowing when they are near land from the birds we saw signs of a city when we were approaching them.
We were often eventually able to make it to our checkpoint in Connellsville to a comfort inn. This was the first example of a bike town I have ever seen. Most towns practically ignore the cyclist passing through this one was built around the GAP trail this one was built around it and perhaps a large portion of the economy is driven by the bike path. But, it was also 4 th of July so everything except the gas station sheetz was open. I didn’t die so the sandwich was alright
ChiricoChronicles 