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Saturday, September 6, 2008, Elementary School, Diamond, West Virginia
Well, we made it to West Virginia today, and what a great day it was! We had to leave the hair salon early before the patrons started arriving, so we were out of there about 7:45. It was a drizzley morning, so we put on our rain gear. We crossed the bridge into Ohio (which I wasn't expecting) and headed along Hwy. 52 toward Charleston, West Virginia. After about 10 miles we got back on 60 east, following the river, and before long we were pedaling across the bridge into West Virginia. We were making pretty good time, but got hungry, so we ended up picnicing on all our goodies under a church pavilion, delicious. But there is a downside to feasting at lunch - the midday slump; all I wanted was to nap for miles after that. I actually almost fall asleep, just like when I'm driving a car under sleepy conditions. After about 50 miles, Adriana and I were ahead of the others so we took another break by an old closed store. I relished laying horizontal on the concrete (my favorite position on this trip) and closing my eyes with blindfold in place and going to sleep. When I awoke, all were there, including Gloria and the van, and eating and laughing (usual activities once off the bike). Once back on the bikes, riding through the poor sections of Charleston was interesting. We rode a lot of miles again because we couldn't find a nearby campground. At around 7 pm, we were in Diamond, West Virginia, and didn't know where to stay, so Gloria asked a nice lady if she knew the way to the police station. She did and her son James was a state police officer, so she called him up and he made several phone calls to help us out, but we ended up staying next to his house at the elementary school playground. Nice grass, privacy, security, and a place for the kids to play basketball, which James provided. His wife Sarah made us some sweet bread and delicious vegetables which he brought out to us. Nice people God has placed in our path. We all devoured it like birds. We also cooked up two huge packages of chicken in our pot. We eat a lot. 87 miles.