Day 42 (8/5) - New Waterford, OH to Washington, PA

The hilly back road we took to get into Pennsylvania didn't have a sign at the border. The first town we got to was Midland, PA - so here is our welcome to Pennsylvania sign. left to right: Rodney, Jodi, Jerome, Mike, me
What?!? West Virginia? That wasn't one of our 12 states we were riding through. We threw in another state today just to say we were there - it was only a 4 mile roundtrip detour!

There was also a proper Pennsylvania welcome sign here at the West Virginia border!

62.22 miles
13.3 mph average

Our cue sheets were totally wrong for the first 35 miles of the day because we stayed in Washington, PA instead of a town that is usually used. The crew went out in front of us and marked the new route this morning. I was not sure if I was going the right way when I noticed I had a flat. I stopped at a gas station to repair it when I saw Jodi, Mike, Rodney, and Jerome - I knew I was going the right way now. They came over and helped me change my flat. These are fast riders who I usually don't see much of during the day- they are always the first into camp. They had just got done eating a real breakfast at Perkins when they saw me. I rode with them just about the rest of the day up and over many hills and we even scooted over to West Virginia for fun. It started to rain in the afternoon and ducked into a restaurant for lunch to escape. Eventually, there were 19 of us in there getting out of the rain and eating some food. Rode the rest of the way in the rain. Got a second flat today 4.5 miles from camp. It was still pouring when I got to camp and there was no pavillion for us the stay dry in. The campground set up two EZ-up tents for us. Had a great catered dinner -a real dark leafy lettuce salad with almonds and asian dressing and amazing marinated chicken and pie for dessert. I almost slept through this wonderful dinner, if it weren't for Justine who woke me up from my nap. Thank you Justine! It rained most of the night, which was kind of nice to listen to from inside a dry tent.

Day 41 (8/4) - Burton, OH to New Waterford, OH

leaving Burton, we were still in Amish country for about 20 miles or so. We passed lots of horse and buggys on the road. We also passed a home of Mike Tyson's that many stopped to take pictures of. I missed it though.
Bob's big brother and Bob - his brother rode with us for the day! This was at our check point in Canfield, OH - a really nice small town. We rode through several really nice small towns today.
big brother doing big brother things to little brother :)

61.04 miles
14.9 mph average

We had breakfast provided by Cogan's (The Village (idiot) Eatery) and we could order whatever we wanted off the menu - now that was a treat! I wasn't hungry until the afternoon - what a difference protein makes! This was a short fast day. I was actually riding much faster than my average most of the day, but then the last 4 miles I slowed down to crawling (and walked my bike on the stones at the campground) to get to chat with a guest rider, Lorenzo. He is a graduate student from McGowen Institutes riding for Brack this weekend. He was really a great person to talk to - he is going his phD work in regenerative vessels - really neat stuff! Today was a beautiful ride through Amish country into many small towns.

Day 40 (8/3) - Burton, OH - REST DAY!

An emerging 17 year cicada on Ane's bike! There were two of them on her bike emerging from their underground nymph stage (where they live for 17 years feasting on sap from tree roots) to their adult stage right before our eyes! They left their old exoskeletons behind on her bike and flew off to reproduce. How amazingly cool - I love insects!!

adult cicada
emerging cicada

Burton is a really cute town with a large square park in the middle. It is known for its maple syrup and has an active sugar shack on the square in town. There is a large Amish community here. Many of the women supplement their income by working in town. I spoke with an Amish woman working at the sugar shack. She said she would love to be able to ride a bike cross-country, but this Amish community is not allowed to ride bikes. She said the neighboring Indiana Amish communities are allowed to ride bikes (and we saw many of them doing just that), but this church doesn't allow it. She was very interesting to talk to. This town has lots of antique shops to walk around in. Many of us ate several meals at Cogan's - The Village (idiot) Eatery. It was full of great nostalgia and humor on the walls and the menu was hilarious. The owner wears one of those colorful caps with a propeller on top everyday.

