"Effy"

It was a short day today, only about 41 miles. My body was still asleep when we first set out, but it felt good once we got going. For the first time since the Berkshires, I stood up in my pedals going uphill. I thought I left all the sprinting I had in those mountains, but I guess I just needed a little rest to build up my strength. Oh and I wore these new camo biking shorts that I got yesterday in Pittsburgh, they're like cargo shorts but they have the chamois built in. They look pretty badass.

As we would only be passing through it for about seven miles, we tried to do West Virginia shirtless, but after a mile or two we decided that the area was too populated and that it would be best to go ahead and shirt up.

Our destination for the day was Steubenville, Ohio. All of the bridges into Steubenville are highways, so we weren't allowed on them. The original plan had been to use the van to shuttle us across the bridge, but when we met up with the van just before the bridge, some members of my group complained that they did not want to do this because of something they called "Effy." I later learned that this was the name of a club, EFI, for "Every Freakin' Inch." As the name suggests, this club is reserved for those Bike and Builders who have ridden "every freakin' inch" of the way from Boston to Santa Barbara on their bikes. While a rider cannot be blamed if he has to ride part of the way in the van because of injury, dehydration, malnutrition, or bike problems, this disqualifies him from membership in EFI. We were all about disqualified because we weren't allowed on the bridges, and that was not acceptable.

Sophie called the local police to see if we could get an escort across the bridge. After she explained the situation, they sent out a squad car, and after some more explaining, five Bike and Builders crossed a bridge into Ohio led by a police escort. It was awesome. I got some footage while riding. (It turns out that traffic on the bridges wasn't half as bad as what we have already encountered, and subsequent groups crossed the bridge without any escort.)

Why go through all this trouble? What difference does it make if we cycle across the entire country less one or two miles? Why did we feel it necessary to get the police involved? Because some things in life are worth fighting for.