Pittsburgh to fort wayne

     Pittsburgh is a real cool city. We took three days off to rest and explore and do fun stuff.  The hilliest city I've ever been too, but our friends alex zack and nico had one spot of land up the hill behinde there house where it was level enough to set up our tents to sleep in while we were visiting.
     We spent the first two days exploring the city, eating indian food and partially fixing up our bikes, which were more beat from riding the trails then we had realized. The second day we all rode up mount washington for the heck of it. Took pictures of the city skyline, then layed around for almost an hour.  We then ventured to a neighborhood called polish hill knowing there was an outdoor show but had no address.  We say a guy and girl with some tattoos and dirty tank tops and sure enough they were headed there.  We followed them behinde a baseball field and into a wooded trail up a hill.  This soon opened up to an old over grown basketball court that was currently covered with punks, dogs, a small stage area, a bbq And a table full of food for sharing. That night was a lot of fun. We say two local bands one was zacks band "napalm doughnut" the other was fronted by a lady who lives across the street from zack. Both really good. We also say a band from new orleans that was awesome. 
      After all of that one of our best friends from richmond Britt, showed up to hang with us our last day and night there. We spent a lot of time sitting in front and working inside of the coolest bike shop i've ever been to. "Kraynicks". It was a system of organzied chaos. He had any and every part you could need and not just one but a box full. Once again, when I get on a real computer I will show pictures.
     We said goodbye to britt nico and zack on our last day and alex escorted us out of the city. We rode yet another bike trail for 29 miles that took us out of PA. And into the pan handle of west virgina. The six days of riding from PA across Ohio and into Indiana were brutal.  Started hilly then we hit a heat wave and head winds.just as the land started to flatten out.  Although our days were filled with some of the hardest riding conditions, our nights always worked out perfect. We have yet to pay to sleep.  We continue to find beautiful safe spots to set up for our nights of cooking and sleeping. Often times even finding outlets to charge our stuff or a source for water.
     Memorial day took the cake. After riding in 95degree humid heat all day, we entered the town we figured we would try to stay for night.  Then there it was, a huge park, people playing baseball,.bbqing, and right in the center layed a huge public pool.  We imediatly learned that the head lifeguard was in to bikes and toured a bit last summer. He let us In on a discount of 50cents a piece.  We were happy to be let in at all considering.how absolutely filthy we were.  That night we were invited to follow jacob(the life guard) back to his families farm to camp for the night. We hung out around his fire pit on his grass yard that you wont be able to see from the road in a few short months, for the acres and acres of corn surounding the house will grow to tall. We slept outside, no tents needed and were kept company by their dogs Homer and Dingo, and a small cat named Party Cat.
    A few days later and here we are in fort wayne. We are staying at a house that has consistently had shows in their basement for 8 years running.  Friends from home always play here when on tour which is.how we got in touch. We took yesterday off to rest our bodies from the days of headwinds. We got to see Preston and Sandi last night. San diego friends who moved here because preston was raised here.  We ate frozen pizza and listened to music, shot gunned beers and danced to prestons rap songs. 
     I feel very lucky to be able to be in new strange places and somehow feel right at home. We will leave today despite the rainy weather. Should be a three day ride to Chicago. I'm already missing my friends with just the thought of us all going our own ways from there.  These past few weeks have been the best.