With everything packed up I looked out the window and saw a silver ST parked next to mine so it must be Dave. I went down and met Dave for the first time. We had emailed a couple of times about the cancer fundraiser. Dave was very generous as he made an initial $100 donation then offered to match 50% of what the Sprint listserver members donated and then offered an additional donation of 10 cents per each mile I rode. So I had decided I could go to Atlanta instead of Chattanooga. Packed up, attention to the chain and other morning checks, and checked out of the hotel we set out.
Dave led and set a very good pace. It was a bit of a comfort knowing there was someone riding with me, I wasn�t quite so alone. Before I knew it my low fuel light came on and I indicated to Dave it was time to get some gas. After we filled up a bit we took a few minutes to talk, not as much as we would have liked. Dave had been even more generous than he had offered. The day before he matched not just 50% of what the Sprint riders donated but gave a 50% match of all donations as of the start of the ride. His plan was to ride with me until I split off on I-77, which turned out to be only a few miles down the road. But it was nice having some company for a bit over 200 miles. I-77 came and I waved good bye and was back in a lonely world among all the traffic.
It had spit a little rain before Dave and I had split and not too far up I-77 it picked up a little and learning from yesterday�s lesson I stopped and put the gear on. Oh how I hated those backup rain gloves, not comfortable at all. The rain picked up to the point where it paid to have the gear on but by I-81 I decided it wouldn�t rain enough anymore to outweigh how wet I would continue to get from sweating within the PVC casing.
All the way up I-81 I was trying to calculate whether I would be able to get to Philly early enough to make going there just for the game worth it. As I got to around Winchester it looked like I would be only an hour late. I gave John a call to let him know. I had been very surprised that I had only seen one state trooper in Virginia, this being the Saturday of the July 4th holiday. However, it seemed that Pennsylvania had hired them as extra help. I saw more state troopers in Pennsylvania that evening than I would see the whole rest of the trip combined.
Despite the Saturday night traffic on the Schuylkill it felt good to be back in Philly. For some reason it really felt like home. Maybe it�s because other than my hometown I lived there longer than anyplace else. I got down to the stadium and look for the secured parking lot that Mike�s friend, the guy who is the Philly Phanatic, arranged for me. Thanks to the presence of the Pennsylvania state troopers I was an hour and twenty minutes late. I met John at the gate to get my ticket and went up to met Mike and Angela and Dan and his son. It was only the middle of the fourth inning and the O�s were beating the Phillies. I probably spent most of the game talking to Dan, who I hadn�t seen in a couple years. The O�s gave the game back to Philly with a couple of errors and had a chance at the end to win but fell short. I was going to leave at the 7th or 8th inning, but the game was so good I couldn�t leave. I had also decided to stay the night and use John and Jeanne�s dryer to get the two sets of gloves dry. I knew I had rain coming the next two days at least and wanted to have the new rain gloves to wear.
Day three, July 4th, took me to Indianapolis, west of Chicago, and into Wisconsin. I was going to get up early again, but when the alarm clock went off I needed more sleep. John woke me up when he was surprised to still see me when he was leaving to go play the organ for the early morning church service. So I begin day three not only a hundred or so miles behind, but another couple hours behind too. I felt bad that I didn�t have a chance to say hi to his kids, but I had to go. I unexpectedly had rain in western Pennsylvania, but once I was clear of that it was a nice day until that evening. The Pennsylvania state troopers must have made enough revenue the night before as I only saw a couple the entire length of Pennsylvania that morning. Across Ohio, through Indianapolis, and into Illinois to make a wide sweep to avoid Chicago on the holiday. I enjoyed the fireworks of many small Illinois towns while traveling north on I-39 before I began a long night of riding again. Approaching I-80 some menacing clouds were faintly perceivable in the night sky. Stopping at a rest area I stood there looking at them debating whether I saw anything or not. The decision was to play it safe and don the gear as I had many miles yet to ride that night. Sometimes you get lucky, within half a mile it was pouring. Not as bad as in Alabama but heavy enough that I chose to keep out of the spray of the semi but close enough to still use his tail lights to know where the road was. The rule about rain gear is put it on before it starts raining and take it off when you see blue skies or all the stars at night. Since I never saw more than a couple stars that night it stayed on until I stopped for the night. The planned stop was Minneapolis but I was well short of that in Wisconsin.
Day four brought the prospect of more rain and unseasonably cool temperatures as it would never get above the 60�s. Today I continued through Wisconsin and Minnesota. Shortly after I started I put the rain gear on. It was an overcast dreary day that looked like it could rain at any time plus the PVC heledp to keep me a bit warmer. It rained for the entire 350 miles of North Dakota, which, upon learning from a rancher at a gas stop, was in dire need of the moisture. Approaching Billings, Montana, I saw the most beautiful sunset I�ve ever seen. It wasn�t just the single view, but entire evolution of the sunset that for about 45 minutes I had one eye on the road and one appreciating the awe inspiring beauty. I have yet been unable to find sufficient words to describe the colors of the sky and clouds, textures of the clouds, the reflection off the Yellowstone River, and the Montana Big Sky during that sunset. My amateur writing cannot do it justice.