Today we hunkered down in Rockwood and rested.

Our room is comfortable, and our Airbnb hosts are so accommodating. After waking up, we had a wonderful, hearty breakfast. Eggs, vegan sausages, blueberry and banana muffins, yogurt, orange juice, avocado, berries, and English muffins.

There wasn’t an LDS church anywhere nearby, so we arranged to watch our home ward’s Zoom broadcast. It is so nice to have that as an option.

After we had watched our ward’s sacrament meeting on Zoom, our Airbnb hosts, Jennifer and Chris, took us to the Flight 93 National Memorial. It is a peaceful park located where Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. For those who don’t remember, on 9/11/2001, four flights were hijacked. Three of them hit buildings, and one crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The passengers on board had been made aware of what had happened to the other three planes, and they made the conscious decision, after a vote, to rush the cabin and not allow the hijackers to crash the plane into a building. All 40 passengers and crew on board died in the crash. The memorial is in a peaceful setting and tastefully done. We will include photos from the memorial below.

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It was a 30- to 45-minute drive each way. It was so kind of them to take us. Jennifer had packed a small snack lunch for all of us. That was very thoughtful and kind.

Back home, they dropped Natalie and me off at a pizza restaurant, where we ate dinner and finished with ice cream. We are now back in our Airbnb room, resting, and getting things organized for tomorrow.

I had thought we were at the peak of our climb, but now I realize we still have 10 to 20 miles of climbing before we start downhill tomorrow. Currently, the forecast indicates we have three good days of riding, with rain expected on Thursday. As far as I can tell, the trail on Thursday should be relatively rideable, even in the rain. However, there are still many unknowns, as we’ve never ridden this trail before.