Nov 30 - Meeting a good friend

Today I was walking along the trail by the riverfront and bumped in to Bill Metzger, an old friend from Confluence, PA.  I first met Bill during the 2004 Mayors' Ride Relay from Washington DC to Pittsburgh.  The ride organizer, Troy Bogdan, had told Bill we'd be coming through and staying the nite.  Bill is a map maker, photographer and magazine illustrator and historian.  His day job is writing for "Railroad' Magazine, but he's also the author of all the Pennsylvania lettered routes for bicycling.  He was out for a ride with his wife Pam, also an avid biker.  Bill has progressive muscle degeneration in his legs, which has meant he has slowly had to go from a bike to a recumbent trike to a hand-trike.  But it hasn't slowed him down any.  He showed me the mileage on his odometer - 12500 miles in the past year or so.  We talked for quite some time about all our various interests and enjoyed the peace and sun by the river.  They get to travel extensively with his job, researching various historic train routes.  A train went by on the other shore while we were talking and he told me what every horn blast signal meant.