Day 12: 7/19 - College town with a great bike shop

Today consisted of more hills...terrible hills. They don't seem to be getting easier yet; maybe we're getting in better shape as the hills are just getting worse. Finally we made it to a college town (will insert name of town when I remember) and after Esmith's two flats from yesterday, we decided to stop in a bike shop for some repairs and gear. Esmith got some new tubes and a tire to replace his bogus ones and I got my seat fixed finally (it just kept sliding down lower and lower because the nut was stripped) and put some air in my tires. The guys at the shop were real stand up guys and fixed my issues for free, along with giving us filtered water and toilet access (crucial!!!). We chatted about rock climbing and where they were all from (can't really remember at the moment) and eventually convinced them to get in a picture with us. Bad move. This is on the internet boys (i.e. photo gallery). After about an hour, we finally got on the road and .5 miles after we left, I got a flat in my back tire. Typical. Fixed it up and continued on.

We ended up eating lunch under a bridge that was over a stream where we caught frogs and crayfish and skipped rocks. As we were getting on our bikes to leave, Esmith was checking his spedometer thingy to make sure it was working as I was staring at my shoe trying to get it to lock into the pedal, meaning I didn't see him slowing down (I take the blame for this one...pretty interesting, right Turnes?), subsequently causing me to run into his back tire with my front tire. They both got locked together in as the fenders got stuck and a 5 second yelling match ensued as we attempted to keep from falling (which was not successful). Eventually gravity one the battle and we toppled over sideways into a ditch...luckily, a woman was driving by and had the opportunity to see our ridiculous 3 mph crash. Nothing was hurt, minus some scratches on my left leg which never actually touched anything, but we were thoroughly embarrassed and pushed on, leaving the pathetic scene behind us.

More biking occurred (can you believe it?!) and we finally reached our destination campground in Otisville, PA. It was a sort of run down place, but it had all the amenities that we needed: free showers, free toilets, sinks, electricity to recharge phones, and of course, an ice cold lagoon that was straddled by a 150 year old trestle bridge (or something along those lines). We went for a swim in the lagoon...which was defininitely ice cold, and caught some little toads and frogs on the path there.
Dinner was great: four bratwurst, fruit, a vegetable salad that one of the guys at the campground brought us (I'll get to these guys later) along with two baked potatoes and a half gallon of whole milk. So the old guy who owns the campground likes listening to Big Band music (it was good stuff...we could hear it faintly from our campsite) and I guess all his old buddies would just come and hang out on the porch of the main lodge all night, chit chatting about whatever it is old people chit chat about. They were really nice guys, i.e. the delicious vegetable salad (zuchinni, celery, carrots, onions, tomatoes, balsamic vinaigrette, olive oil and various spices). Great dinner and a good night's sleep (minus my blanket still not covering my feet).