I wasn’t very happy today. I didn’t sleep well last night, and my crabbiness continued all day long. I kept grousing about this and grousing about that. I wanted to go south a little out of our way and ride along Route 424 from Defiance to Napoleon, and Bob really didn’t want to do it, so we didn’t do it. Instead we rode tediously straight roads through fields of corn with the wind in our faces all day long. We were going north or northeast and the wind was coming the same direction. We had to pedal all day since we have finally gotten to flat. Really flat.

In the town of Napoleon we rode on the worst sidewalk I have ever seen with four-inch drops and dips and encroaching tree roots. This is a narrow, busy, approach street to the bridge to cross the Maumee River. The crumbling bridge stretched over the muddy waters looked ominous. We just rode across the river as fast as we could. Water level is high now with all the recent rains. They need to rebuild that bridge. The route followed the south bank of the river. This was an OK part of the day. At least it was different scenery and the road curved a bit. The river was on one side, and the cornfields were on the other. We later found ourselves in familiar territory surrounded by more cornfields after we left the river.

Now we are on the Adventure Cycling route – this is the first day we are on the AC route and getting here into Bowling Green kind of sucked. It follows Poe Road into town and there is no shoulder – absolutely no shoulder. Now granted it was 4:00PM on Friday, and it was busy, but there has got to be a better way to get through this town.

There were hardly any rooms left. I said yes to this room on the first floor next to the stairwell rather than riding around trying to find other motels and finding them also booked up solid at the end of the day. The worst part of the ride is trying to find places to stay in towns we’re not familiar with.

Bob’s whining again! We went from Bowling Green to a bit past Vermillion, Ohio. It was about 83 miles. We had calm winds or winds slightly with us for most of the day. The AC route followed some tiny single lane tracks through fields that we would have never found without their map. It’s generally flat. It follows some rivers through some corn. We watched a wheat harvester today. That was pretty exciting -- the combines twirling and the wheat spewing. It wasn’t very hot. It was humid, but we’re getting used to that. We found an excellent place in downtown Fremont this morning to have a snack. Great soup and muffins and congenial people to talk to. It was a good day.

    Deb in Cornfield doing you-know-what

Since it is Saturday night in a lakeside tourist town, I thought it best to make reservations for this evening. We very rarely do this…mostly so we can view the establishments in advance. We should not have made reservations this time either. It turned out that we rode by many nicer motels, closer to town, on our way to our lodging. I had asked them if there was a restaurant within walking distance (stressed the "walking" part) and they assured me there was. It was closed. We had ribs further down the street.

It’s Sunday. We left Vermillion this morning and had a short day, but it could have been a lot tougher. We passed through Cleveland to Willowick, which is where Laurie, Bob’s daughter, lives. We are so grateful that we were able to ride through Cleveland on a Sunday. The road from Vermillion to industrialized Loraine had one of the worst shoulders that we’ve been on in this entire country. It wasn’t a shoulder--there were cracks and potholes and divots and it was just awful. Since there was no traffic we took over the slow lane.

At the "Welcome to Avon Beach" sign the road was paved well with a shoulder. We found ourselves riding in the midst of 400 person bicycle race. They were all passing us our loaded bikes as they screamed along. One rider joked as he passed, "You must have some kind of strategy!" . Some must have wondered how loaded tourers ended up in the middle of their race. It was nice not being the only bicyclists on the road. The cars were all wary and watching. We had about 10 miles in the midst of these cyclists, then they all turned back and we continued on through some beautiful, old residential neighborhoods in western Cleveland. Along the lakeshore are handsome mansions. We continued into a ghettoish area, but still we had no traffic. Once through downtown and back onto the lakeshore, we followed the bike path to the east. It continued into a ritzy, rich residential area. Past that was what would have been a busy street on a weekday but is pleasant riding on a Sunday.

Now we are at Laurie’s house relaxing after a snack grocery run. Get to read the Sunday paper. How long since I’ve done that? Bob and Laurie have their heads stuck in the computer. It is evident to all of us that she needs more RAM…and this must be done Sunday afternoon.

Wind is picking up. A storm will be upon us soon. Weather patterns change rapidly in the Midwest. We will probably ride in the rain all day tomorrow. See what tomorrow’s recording brings!

Very little of the lake is visible along this section of the route. The houses with their large yards are built to lake’s edge obscuring the view for travelers. Most townspeople have limited access to the lake via city parks along the lakeshore usually with a stairway leading down to the water.

We left Willowick heading for Erie, PA. We were prepared for a long day of rain. The forecast was 70% chance of thunderstorms, so we set off early. Boy, does Laurie get up early! She woke us up at 5:30 and she had already showered and dressed. After yesterday evening’s thunderstorms it had cleared during the night to a slight overcast and a west wind, which as you all know is our favorite wind. Following a road with a moderate shoulder alternating with roads with a bad shoulder, but there was no traffic.

Everyone was still peacefully snoozing, since we were on the road at dawn’s break. We made it to Erie, 90 miles with no rain, at about 3:30. Most of the route was on roads with nice shoulders. The town of Conneaut was a little busy. Most of the road hugged the lakeshore. Mostly flat; some rollers. Close to Erie there were a couple of little steepies. We also ran into another touring couple from Chicago looping from there to Toronto and back. We would have like to talk to them longer but they were heading into the wind and we were nearing Erie, so we bid them farewell. We thought we would see more cyclists now that we are on the AC route.

    Bob at the PA Border

We spent a couple of comfortable days here at Dody’s (Bob’s mom) house resting our knees and weary butts before leaving for New York, the New England states and the final leg of the trip. All this time we have been watching the calendar. Bob’s son, Ben, is scheduled to be married on July 29^th. We now realize that we can finish this trip easily and be back here in time for this major event. I booked us two seats on Amtrak’s Lakeshore Limited for July 26^th to bring us back from Boston to here.

We have to remember to write a letter to governor Ridge and The Bicycle Coordinator of Pennsylvania. The shoulders in Pennsylvania were great. Once free of the city of Erie the road was debris free. I liked our ride today with its gradual rollers and the vineyards. This is Concord grape land…grape jelly and sweet wines.

Bob and I have been together really a lot lately, so a little crabbiness should be forgiven.

The days of $35 motel rooms are gone.

We lucked upon another very lightly traveled section of road today. Due to bridge construction vehicular traffic was rerouted. We decided to chance it and tucked in behind two teenagers wheeling down the road. They showed us the hidden dirt driveway that led to a 25-yard sandy stretch of beach to a walking bridge then through a parking lot that turned back onto our road. We trudged through that 25 yards of sand, but for that bit of work had miles of road to ourselves.