Tour de GAP day 1

 Are you ready for picture overload! Ever since this summer bike trip I have been waiting to write about and share all the hundreds of pictures we took! Don't worry I won't really put all of the pictures on here:) 

The reason for this trip originally started with Pappap and I wanted to do it a couple of summers ago. I am one that when I get an idea in my head, I have a hard time letting it go, and that is how this trip came about. I was so in love with the idea of biking from Pittsburgh to Washington DC on the GAP trail and the Appalachian trail. They follow an old railroad track so the up and down grade of elevation is small. So last Christmas I decided we were going to do this as a family and to prove it to my family I got them all biking shorts, helmets, and camelbacks for water. I think it was really funny at Christmas, but I was serious and it finally came true. I will spoil the ending, but we did not go the the whole way from Pitt to DC, we started in Ohiopyle, PA and went to Frostburg, MD. We did about 80 miles in 1.5 days of biking. Someday I will go back and do the whole thing, but for now I am so happy with how it went this summer.

 My whole family went, but my parents decided they might not make it the whole way so they switched off back and forth driving our car so we always had it with us.

 We stopped for a lot of snack breaks and to give our butts a break!

 Mom was really excited about biking and at first I don't think she really wanted to drive the car much.  But our first part of the trip was from Ohiopyle to Confluence which is about 11 miles and by the time we met dad there she was so ready to get off that bike and hand it over to dad!

 Behind us is the Pinkerton tunnel. It has been closed for a while so you have to take a detour around it. It was only when we got to the other side and could see through it, that we realized the tunnel was about 150 yards long but we had to detour 1 mile around it! Good thing we found that out after or we may have been carrying our bikes right through it. Especially since this happened during our detour....

 A tree had fallen down right in the middle of the path of our detour. We had to make a nice assembly line to get our 4 bikes over them. It was all part of the experience and it was a lot of fun!

 If you haven't figured it out by now, the views were amazing during our whole ride! Believe me the pictures don't do it justice, but we had 2 amazing days with awesome views!

 This was a sweet bridge over the highway or something but we stopped to take pictures on it. And let me just say that day 1 was the hardest on the bikes with all of our butts. We were sore and maybe complaining a little bit, but it was all in good fun. Occasionally I would complain a lot about my butt and they would all give me a hard time since I was the one who really wanted to do this.

 By this point we were pretty close to finishing for the day, and we were so excited!

I love the people you meet along the way. There was an older couple who was biking the whole path and I was really jealous of them but for the 2 days we would keep running into them at stops and we even stayed in the same hotel. But it just seems that everyone you meet on the path was so nice and they would say hi  or even smile at you, I have found this true when hiking as well. I wish the rest of the world was like that. If everyone walked around smiling or saying hi to people they walked past, then the world would be a lot happier of a place. Maybe it is just nature that brings it out in some people. 

 After we left the bridge I knew we only had about a mile left and so I took off and was bookin' it. The rest could not keep up but I knew that I just had to be done for the day. I wanted off of my bike seat and I needed a break for my thighs were killing me. I made it first and I was joking that it was a good thing I was wearing the yellow jersey like in the Tour de France.

 We stayed in this hostel that was pretty big but kinda creepy because it used to be an old mortuary or something like that. But luckily we had a giant room and it did not take long for us to crash. The best part was us trying to walk to dinner that night!! But I am pretty sure we came back to the room and fell asleep before it was dark outside.

Going to bed as sore as we were, we were unsure how we were going to make it another day and we were dreading getting back on our bike seats!

Niagara Falls

 Since we couldn't see the pageant we decided to go see Niagara Falls on our way home. I have never been and neither had Fran's granddaughter.

 The Rainbow Bridge that connects the United States to Canada.

 Our first stop was on the Maid of the Mist! It was really fun but we definitely got wet. It was cool to be so close to the falls that are just so freaking huge and loud!

 Looking good in our ponchos!

 We also went to the Cave of the Winds where you get to walk up the side of the falls. They give you special sandles so that your shoes don't get wet or ruined. We had to wait in line FOREVER! Luckily it was still fun.

 I love the time I was able to hang out with my mom this summer!

Palmyra Trip

 My mom, her friend Fran, Fran's granddaughter and I decided to go to Palmyra, New York to see the pageant they put on every year. I was there one time like 6 or 7 years ago with my ward. So we loaded up the car and took off. This is my favorite rest area so far in the country. You get to walk on a sky walk over top of the freeway! I love standing there and watching the cars go underneath.

 

 We were all ready for the pageant and a storm came rolling in. At first it got looking pretty bad with some strong winds. But then it kind of cleared out and everyone was thanking Heavenly Father for this so the show could go on. But as we waited the storm came back and it did end up being cancelled which was like the first time in 10 years or something like that. Everyone was pretty bummed but there is absolutely nothing we could do. We were talking about it later and really Heavenly Father has a plan for everything so maybe something was going to go wrong and someone was going to get hurt or die and since he didn't want that, instead he sent the storm to cancel the pageant for the evening.

 Even though I didn't get to see the show, I did run into someone that I kinda know! My friend Nicole Egan got married 2 years ago and he in-laws are serving in New York and I recognized her mother-in-law from the wedding and so I decided to go talk to them. I wanted to get a picture so I could send it it Nicole abd Jeremy telling them who I ran into:)

 Waiting in the rain I let the others have the ponchos so instead I used the seat cushion!

 The next morning before we headed out of town we hit up some of the sites in town. We went to the Smith's farm and the Sacred Grove.

 I love the Sacred Grove and sitting in the peaceful woods thinking about all that happened there with Joseph Smith and restoring the gospel to the earth, and everything that has come about since because of the questions of a 14 year old boy!

 Look a heart in the tree stump <3 br="">

 And of course a stop at the temple! I love this temple because it is so little but still so neat. It is the only temple with windows in it that look out over the Sacred Grove!