Day 5 - East York, PA to Alexandria, VA

The luggage and coolers and stuff we haul in and out of the hotel room every day. Who needs weight training?
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First a note from the support crew - aka, Mom.

It's the morning of Day 5.  I've heard from a few of you thinking that Ryan is totally miserable.  On the contrary, he's smiling and chatty both on and off the bike.  He's a little punchy and tends to sing silly songs like "Walk Like a Duck" since he IS walking like a duck.  We always ask for first floor rooms because stairs could be a problem right now. He is riding strong however.

Wooa oh. Were half way there, Wooa oh. Livin' on a prayer....Bon Jovi anyone? Whatever it seemed appropriate.

Washington Monument in the background.
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The whole support thing is very intense, although I'm starting to get the hang of it.  It's tough to navigate the traffic and the roads and watch for Ryan all at the same time.  We rarely go more than a few miles before the next turn, so navigation is tough.  I'm surprised we haven't gotten totally lost yet.  There is always today.

I'm looking forward to meeting up with our friends Katie Tolan and Jeff Tracey today.  Jeff will be riding out and meeting us.  We will be staying with them tonight and riding with them for the next 2 days.

The Washington Monument
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I'll leave you with one question - since your stomach is supposedly the size of your fist, how is it physically possible for someone to eat an entire large pizza all by himself?  With extra cheese, no less.

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Backing up what my mom said I am alive, well, biking, not so much kicking, and in a generally chipper mood. (Believe me if I wasn't feeling good there would be a lot less sarcasm in my blogs.(Probably fewer side notes in parenthesis too.))

ROAD CLOSED. Not a welcome sign since this is where we were supposed to turn.
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The day started off tough again. We were kind of in the backwash of society where apparently they need fourteen stoplights every mile and a half. Once we got out of the slums the going got a little nicer. We ran in to plenty of good hills, and for all intents and purposes I was either climbing or descending all the time.

The Mason Dixon line took me by surprise at about mile twenty. I'm not sure why but I wasn't really expecting it for a while. Anyways I crossed in to the good ol' South and lo' and behold I saw my second confederate flag about a hundred feet in. (I've still only seen two so far. Hoping that South Carolina can really pick up my flag count.) I did get one of the biggest redneck points I've had so far though when I saw a Ferrari parked next to a trailer. (Redneck points= driving game where; cars worth more than house; atv's lawn mowers snowmobiles etc parked on front lawn; bathub mary's; confederate flags count as one redneck point.)

AHHH, We're really in the south now...
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Beyond that the day went smoothly. Legs still work. Jeff met up with me with thirty two miles to  go and he pulled me home to his house. He also took me on an impromptu tour of downtown D.C, which seemed particularly cool considering how I got there.

Katy and Jeff have a great house (especially when you've been staying in hotel rooms). Thanks again to them.

533 down,

Ryan S. P.S: Wooa oh. We're half way there, Wooa oh. Livin' on a prayer....Bon Jovi anyone? Whatever it seemed appropriate.