Birthday!!

Born 1954 and aged 54, that only happens once in a lifetime unless you live to be 100!!

All packed and ready to go. Could not sleep last night, far too wound up by the whole thing and full of anticipation.

On road at 8am and used my GPS to find my way to Interstate 80. Its not the way I wanted to go but by using the interstate I can put on a few miles. Before I started I said that in order to build 3 weeks off into the trip I needed to average about 140 a day. Well today I went a little further, only 212 miles, but my bum was a little sore after that so I called it a day at about 3.30.
I am about halfway across Pennsylvania at a Comfort Inn at Lamar. The first thing I saw as I pulled off the interstate was a horse drawn buggy being used by the Amish people so I guess I must be in their back garden.

The mileage today was easy but I will be glad to get off the Interstate as you don't see much gliding along bypassing the towns, however I will stay on Interstate 80 until I get to Toledo where I will turn off for Detroit.

I was given stark reminder as to why I should not ride at night as along the route I counted 10 fresh kill deer at the side of the roads. These must come out during the evening, night and early morning and obviously do not have much road sense. Plenty of meat for the barbie as my wife said!

Also saw a couple of dead racoons and a load of large birds of prey in the sky, seemed larger than Buzzards.

Stopped for lunch at a little country store which was packed with pensioners after the daily special - well if you can't beat them, eh.

Pennsylvania would appear to be a state of trees, I don't think I have ever seen so many. The hills just roll on and they are covered with trees from horizon to horizon, and I don't mean conifer plantations. These were all broadleaf. I also crossed the Appalachian Way which is longest footpath in the USA at nearly 3000 miles, Bill Bryson wrote a book about his journey along part of it called A walk in the Woods, well worth a read.

Well, that's me for the day except to say I have cobbled together another number plate, this time after a visit to a store that puts B and Q to shame for size. I bought a yellow plastic sign and 7 sticky back reflective letters plus a dash and all for $6.75. You couldn't do that on the island or in the UK. Got the plastic sign cut to size and stickered up and it looks better already - still looks home made and I expect to be pulled at some time because of it. Chris made enquiries about sending one out to me but guaranteed delivery was going to cost a whopping 50 pound (why is there no pound sign on American keyboards, we have a dollar sign on ours?)

She could have sent one by mail but god alone knows how long that would have taken even if I could have planned where I was going to be each day. Oh Well.