Today is our first rest day after cycling four days in a row, traveling over 300 miles and climbing over 15,000 feet. We are all happy to have a break for our butts, sleep in, and explore the city.
This morning, I crawled out of my sleeping bag around 8 am. It felt great to get a solid 8 hours of sleep. My lower back and legs felt stiff, so I did some yoga and foam rolling. Felt much better after that.
I had a lazy morning and we didn't get ready to go out into the city until 11.
Once we got into the city, we looked for places to get lunch. All I wanted was a huge salad after eating so much bread, pasta, pizza, etc for the past few days. I found a salad place called Toss't, which looked like a knockoff of Chop't in DC. The was exactly what I wanted and I was happy. A lot of other people went to Primanti's for their famous sandwiches, which have meat, cheese, fries, and coleslaw. I was just not feeling it.
After lunch, we went to Point State Park where the rivers converge. It was beautiful with hills in the background with houses perched on top, and a view of the baseball stadium. After taking a few pictures, I headed to the Warhol Museum with a small group.
The Warhol Museum was a lot of fun. I didn't know much about Warhol before, but I knew that we was famous for his pop art. There were interesting exhibits on seven floors of the building. My favorite was a small room filled with silver rectangular balloons. They were floating around and it was fun batting them around. If you are ever in Pittsburgh, I would highly recommend visiting the museum. Even of you're not a huge Warhol fan, it's still pretty interesting to see.
One of my teammates had connections in the city, and they generously set up a catered dinner for us at TGI Fridays. On the way there, we saw a small park with fountains and sculptures. There was also a large chalk board that said "Before I Die..." I just so happened to have a small nubbin of chalk in my bag, so of course I had to write something. Just some shameless self-promotion.
The dinner at TGIF was great and it was nice to have a restaurant meal. I ate my fill of veggies, salad, pasta (again) and cheesecake for dessert.
Even though I didn't bike all day, I can still put away a lot of food. Not too surprising.
After dinner, we headed back to the host in Springdale, did some housekeeping, had our team meeting, and got ready for bed. Tomorrow, we are headed to Youngstown, OH, approximately 80 miles. It's going to be exciting to cross another state line. We will also be dipping into West Virginia for a little bit, so hopefully we will collect that state welcome sign as well!
