Philly!!

Today was our last day of riding. I felt terrible most of the ride due to knee and hip pain. I figured out within the last twenty miles that my bike seat had slid down due to all the bumpy roads, so I moved it back up - all was well in that area. I also had cleat issues all day- as in, I couldn't clip in. At all. They got worse as the day went on and it was super frustrating. Those minor annoyances couldn't ruin my day though because it was our last ride day.

The first part of our day was on a really busy street. One of the riders ahead of my group found an awesome store alongside the road and we all stopped for chocolate covered gummy bears, and other delicious snacks. We hit a hill directly after our stop, but our group rocked it and continued on. After descending a nice hill, we came upon an accident. Thankfully it was just a fender bender and no one in our group was involved. Sadly, we were stopped at the bottom of a hill, which meant harder climbing conditions for the group. The best part was that lunch was at top of the hill at Valley Forge! Whoo! Food!! Lunch consisted of our tons and tons of leftovers from the night before (Chipotle, pizza, and Olive Garden). Many people chilled for a while and other took a quick nap in the little bit of shade we had (including me). It was as if people didn't want the day to end.

We all slowly headed out from lunch and came upon a terrible terrible road. It was insanely bumpy/holey. At one point, Bryn yelled out "Treachery!" because it was so bad. (We usually call out pot holes, bumps, etc, but this was too bad for those simple terms). Thankfully, we all survived that portion and got on a bike path that would lead us the rest of the way into Philly. The path was amazing and beautiful. It ran along a river, so it was kinda smelly at times, but still better than riding on city roads.

We all met at the art museum at the 'Rocky stairs' for a bunch of pics and then a group of us ran up the stairs together. The ride from the Art Museum to the B&B office was of course uphill. What other way would we end this trip? :) A group of us were going to do the Manayunk Wall, but due to cleat issues, it was put off. The hill we did do had an 11% grade at some point, so not too shabby.

We all went to a bonfire at the house of one of the B&B Board of Directors. It was a ton of fun to meet him, his family, eat, play frisbee, make s'mores, etc. Great way to end the trip. A group of people went out after, but I decided sleep was more important for once.

Tomorrow is our last day together and we will be working with Rebuilding Together Philadelphia. I'm so lucky to have gotten to know this group of people and I'm not looking forward to leaving them so soon!

Chilling at lunch

Valley Forge!

Riding along the Schuylkill River

Made it to the Art Museum!