Mile 523: Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania (the Allegheny Mountains)

After a home cooked breakfast with PJ and Mike, there were some heartfelt goodbyes and I hit the road, starting later than I knew I should have but really wanted to get the most out of my visit.
From the beginning I knew that PJ really enjoyed having me there and I felt huge support and encouragement coming from her and her family.
The evening before, Mike and PJ had spent a good deal explaining routes and even had a pretty amazing three-dimensional poster of the region which allowed me to really visualize how to strategically cross the mountains. PJ got the poster as a gift, since her eyesight is

not so good these days, it's a way for her to feel the topography around her.
However that morning and looking ahead, all I knew is that I had an 80-mile route through unknown territory--- and that there were hills ahead...real hills. So as I started the morning and I took the turn out of the winding country roads of the State Park where the farm was, it wasn't until a few miles later when I stopped a man tending to a front yard barrel fire, that it was confirmed---that I was not going in the right direction.
I frustratingly turned around and tried to shrug of my 6-7 mile loss for the morning, and in turn stopped at an old truck stop to grab a coffee in hopes that it would motivate me to forget that I had backtracked, and help me keep a positive attitude to help face the mountains ahead.
As I continued on, I realized how beautiful the area was, it was starting to look different as I left the Park and into the hills, except this time, I was so familiar with the route, that I knew exactly where I was suppose to traverse and I could visualize myself crossing through the hills and around the great mountains through the small valleys.

A few miles from the house, and before a substantial hill, I ended up at fork in the road, to the left was the road the online map suggested and to the right was the one my host suggested "Alyson," though it isn't logical, I thought "How bad could a road be with a name like Allyson"...especially as it sat next to a logging road named "T" followed by three or four numerical numbers.
So I sat at the cross roads, as it began to rain, and then looked around...yards away there was a nice little cottage with an well-kept English garden that caught my attention especially with the humble back drop of East Waterford. There was a man tending to the garden, so I stopped in asked him what
direction would be best for a bike...he calmly walked over and looked at my bike with a grin...after a couple minutes of conversation he soon told me that he had just returned from a cross country bike trip himself, he said he left from the very spot I was standing. He was a sculptor and he was inspired to follow the rivers and discover rocks along the way "Not the best hobby for a cyclist; collecting rocks and pebbles" he said. You could tell, there was nostalgia as he talked to me looking at my gear and my bike "Never would have I thought I would run into a touring cyclst on this corner," he told me as we said our goodbyes, at this point drenched from the storm passing over us. As the rain continued to fall, I thought how lovely it was for us to pass each other's paths...at Allyson and T-2345 facing a steep climb.

It's hard to describe what the rest of the day was like after the morning start, without sounding redundant. It was a continuous

patten of climbing hills and coasting down them, passing farms, and sights that were remarkable. I continued to pedal fast, knowing an 80-mile day would be a difficult endeavor with such a late start and facing the hills.
The rain didn't seem to bother me, the wind did, and all the climbs. About 7 miles outside of my destination Hollidaysburg, a destination I didn't think I could reach that day, t realized I would either have to spend all my energy making it to Hollidaysburg before it was too late for my host, or spend all my energy finding a ride into town.

As the trucks rolled by, I realized, hitching wouldn't be too hard, and it would be worth it to make it to town to have a good visit with the family I was soon to meet.

I was lucky when I got a ride, not long after I stopped. I anxiously jumped in realizing I made a wise move---nothing to prove after already getting further than I ever imagined for the day. When I reached Hollidaysburg, I was so happy to be in such a quaint established town, with a good-sized historic district, and a host family waiting for me.

I strolled up to the house around 7:45, where a young beautiful girl, with wild hair and a confident smile was playing outside the home; and old bed and breakfast built during the Civil War, she guided me into the house full of boxes, empty rooms with old paintings, some filled with dulcimers, a kitchen built for serving and that is when I met Richard and his two children. A newly implanted American/Indian Family who have spent most of the past years in China. We sat together at dinner, and the kids seemed anxious. Hanna was 7, a pleasantly bold girl with an obsession of currency, especially coins. When I asked her if there was any difference between China and America, she said "Not really, there's difference currency though!" and Avery a 9 year old boy with a charismatic smile, who has a cognitive disability which means his mind is closer to a 2.5 year old, loved candy, Angry Birds and asking Geographical questions. They ate their meals disinterested in the food and more interested in firing questions as their father, who they called "Papa." "Papa" how far is Antartica? Papa? is China bigger than China? Papa...and the questions never seemed to stop. Richard would cleverly answer the children with a special kind of patience and every now and then a little bit of a smirk.
Richard is an Economist and Analyst of some sort with an obsession with dulcimers, or so I assume
with the hundreds of dulcimers aross the ground floor.
When he showed me to the room I would be using, the "Zebra" room, after the tour around the large old inn, we went up a couple flights of stairs where they were four additional bedrooms (four bedrooms out of the eleven in the house). The room was empty with a couple couches and an old bathroom attached with a claw foot bathtub; I thought I was in heaven or at least Shirley Temple in Little Princess.