Day 24-Shelters from Thunderstorms

Day 24 Tuesday June 1, 2010 Distance 52.59 km. Time 3 hrs. 20 min. Total so far 1625.99 km. Elevation climb today 6210 ft. It was overcast this morning and by the time we reached the Wysox grocery store, it was raining. It was in a beautiful mall with a big smokey factory that makes fiberboard right behind it. Yuck! We talked to Robert who was at the mall doing his daily walking. He has a brother, Charles, who is 80 and competes for the USA in the Senior Olympics. His bicycle is titanium and has those fancy aerodynamic wheels without spokes. We debated heading back to the park shelter but the rain let up so we decided to push on. The only problem with that is that the bicycles and our bodies get pretty dirty from passing vehicles. Silver doesn't like getting dirty and made weird sounds during the day. We stopped at a few picturesque lookouts but because of the wet, hazy, foggy conditions the photos don't show how beautiful it really was .There was a great downhill run into Wyalusing where we had lunch and I dried out my rainwear. Shortly after, we left Hwy 6 on which we have gone almost 300 miles and turned north to Hwy 706. At Camptown, the sky was so dark that I told Dave I wouldn't go farther. The only shelter was to go back a little to the elementary school. The caretaker wasn't going to let us stay but just as he said it, there was lightning, thunder and a downpour. I said we were going to stay so we parked the bicycles under the awning by the front door and Larry invited us in after talking to the principal. Larry said all the trucks we have seen are for gas. He sold out use of his land way too early as now folks are getting 1000 of dollars per acre instead of the 50 dollars he settled for. He also said the 4 elementary schools will soon be amalgamated into one big school. When the rain let up, we were off again and made it as far as Rush when it was black again. We spotted a ball diamond awning filled with stacked picnic tables and headed there just in time to stay dry again. It was almost 3 pm. so we decided to stay there for the night. We even were able to get internet through someone and I managed to finish a blog.