My fourth flat amount other things

      The Amish regularly show up at the Camp site every morning to sell their pastries. What a spread to behold.  Needless to say, I didn't hold back; two days of delicious Amish food.

     Before setting off I had to adjust my dérailleur which wasn't synced with my indexed gear lever.  Losing gears on a steep hill is maddening. A five minute Youtube video was instrumental in helping me figure out the problem. The fix ate an hour of morning riding time.  Three hours later ss I rode along I thought I would probably have another flat before too long.  Be careful what you think, I had   a flat an hour later.  Now for the interesting part. Coming up on a house set back from the road a bit, I saw a man and asked if I could use his property to fix my tire.  I needed shade and some distance from the road.  Nice guy, twenty-six years old, just finished a tour with the Air Force.  We talked it up and he offered to help.  We continued to converse when I noticed a handgun in his waist band.  A wee bit concerned, I asked him what size gun it was. He took it out and unloaded a clip of bullets from of it but not before ejecting a round from the chamber.  A second or two went by as I thought he was cocking it, not a good feeling.  Anyways, it was a nine millimeter with hollow tip bullets! Jeremiah turned out to be a decent person who offered to take me to a bike shop if I wanted.  After fixing the tire, he gave me his cell number in case I had troubles down the road.  I was relieved to move on.

       Ok, so now two hours down the tubes fixing the bike.  Not to be out done, the hills were steep and unrelenting.  I slugged out thirty-seven miles with a few missed turns to round out the ride.  I followed route 19 instead of the established route and put up with the Penn drivers, not bike friendly at all.  Thank god for my horizontal flag protruding out from my left rear pannier.

       Zelienople was the first town of any size I reached after leaving Mercer.   After having a super lunch at Z town cafe, I decided to seek out a camp site and call it a day.  Back in Harmony I parked myself at a private camp site.  Two guys at a parked RV struck up a conversation with me as I rode in looking for someone who could sign me in.   They invited me over for a few brews after I cleaned up.  As well, the owner of the camp invited me to a pot luck supper.  She exempted me from having to bring a dish, good thing. Later when I revisited the RV,  Randy (from Mississippi with a thick southern accent) feed me

an enormous steak with cheese potatoes. On this trip I been shameless about what I have eaten, anything and everything. Tomorrow I should be rocket man given all the protein I consumed tonight.

        With an early start and the re-routing to a less congested route, I hope to make Millvale where the GAP trail begins and the killer hills end.