We had a nice calm night last night without any storms. Our tent flys were damp from dew but nothing else was soaked from rain. That's a good start to the day. As we were packing up camp this morning, the neighbor from the site across from us stopped to ask about our trip. It turns out she was from Boise, ID originally. Rhonda is like my friend Peri - she finds someone she knows everywhere she goes! Turns out that both Rhonda and Jon know people she is related to, like her brother and nieces and nephews. It really is a small world!
Our campground sat on the shores of Lake Erie. I really wanted a swim in Lake Erie but I was too tired by the time I got to camp last night to walk down and swim. And I was too hungry this morning to think about swimming when I could be headed to Geneva on the Lake for breakfast. I'm hoping I'll get a chance in the next day or so to make that happen!
It was only a few miles to Geneva on the Lake and the Sunrise Cafe for breakfast. We had a bike path from the campground to the town. It was a pretty morning riding along the shores of Lake Erie.
After a great breakfast with a sassy waitress, we headed down the road. We knew we had 50ish miles today and had gotten out of camp at a decent hour. The road was quiet with lots of small tourist areas along the shore.
Today was our last day in Ohio. As we rolled through Ashtabula, we went down to the river and then had to climb back out of the river. Boy, was that a wake up! By the way my legs reacted, you would have thought I'd never seen a hill before! It was just the start of the hills we saw today. After climbing out of Ashtabula, I found this sign pointing the way to Youngstown, OH, where Dave was born and raised. We were pretty close!
It wasn't much further down the road when I crossed into Pennsylvania. Right before crossing the border I ran into Rachel who is cycling around the world. She is currently traveling solo from New England to Chicago visiting family.
After crossing into Pennsylvania, there were more hills that are a precursor of what is to come in New York. There were also a couple of neat Pennsylvania history signs along the road.
Rhonda and Jon rode ahead because they wanted to get to a bike shop in Erie to see about replacing Jon's cut tire. I took my time rolling through the countryside and enjoying the afternoon. I stopped for some great ice cream in Fairview, PA - it really hit the spot because the afternoon had gotten warm and there were these random hills associated with rivers and creek crossings.
We are at another Warmshowers host tonight. Leo and Bonnie have been so helpful and generous with their house and food. The only thing they left out was that the road to their house is a series of steep hills over about 4 miles. As you can see, I had almost 59 miles today. My legs were already shot when I started towards their house. It was a very slow 4 miles for me. Rhonda and Jon arrived about 30 minutes ahead of me. Rhonda also conveniently neglected to mention the hills to me! Probably a good thing because I probably would have booked the closest hotel instead!
When I rolled into the garage, Jon was busy replacing tires, removing tubes and setting them back up as tubeless. He worked hard tonight after a long day on the road. Tubeless has not been as popular in the smaller towns we have been going through so they have had to try several bike shops to get what they needed. All seems fixed and ready to roll in the morning now.
We did laundry while we ate dinner and talked with Leo and Bonnie. Bonnie made hot dogs for dinner along with fresh corn on the cob, macaroni salad and cucumber salad. The hot dogs were a hit with all of us! Now it's time to sleep and get ready for another day on the road. The only I'm pretty sure there will be is hills!
No comments:
Post a Comment