A sunny and cold 54° when we left this morning, that is frost on the ground.

Thankfully, there was virtually no traffic on the six miles it took us to climb out of town and reach our country road.  Soaked from exertion, we froze when we finally hit a downhill.  And so would be the pattern for miles, climb, drop, climb, drop; we had found the sharks teeth topography from yesterday and they were not letting go of our legs.  The grades on these country roads proved much more challenging then biking on the highway, yet still we had the truck traffic.  We really needed some of the tailwind bravado we had yesterday.  But it was a gorgeous morning and the rolling hillside made for pretty vistas (if you didn’t have to bike them).  After 36 miles, we needed a rest and fuel and once again found a local spot known for their hotdogs.  The town of Lisbon, the oldest town (1803) in Ohio, is known for whisky, apples and the invention of the drinking straw (sucker) patented in 1900 (who knew?).  Once back on the bike, the climbing continued past green hills and small towns.  Our next break was three hours later (52 miles) as we dropped down to the Ohio River (that’s West Virginia on the other side of the water) at the “Pottery Capital of America.” It was a pretty stop, but we’d been unable to find a place to stay in town, so we had to keep going.  The road along the river was not nearly as brutal, as the previous 50 miles, but we were spent, so it was still a struggle.  We biked through some depressed towns, across the Pennsylvania border and past a large nuclear power facility.  After over six hours on the bicycle seat, we finally found our place to rest for the night.  With a restaurant attached to the motel, we did not have to go far for dinner.  The dinner menu was buffet, and this is just the salad bar.  After 65 miles, there was no way they would make money on us, tonight.