I was in no hurry to start riding today. It was raining pretty hard, and I had to acclimate to the regular routine primarily using one hand instead of two. Everything took a little more time: opening and closing containers, shutting bags, filling water bottles, changing, handwashing, and so much more all took a little more time. By the time I left the motel, the rain had lightened up, and I was on my way. Surprisingly, I had a good night's rest despite the broken finger. I felt ready to figure out what riding would be like without a local anesthetic acting on my broken finger. I quickly realized that I needed to be hypervigilant of bumps. If my left hand was on the handlebar when going across a bump, a sharp stinging pain would race up my broken middle finger and into my hand. Lifting my left hand off of the handlebar just before hitting a bump was the best way to avoid this sharp stinging pain. Periodically lifting my left hand off of the handlebar and steering one handed was kind of like riding a bull, but I refrained from raising my left hand too far from the handlebar. About two hours into today's ride, I was back in Pennsylvania, and the rain resumed. The next hour of riding was predominately uphill, as I had to cross a ridge to enter the valley that Gettysburg was in. Toward the conclusion of this ascent, I rode across the Appalachian Trail, which I had not anticipated crossing today. Shortly before reaching the top of this ridge, a steady rain began to fall. From here, the ride was mostly downhill into the valley where Gettysburg was. Traffic picked up a bit as I approached Gettysburg, however it was manageable. Rain had also stopped falling. Rather than ride in from the northeast as suggested by Google maps, I opted to ride into Gettysburg from the south. The Civil War battlegrounds at Gettysburg are to the south of town, and I was hoping to take some of this in when riding into town. By this time in the afternoon, 2:00pm, the military park was a buzz. I stuck to the highway instead of going further into the park. Since tomorrow's ride would be short like today's, I figured that I could take in the battleground sites before leaving Gettysburg tomorrow morning. After checking into an AirBnB, I ventured to downtown Gettysburg for a meal. I was lucky enough to be seated promptly at a restaurant in the heart of downtown. I overheard the host share that it was upwards of a one hour wait for a table of four. Traveling alone has its perks, and being a party of one at a restaurant is one of them! After dinner, I wandered around the downtown area for almost an hour until rain began to fall again. I returned to the AirBnB and settled in for the evening. I looked forward to waking early and taking in the battlegrounds before the park became too busy.
