Day 9

Cumberland, MD  to  Hancock, MD     52 miles

Day start out going to the bike shop, to fix my rack.  Luckily, they have just the piece that broke (its a wierd rack designed for use with disc brakes... which I do not have), and let me go into the back to change it out myself.  They charge me $3 for the piece plus some stainless hardware.  I also decide to buy some nicely gel padded gloves from the shop also... just because they were so nice.  I'd considered getting gloves before but they didn't seem necessary, though my hands were going numb at times.

Good thing I got the gloves.  After the transition from the Great Allegheny Passage to the C&O canal towpath, things got rougher.  Crushed limestone turned into run of the mill gravel.  More mudpuddles and roots to worry about.

A couple of guys talked to me at the bike shop, for just a second.  I caught up to them on the path, and decided to ride with them for a while for company.  We ended up eating lunch together at a now-defunct highschool after riding ~15 miles together.  They were a couple of pastors, in their 50s, who seemed interested in gathering inspiration and examples and stuff for sermons.   Rick and Jerry were their names.  Jerry seemed to like when the double path narrowed down into one path, and took mental note to take a picture of it the next time it happened.  I wondered what that was about for a while.... it took some time for me to figure it out.

They were both really nice guys and rather interesting in what I was doing.  Jerry in particular was interested in the concept of sound (as it was God's voice that begat all)  and made the connection to quantum physics of everything.