Meatballs

High: easy 55 miler today (we've had some really hard days)

Low: broken chains

Today's blog post is going to outline the best day of riding ever. It wasn't today... but this story will pretty much catch up the blog (sorry again for sparsity).

So the day I'm going to refer to is the day we travelled from Schuylkill Haven, PA (pronounced Skoo-Kill) to Harrisburg, PA. It started with an impromptu hay bail climb on the side of the road. Many riders got scratched up trying to mount the top of the pile! After we got enough of the hay we went onward to be distracted by Hershey Park! Chocolate World was calling our names and we couldn't help ourselves but to stop and explore the park. We got caught up in the Hershey museum, created candy bar wrappers & newspaper articles that we were able to email to ourselves. After we tooled around at the exhibits, we ended up spending a large amount of energy goofing off and ended up at an ice cream shop just across the street. When we walked in, we immediately attracted the attention of the manager and began our Donation Magic. We told him our story and he donated 2 amazing sundae's to the group of 4 riders (including myself) that had made it to the park. While waiting for the sundae's to be made, the manager began to tell us about all the charity work he did. He often staged events to break records in the Guiness Book of World Records to raise money for the causes he was involved with. The one we were most impressed with was creating the world's largest meatball! From then on, the four of us referred to ourselves as "The Meatballs." This group includes Kevin "Angel Hair", Mark "Noodle", Joel "Chef Boyardee" and myself, "Momma Meatball." The three boys easily eat the most food of the group, furthering their names, "The Meatballs." These guys are great, and make my riding days much more enjoyable! I laugh the most when I'm with the Meatballs, as they all have great senses of humor and know how to laugh at themselves (which we do a lot).

We haven't topped the day through Hershey Park yet. Although the next day in Chambersburg came close. We made it to a local carnival, won blow up bat man and superman dolls and rode the MOST TERRIFYING ride ever, called The Zipper. We had a scavenger hunt contest for the best mullet, best child and best outfit. The meatballs won for sure, with a double combo mullet and outfit in one photo. Slushees and bumper cars ensued and eventually the night ended with a good night sleep on a Therm-a-rest.

Since those two wonderful days, we had some incredibly hard days. We experienced the worst combination of the elements: huge milage (90+), hot weather (90+) and insane terrain. The same thing happened the next day and the riders all but passed out upon reaching the host at like 8:00pm. Things have significantly improved since then, today was a 55 miler... like I said in my "High" and was an absolutely wonderful ride. We're at a very accommodating host, with a great facility and with a build day tomorrow, riders will be able to rest up a bit before our 114 mile ride into Paris, KY on Thursday.

Thanks for reading! Hope everyone is well...

Bananas: same

PB&J: same as before

Meatballs: 8 since entering the south :)