DAY ELEVEN: Morgantown, PA

June 12, 2007
Uniontown, PA to Morgantown, PA
24 miles sort of
by Morgen Goepel

Today was meant to be a day for "active recovery" according to Steven but we gladly exchanged it for the opportunity to visit and tour Falling Water--the house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. This is one of those famous locations I had heard about starting in elementary school but was not able to fully appreciate until we were actually on site--it was therefore a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (this trip seems to be full of such adventures). Andy arranged a system of bus-shuttling to get our entire group to the museum and we began joining the tours (which normally require prior arrangements being made). The house was built in the late 1930's though looks far more modern than that. It has access to the stream running underneath it from inside and is situated on top of waterfall in the woods of southern Pennslyvania. The art work inside is equally historical and dates back to ancient Greece. Sadly, photography was not permitted inside the house though we made up for it outside. I highly recommened visiting this site to anyone--you do not have to be an architecture major to appreciate it. What an incredible experience...
The day progressed and we slowly realized that in order to make it to the church on time, we would either have to suddenly greatly improve in our biking abilities and speed, as well as insure that there would be NO flat tires, or we would have to shuttle to the next town via the van. It did not seem reasonable to assume we had all become Lance Armstrong so quickly and thus the shuttling process began.
The church in the confusing city of Morgantown was actually just a meeting space not currently employed by any congregation. Despite that, they did have a big room to sleep in, an ample supply of mattresses, and some very warm and welcoming community members who generously prepared dinner, dessert, and supplied us with money for breakfast. We had the opportunity to mingle with our hosts and thus learned of a rails-to-trails bike path which would carry us into the next county. Again full and content, we relaxed, unpacked a bit, took care of our bikes, and proceeded to spend a little bit more quality time together (that may or may not have involved some gladiatorial battles) and rested up for the build the next morning.
THE BUILD...for the build we split up between two sites..some of landscaped while others worked on some earlier stages of construction...lunch at the Black Bear Burrito joint and then some post card shopping, errands and dinner filled up our bicycle-free day.
Back on the bikes tomorrow!