September 15: Pittsburgh to Greensburg

After another great night’s sleep in Posie and Larry’s house (friends of Beth and Matt), Will and I rendez-voused with the others early.

A local bike-mapping company called Bob’s maps had kindly given us detailed directions to downtown Pittsburgh where we had arranged to meet Jeff, a cyclist from Pittsburgh who grew up in Greensburg and who agreed to ride with us from one to t’other. After we got lost using the detailed directions (we’ve perfected the art of getting lost), and had a puncture, we eventually met with Jeff at the Pirates baseball stadium.

We rode out of the Pittsburgh labaryth with Jeff’s help crossing some steep grinding hills to warm the legs up.  The traffic was light thankfully enough. It turned out to be a short enough day – only 40miles long. We arrived into Greensburg at approx 4pm, and went searching for our house for the night. We had arranged to stay with Jerry and Patricia Sheridan – the parents of Beth from Pittsburgh. They lived on a road called Mohawk Drive. We stopped at a gas station to ask directions and were told it must be Mohican Drive. We knocked into the correct house number on Mohican and were met with bewildered looks. Turns out we had the wrong road. Luckily Mohawk was just round the corner and we found the Sheridans.

Pat and Jerry couldn’t have been any nicer to us. They took us in at such short notice, fed us a home cooked meal and had beds ready for us all. We spent the evening chatting about Ireland and other things, and Rob’s guitar made its customary appearance. Pat was kind enough to pass on a U.S songbook to Rob as a momento. She also gave us all small notebooks as presents.

Pat and Jerry – you are legends!