We slept in til about 7:30 this morning since we only had a half a mile to ride before the restaurant opened for breakfast. For some reason I was pretty excited to go out for breakfast- one because we almost NEVER go out for breakfast, and two, because it was a special place to go- the same place we went on our NY-FL trip in 2010. Not much had changed, in fact the restaurant looked EXACTLY like I remembered it. Joey and I both got french toast and hot cocoa- yummy!; I'm glad that we were able to go there again. Heck, maybe some day we will ride that same road again, and go there on a future tour, you never know- we definitely didn't expect to ever be back there after the other tour. For the next 15 miles or so, we were riding along the same section of road that we did on the way to Wheeling last time. But on the last tour, because of a little mix up with addresses and phone numbers, we ended up cutting off the road we were riding on today to head in a different direction. There were a few sections of it that we remembered, but other sections were like we had never been on that road before. Weird how that is. For some reason, we weren't even completely positive where we even turned off, but we know that we did at some point. Later down the road, it was pretty neat riding because the railroad tracks and river were on one side of the road and there was a jagged rock wall, left over from where they had blasted out to make the road, on the other. Eventually we made it about 40 miles down the road to the town of Bellaire where we FINALLY had some lunch. Since we were almost to Wheeling and we wanted to use up our milk, we decided too just have cereal and milk for lunch. We found some tables outside of McDonald's and made ourselves at home. While we were sitting there (and I was talking on the phone), a man by the name of Skipp walked over to talk to us. He handed us a $20 dollar bill and said to put it towards anything that would keep our travels going. We couldn't believe it- what a nice guy! We weren't too far from Wheeling when we took our little lunch break so we figured it would be smooth sailing to get there. We headed out to get back on the road we had come into town on but we found a sign that said pedestrians and bicycles were no longer allowed to ride on that road-- it had turned into a freeway. We found our way through town, getting stuck behind an unloading school bus that would send a big puff of black smoke at us whenever it started moving again. Eventually the school bus turned and we could see the bridges to cross over to Wheeling, WV. We were pretty excited at that point. However the excitement soon turned to frustration when we found ourselves at a dead end with the freeway to one side and a hill to the other. There was no way to keep going, so we turned around and tried to find a different route. We found a road parallel to the freeway but on the opposite side from where we were. As we headed down the hill we came to an area that was full of factory like buildings and a Budweiser distribution center. This road was not looking too promising... but it was the only other road. We rode down it for a bit, still with those darn bridges in sight, but yet still no way to get to them. We had found ourselves at another dead end. Where to go then? After looking around a bit more, we headed back a little bit and decided to go to the extra entrance ramp we had passed on this little side road. We looked and looked, but there was no sign this time. Maybe we were allowed back on now. Still, we were very hesitant simply because the last thing we needed right now was a ticket for being on a road bikes weren't allowed on. Joey called John (our host in Wheeling from last trip and again on this trip) to see what he thought. He seemed to think it was OK there, and since we had no other choice at that point, we decided to go with it. Turns out that after a mile or so, we knew we were OK to be on there because there was a stop light which we couldn't see from where we were before. It didn't take too long to figure our way after that. We got off at the first exit, which took us into Bridgeport. It was easy to find our way to the bridge from there. In fact, when we got to the bridge, we both recognized the area from the last tour. At that time, we had been to OH but didn't find any welcome sign. In 2010, we had ridden over here with John to look for one, with no luck. Today though, just before we were about to cross the bridge,we found a WV sign. We took our picture before heading over the bridge to Wheeling Island. We rode through to the other bridge, but when we got there, found out that this bridge was interstate. Since John was in the area, he came and found us in his car. In the meantime, we figured out that there was a walkway on the side of the bridge that we could take. I don't remember which way we went last time to cross the Ohio River, but I don't think we crossed this way. John found us just before we crossed the bridge and said he would wait for us on the other side. It was so nice to see him again, after all it had been two and a half years since we had seen him. John was waiting on the other side of the bridge for us, and directed us where to go from there. He also told us that instead of staying at his house, since he works nights and won't be there most of the time, that we would be staying with friends of his, the Foose's ( who were also themselves hosts on Warm Showers). He lead us to their house, in stages, waiting for us at the top of a big hill and a few other places along the way. Eventually, we made it to the road they live on, with one last little steep hill to go up, and we were there. Although Harry and Karen weren't home, Malory (a girl from Texas who is staying with the Foose's because she is doing a second degree for nursing here in Wheeling) was. Unfortunately, Harry and Karen weren't going to be home til Sunday night since they were out of town. Malory showed us around and we got ourselves settled, our bikes in the garage and a guest room with a comfy bed, it was so nice. The best part is that they have two adorable fluffy kitties, Linus and Lucy. It was going to be a fun couple of days! John has a bunch of things planned for us the next few days, from speaking at a couple schools, to who knows what else. Since I've been wanting to go to a fish fry before Lent was over, I had asked Grandma to look up and see if she could find any. She told me where there was one in Wheeling. I mentioned something about that fish fry to John and he was shocked. Why you ask? Because that very fish fry I was referring to was at one of the schools we were going to talk at this week. How crazy is that!?!? So, we got changed, and headed there for dinner. We met one of the teachers from one of the classes we were going to talk to in a few days. Afterwards, since it was right across the street, we headed over to John's church, and got a little tour of there. Before taking us back to the Foose's house, he showed us around town a bit. When we got back to the house, Malory was watching a movie, so we joined her and all of us watched a movie before turning in for the night. As we were putting on our sheets, one of he kitties decided it was time to help. It was pretty funny. We rode 54.80 miles today.
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