Daley Ponderings

Ha! You just wanted to use that headline. :) Have a good trip, and watch out for space junk.

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I guess I am now a Pittsburgher, I didn't even think of that. Mars is farther, so I don't know if I will have a reason to bike there any time soon.
(PS. Are you around - I left two messages at the Maggie P)

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This trip was very badly calculated - the total distance was correct, but the miles between turns was significantly different than what I expected.
I started out going down Penn Ave, and due to some recent construction, the road is very badly paved. I was debating whether to drive on the double yellow line, or drive over the bad pavement. Since there were cars coming, I moved onto the pavement, and quickly discovered that was a bad idea. My water bottle shook loose, and my bike was shaking so hard I couldn't let go of a handlebars to catch, so it fell off, I drove over it, and I think the car behind me drove over it as well, so by the time I stopped and turned around, it was demolished. So, I biked back home to get another water bottle, and start the trip over again. That detour added 3 miles to the trip.

I was wearing a mesh practice jersey, which was much nicer for biking in. I also had less clothes in the backpack, and had planned better for a sacrificial shirt to get sweaty through the backpack, but keep everything else dry. (note, that didn't work anyway, I still had to do a load of laundry at the Caldwell's to have clothes for church.
The trip all the way to Brighton Road was fairly uneventful - though I used my air horn a couple times in the strip - regular Saturday traffic.
There was mild to medium incline on Brighton Road (up to Brighton Heights), but there were down slopes occasionally, so it wasn't that tiring. I reached Termon Ave at about 3 miles or so (instead of the 7 I had expected). I thought maybe the road looped around, and I didn't want to head off down a steep road unless I knew I wasn't going to have to climb back up it, so I asked some people at a grocery store, and then confirmed that this was the Termon Ave that I was expecting - heading to the McKees Rocks bridge, etc. They asked where I was headed and said - woah - that's a long way away...
Termon Ave was nice, a nice long downhill to the river. The bridge also had plenty of room, and then onto 51, which is much wider here than it is farther south by route 88, where it is more of a concern that someone might not see me and not leave me enough room.
I had to go on 51 for a long time, much longer than I had expected, so I must have somehow added this distance to the calculation for Brighton Road, and I stopped at a beer store for some water, and he confirmed I was almost to Neville Island, but that was much farther than I had planned on. He also didn't think he had any water for me, but then he remembered he did, so I bought water for the second time in my life (first time was in New York City, where the water fountains were really gross).
Neville Island was great, very wide roads, and on that particular Saturday, I think I saw about 6 cars and maybe 8 bicyclists, so it was quite nice to travel on. As John Ockerbloom (above) mentioned, the wind was exactly in my face for the latter half of Neville Island, and there was that gross coal burning or whatever that smell is that is in various places of Pittsburgh.
This portion was also longer than I expected, but was perfectly flat, so it wasn't that big of a deal. I did stop to ask someone to make sure I wasn't missing a bridge back to the mainland somewhere. When I told him I was heading for Thorn Run Road, he kind of smiled, and I asked if it was a big hill, I kind of figured that Corapolis/Moon was pretty high up, because I didn't remember seeing anything higher around when I had been there previously. He said that yes, it was a pretty good sized hill. Later someone suggested cutting over earlier, but from their description, I am not sure if it is any better on a bike.
Thorn Run was bigger than advertised, and I ended up walking part of it (my general rule is that if my speed slows down to where I could walk faster than I am biking, I might as well get off and walk). The road also had "new oil and chips", which I first heard of that sometime this year, I forget where I learned of it, but it is worse on a bike than in a car. The gravel pieces are coated with "oil", I guess, and stick everywhere, and make the bike somewhat unstable, as the wheels are then coated with gravel bits.
But, I made it, and after a bit of confusion traveling around the office park, made it to Marshall Drive, past the Caldwell's house, and onto to look for a store to buy some tortilla chips to go with my homemade salsa that I had been lugging around for the last two days (two fairly large glass jars is not a lot of fun in a backpack on a bike trip). Asked a guy who was washing his car, and he said it was right down the road, but since I couldn't see it, and could see for at least a half mile, asked how far it was, since automobile drivers tend to underestimate distances when talking to bikers. But, once he figured out that I wanted tortilla chips, he sent me to Sheetz, which was very close.
I hadn't ever been to a Sheetz before, and I ordered a sandwich (on a nifty touch screen interface, and let me pick all the toppings, and a really good horseradish/hot sauce on my tuna sandwich), it did take forever for it to be made, but gave me time to cool off in the air conditioning, and drink a quart of milk - I haven't bought a quart or half-gallon of milk to drink straight out of the container in a long time - I guess I must be getting old or something.
Then back to the Caldwells and a nice cold shower. The trip ended up being two hours and 22 miles with the extra 3 miles at the beginning and an extra mile to Sheetz and back.
But, a pretty good trip, other than hill on Thorn Run Road.

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We saw that sign, "Fresh Chips and Oil" on the way to the Kuhns. It made me think of fish and chips.