If you had told me a year or two ago that I would be doing this today, I’d probably say you were crazy. But here I am. One day down, twenty nine to go.
The plan was to leave my house sometime around 7am. Well 7am rolled around and I was still waiting for Gomes, who was headed to Marco’s and Marco, who had woken up late. They show up at my house around 8:30am and we do final touches on our bikes and finally head out 2 hrs later than scheduled. It was about 9am when we hit the road. Destination? Just south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where we would hit our mileage goal for the first day. About 330 miles.
We set out and I have to admit, with everything on my bike, it was pushing me forward on my seat and making the ride uncomfortable. I sucked it up for about 120 miles. The first time we stopped for gas. What a relief it was to finally stretch and get comfortable. The second stretch we did about 130 miles before stopping for gas and although not as comfortable as a bike without bags, it was certainly more comfortable then the first leg. On our second stop we decided to rest and eat. It was about 1pm when we pulled into a rest stop with a gas station and convenience store. We gave ourselves about an hour to relax before hitting the road.
During our stop I started doing the math and hitting our checkpoint seemed more and more likely. In fact it felt like we could easily get more ground covered. We headed out and before we knew it our daily checkpoint came and went. It was just after leaving Pennsylvania and entering the small strip of West Virginia that we started experiencing our first bike troubles. Marco’s bike died. I’m sure his post will include details about that so I will let him explain his troubles.
After getting back on the road we set a goal of hitting Wheeling, West Virginia to stop for food. We stumble upon a little pizzeria only to find that melting the cheese with the bread is unheard of around these parts. Don’t let this fool you as it was delicious. If you are ever in the area, make it a point to check out DiCarlo’s Pizza.
While cruising through town we passed by this really cool bridge and after filling up our stomachs we doubled back to get some footage and ride the bridge. It took us to a sort of island in the middle of the river which we then crossed to get into our final destination for today, Ohio. 
And so after a day we make our first pit stop in Bridgeport, Ohio. Tomorrow commences day two and the plan is to have all 6 wheels on asphalt by 8-8:30am.
