Day 2 recap of the Cannonball Sun:

 7/10/2024 Day 2 recap of The Cannonball Sun: Today we started our morning off after our first day of driving in State College, PA. This is 77 miles further along the route than our first day of the 2021 attempt we made. 

    Looking at the road ahead the weather looked good in the morning, but we had low expectations for the day as there was lots of wind and rain in the forecast. Our initial plan was to charge up in the AM then drive slow, and efficiently as the forecast didn't have much power in sight the rest of the day.

     At the beginning of the day we woke up to point the tilt the array towards the sun at 6:30 A.M. We do this in the early morning and at night to put the panels as close to perpendicular to the rays of sun while the sun is low on the horizon. This allows Sun Striders array to absorb as much power as possible while the sun is low in the sky. We started the day in a Walmart parking lot charging up for the day.

We rolled out for the morning at 7:15 with our sights set on a town 130 miles up the road. Mid-day we noticed a gap in the weather slightly farther north all the way into West Virginia. We decided to take the chance and stay in the Appalachian range slightly longer to avoid this weather system.

    It paid off. we were able to complete a total of 206 miles for the day with 16,300 ft of climbing. A new single day climbing record. Today was a big success, given that we expected the day to be a bust. We ended our day in Wheeling, West Virginia right on the eastern border of Ohio. This is 60 miles further than what we were able to do on day 2 of our 2021 attempt.  

    Along the route today we had 1 flat tire that were caught quickly, and dealt with efficiently. The team changed up what kind of inner tube we use to hopefully alleviate the issue of flats.

 Overall a successful day, this brought our daily average to 226 miles, with a total trip mileage of 452 miles. We also earned 2 more state stickers, as we conquered Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. 

If you'd like to support us on our journey our Venmo is @thecannonballsun