Almost another 100

Another good nights sleep,so I awoke with a happier outlook on life that was reinforced when I discovered that there was some bacon for breakfast.(little things) On paper we had 98.4 miles to cycle,little wind of any variety and a forecast for intermittent showers and possible thunderstorms.Indeed there had been a significant thunder storm during the night.But out we rolled at 07.00,all dressed for the rain,which never came.We cycled through lots of areas where the ground was wet from recent rain,but apart from the odd spot,no rain fell on us.60 Kms to the first stop and a good few small hills to negotiate.We cycled with Charlie,Tom,Greg,Heinz and Sohrab,but eventually the hills began to tell on Elizabeth and we dropped back,although Heinz had dropped back earlier.
 Small back roads again with generally good surfaces,so good progress until we arrived at the stop to find nobody there,Charlie and Sohrab were just down the road and as confused as us.We cycled on a bit and found that the stop had been moved, because of  better facilities-fair enough.
 The scenery was of smaller farms ,very attractive.

At the stop we were warned that a bridge was down on our route and we would have to take a short diversion,instructions issued and off we set.More water logged areas abounded and twice we cycled alongside rivers bursting their banks and even though the road had not been inundated ,the sight of the water so close by made me feel a little apprehensive.I was pleased when a hill arrived.

 Progress to the second stop was unexpectedly halted when we came across a stream of cars halted in the road.One ,pulling a trailer tent,tried to turn and car and trailer slipped into the muddy ditch beside the road.We passed that car and came to the hold up.

A tree had fallen across the road,but we could easily work ourselves around it and proceed to the broken bridge and our short diversion around that problem.At the second stop we fortified ourselves with some chicken pieces,a coca cola and an ice cream each,before tackling the last section for the day.That last section was to include a bit of climbing and some Amish areas.
 The climbs came first,I lost count of how many there were in total,but there were 7 hills with gradients over 10% and one of those reached 14%.Elizabeth was pleased that we had shed our rain gear to the car,and that it remained cool.
 Eventually we crested the last hill and descended to the town of FUNK,the centre for the Amish.We

nobody at all.No buggies,no people and no photo oppurtunities.But by way of recompense I can tell you that the Amish do not pay social security charges and also receive no state pensions.They are derived from German Baptists ,closely related to the Mennonites,from whom they split in 1692, and arrived in the USA when they fled persecution in europe.They  speak a german dialect called Pennsylvania Dutch at home but use High German for worship and English for general communication.The children are educated in Amish schools but only to the age of 14,after that they must learn practical skills.

After passing through Funk we came across an area of massive flooding

But the road was intact and by 15.00 we were in the hotel,with the diversions we had completed 99.5 miles,and could not be bothered to cycle the extra 0.5!

2678.7 miles completed,80,121 ft climbed,and two more days before a rest day.