Rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night can stop the NBG'ers from trudging on! With threats of tornadoes for the second year - thunder and lightening and rain.......in they came - soaking wet and cold but with the warmest of hearts and smiles on their faces. Unfortunately, best laid plans don't always work out but sometimes it's more fun. We didn't have the band because it was raining too hard - we didn't have 60 cyclists as expected to meet the five weary, wet, smiling travelers because of the rain - but we probably had 50-60 people waiting here at City Hall for their arrival. What a great bunch of people.

Our newspapers were represented but the rain also chased away the TV cameras.   A member of the Western PA Field Institute (WPFI) videotaped the whole ceremony so that will be sent to you for incorporation into a video of all the cities visited.   And, at this point, a big round of applause to Michael Sobkowiak of the WPFI for the wonderful job he did helping us to host this group.   

I hope that other cities will follow suit..........after a very nice program and proclamation presentation, the cyclists were interviewed by the Press, posed for lots of pictures and then were ushered down the street to a lunch donated by Primanti Brothers Restaurant and treated to their "almost famous" sandwich that has fries and coleslaw right on the sandwich! Quite a treat.

It was sad to see everyone head in different directions but wonderful to see all the hugs and kisses and new friendships made. Thank you, Martin, for allowing me to be a part of this.................

Ro Fischer
Sr, Aide to the Mayor

location: my couch, Pgh PA.

the first leg of the NBG 2003 ride has come to a close, but not without its last-minute battles with precipitation... battles which we soundly lost.

at 7:30am we all met up together again under cloudy skies for our final 20 miles. no sooner did we swallow the last of our coffee than the first fat raindrop smacked my helmet, and it brought all its friends. it poured like an expletive deleted all the way into town.

I won't say too much about the roads we took to get to the city since my mom's reading this, but its name ended in North, and there was no shoulder, and it wasn't flat. then we crossed some bridges, stopped at a gas station for a pit stop to shake the rain off, and stopped at a lawn ornament store for directions... I really don't remember much other than trying to ignore the cold and wet. and hoping my brakes wouldn't fail on the downhills.

as we approached the city, we found ourselves riding parallel to the trail. "that's a pretty nice looking TRAIL over there!" yelled Ken through the rain. we couldn't get to it because of the fences and railroad tracks in between us and it. finally we found a series of holes to climb through, and we shuffled across the rails and lugged our bikes over to the trail.

gradually the rain stopped as we made it across Pgh's Hot Metal Bridge and up to the head of the Eliza Furnace Trail, where our public was waiting. over a dozen folks from different bike and outdoors advocacy groups like Bike Pittsburgh and the Western PA Field Institute were there to support our finish and bring us much-needed hot tea. we hung out for a bit and then circled up for our final 3-mile stretch.

as the clouds dispersed and the city started to dry out, we rode to the portico of the City-County Building, where Mayor Murphy's office presented us with our 2nd proclamation of the ride. Mayor Murphy did the ride himself a few years ago with his daughter Shannon, who was there herself to greet us and say a few words. right on.

there are too many individuals to thank for getting the ceremony together and coming out in the less-than-ideal weather for the cause; to all, we thank you more than we could properly express.

all of the Pgh to Columbus, OH riders were there to welcome us, and we were interviewed by a few papers and grinned for lots of photos. then we were treated to lunch in true Pittsburgh style at Primanti Bros. (think giant dagwood with fries and coleslaw IN the sandwich too), which probably set our hearts back about 200 miles.

and finally, the numbers:

bike maintenance problems: 0
wet, cold: yes
rain: hail yeah
proclamations: TWO!
mayors: 2 down, 23 to go...
a few days off: yes please

starting Tuesday, tune in for more wacky hijinks as we following Mike, David, Jim and me from Pgh to Columbus. what kind of zany adventures will those kids have next?

in the words of Ora Sue, "on the road again..."

Denise for
Ora Sue, David, Ken and Jim

Signing off, Jim