We got a bit of a history lesson today. It seems there is this guy in Harts Grove, Ohio, who knows more about U.S. presidential history than anyone else. As we rode into the Harts Grove town square, we came upon this lovely building that informed us that George Washington was not the first U.S. president. In fact, George W. isn't #43, he's #51 since there were several other presidents nobody knows about. He had all kinds of paintings and drawings on his building to entice visitors to his museum where all the proof is stored. He even has a book detailing the correct presidential history, but it can only be purchased at the museum. Unfortunately, the museum was closed.

Which was fine, since we weren't about to stop there anyway.

As we continued our way through Ohio, we stopped for lunch along Pymatuning Lake, which is really big. Nat had made a stop at Subway for sandwiches and we picnicked along the lake near the beach. There were plenty of large bathers at the beach but, it being a big lake, the water level wasn't affected.

There were quite a few gulls chillin' by the lake. They seemed like nice gulls and were fairly polite. The locals must like them too, because they play gull music from loudspeakers at the bath house. About every five minutes, a recording of gulls singing would play. I figured it was the 80's band Devo, since we didn't see them in Cleveland and it sounded like their kind of noise.

We guessed that the stereo gull sounds were to keep the gulls away. I did a quick poll of the nearby polite gulls and they didn't mind the sounds at all. In fact, each time the gull sounds would play on the loud speaker, the gulls just kept doing what they were doing before the noise started. I do have to admit there weren't any gulls within 25 feet of the bath house, but gulls don't tend to use public facilities all that much.

The gull sounds were quite effective at annoying bicyclists, though. That's a little tip if you want to keep bicyclists away from you.

When we left our new feathered friends, we rode across a causeway and smack in the middle of it was the Pennsylvania state line. Nat snapped our picture so we could add it to the collection of high-impact state line photos.
Dan and I soon realized something we knew but didn't want to believe. Pennsylvania has hills. It seems there are lots of them and we haven't gotten to the big ones yet. Today's hills were plenty challenging.

I may have mentioned before, but an easy way to tell how hilly the area is can be done by seeing what your top speed for the day is. Saturday we covered our 100 miles by averaging 16.4 MPH and my top speed was 24.3 MPH. Today we did the 100 miles averaging 13.9 MPH and my top speed was 37.7 MPH.

Today was one of those hot, humid days that make tires melt into pavement. We heard thunder rumbling several times but didn't get hit by lightning so we pressed on. As we were coming down a rather large hill, the rain started. We hadn't seen rain since barreling down the mountain outside Steam Boat Springs, Colorado.

I don't mind rain, I rather cherish it. For some strange reason, and it may be because I am strange, I like the looks I get from drivers inside their dry cars as I am churning through the wet. Dan isn't nearly as strange as me, at least in that way, and doesn't like the idea of going fast down hills that are wet and slippery. He talks something about not wanting to leave a layer of his skin on the highway. Hey, skin will usually grow back.

Dan was in front of me on the hill and was braking hard and I almost ran into him a couple of times. So I decided to pass him and let it rip. I flew down the hill and then I hit heavy traffic. An 18-wheeler pulled up beside me going about the same speed. The truck was kicking up heavy mist, most of which was landing on me. The mist wasn't particularly clean and my glasses became worthless. I could tell there was a truck beside me but I couldn't see it. I was still going pretty fast, so looking over the top of my glasses, I reluctantly braked.

During this ride I've had time to develop this theory about braking when going downhill. I built up the kinetic energy being released going downhill by climbing that hill to start with. So if I have to put on the brakes, I'm losing a whole bunch of my hard earned kinetic energy. It's my energy and I want to use it! Like yesterday, I was going downhill at 30 MPH and came to a stop sign. I had to stop. I got screwed!

I slowed enough for the truck to go past and I kept rolling down the hill. When I got to the bottom and had used all my kinetic energy, I stopped to clean off my glasses. It was then I had my next revelation. I had been riding in the rain, splattered by trucks and cars and had a black strip up my back from all the crap flying off my rear wheel. I needed something clean and dry to clear my glasses. This was one of the few times in my life when my right armpit was the driest place on my body.

The rain ended and we rode on through the hills and hit our 100 miles. Just when we were done, another shower came. We didn't care, we just laughed at the rain and hoped it is gone tomorrow.

Loren and Dan slather on the sunblock before heading out for the day.

Dan sports new Sesame Street socks.

The true first U.S. president, John Hanson.

Dan and Loren cross into Pennsylvania, the last state before home.

Today's photos provided by Nat Clymer.