Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 5, 2002

Day Four (33 Miles) Greensburg, PA to Pi
Today was an “easy” day of biking. We took our time getting up and paraded down the street in Greensburg in front of a bunch of little kids that were cheering us on at the Y. We headed out of Greensburg and hit a mile or two of country before we rode by strip mall after strip mall almost all the way to Pittsburgh. Once we crossed a bridge or two in suburban Pittsburgh, we started to see signs that Rt. 30 merged with an interstate and went into a tunnel. We had to pull off and regroup and find an alternate route through the city.

The vans ended up escorting us the rest of the way through the city, some 10 miles or so right into the heart of downtown. We biked past Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, admiring the gothic Pitt building towering over the city. It was a very hot and humid afternoon. The air quality was low and lacking oxygen because of all the car exhaust in the congested downtown avenues.

We made it to the church and took showers at the YMCA. Jenn, the leader in charge of our first leg, surprised all of the riders by taking them to a fully provided dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Even when I pulled the van into the lot they thought it was some sort of sick joke because they still didn’t believe we would be eating there. Everybody ate their steaks and pasta and loved it!

- Brent Bass