We had spent a day at our friends’ place, but anything more than that would have had us reconsider the whole trip. Therefore we had to leave. Before we got too comfortable. Though in honesty we were being pampered like never before: Burritos, tacos, brownies, ice cream, Chinese vegan buffet, and even a hot bath with sea salt and the works for Christoffer.
Still, we left in good spirits, since the first stop of the day was the House Industries design studio, which just happened to be on our way. And not only that, but the guys at House decided to ride along with us for the first five miles! And gave us plenty of good advice on the best way to get across Pennsylvania!
As we said our goodbyes we were of course sad. But a little excitement was also in the air, because the are we were about to enter was Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch country. And wouldn’t you believe – just a few miles down the road we began seeing people dressed differently than what we had come to see as the American dress code (think t-shirts and jeans). And then the buggies made their appearance. Horse drawn carriages sharing the road with us. We even drafted behind one for the last few miles of the day.
But let us not get ahead of ourselves here. We also had a more direct encounter with one member of the community, who gave us a bottle of milk to drink after a hard day on the bike. We thanked him, and not being allowed to offer him any money in return, we gave him a flyer about our trip. Which he graciously accepted, though he probably had no use for it whatsoever.
Two hours later we sat at the campground eating cereal in the darkness of night, happy that an experience like this bike trip was made possible for us.