Day 39 (8/2) Sandusky, OH to Burton, OH

strummin' outside the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland
David and I
Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame (we weren't allowed to take pictures inside)
outside of Burke Lakefront Airport - Uncle Steve, this is for you, I can't tell you anything about it though...sorry
Floyd

a beautiful sunrise that looked a lot more beautiful in person. I couldn't get the exposure right, no matter how many different ones I tried.
Cleveland Cleveland

92.69 miles
13.6 mph average

I am always so excited to get to camp the day of a rest day. I didn't take a break from riding today until our check point at about mile 50. We rode along Lake Erie for the beginning of the day. The lake went on for as far as you could see. We then entered Cleveland and rode right through the city. Some people took a break to go see the Indians play. I took a long break at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with David. So much for getting to camp early to start my rest day. The NPR Story Corps trailer was parked outside of the museum and we talked with the NPR folks for a while too. The hall of fame was $20 to get in but one of the public radio guys was a member and gave us a two for one coupon! It was a lot of fun! They had so much cool stuff to look at. We only got to see about half of it because the reality that we still had 40 more miles to ride was hanging over our heads and we decided we really needed to get going. We were really late for only having ridden 40 miles. We got about 10 miles away and it started drizzling and we started hearing thunder. It wasn't supposed to rain today. David didn't have any raingear with him. Eventually, we pulled over and I put on my dorky rain helmet cover and just then the sky opened up into a terrific storm. 3 inches of rain fell in less than an hour. We stood on the side of the sidewalk in this extremely rich neighborhood of mansions and huddled under small trees completely soaked. I had my raincoat on though, but the rest of me was wet. It was freezing and wind was about horizontal at times with hail falling. It really was an impressive storm that never seemed to move away from us. The thunder and lightening were still directly over us for some time. Eventually, the rain let up a bit and we decided to get going. We stopped at a CVS so David could buy a rain poncho and called our crew to let them know where we were, since we knew most people were already at camp and the route was close to closing. We had twenty miles left to ride. Eventually, the rain stopped just as the hills began. We haven't seen hills in days, and boy were they back. These were steep rollers welcoming us and preparing us for the even steeper Alleganys that lie ahead - the hardest part of our trip. We got to camp just after 6pm with stories of the storm to tell! Burton is a beautiful little town that I am excited to explore tomorrow on my rest day. We are staying at the fairgrounds a short walk from the middle of town. Only 7 more riding days left - I can't believe it!

Day 38 (8/1) Napoleon, OH to Sandusky, OH

Cedar Point amusement park (Andy's pic). I rode that one in the distance - it was great!
Cedar Point Amusement Park - I rode that one!

Margo and her younger sister Dana who goes to nearby Oberlin College

89.21 miles
15.6 mph average

This was our easiest day of riding!!! I've never ridden on such flat roads before for so long. It was FLAT! We actually didn't have a headwind either - that was rare! I got two flats today - I'm quickly making up for getting through most of the trip without any. Despite the flats, it was a great, fast day riding. I was riding over 20 mph for periods of time this afternoon - it was really fun to be able to go fast. Unfortunately, it takes me about 20 miles to wake up every morning, so my morning miles are always pretty snail-like. I am not a morning person. I had a nice dinner in Sandusky at a pizza place with Greg, Vern and Jerome. Then I caught the shuttle from our campground to Cedar Point amusement park. It was $25.00 for an evening pass. I met Andy and David there and I got to ride three great roller coasters - it was so much fun!!! Apparantly a party took place at our campground that night that I missed - some people had a great time. When I got back it was about 10:30 and way past my bedtime. I never heard the train that ran regularly right next to us or the small planes that were taking off and landing from the neighboring airport - I slept great - as usual (I am always so exhausted, I just pass out instantly).

Day 37 (7/31) Kendallville, IN to Napoleon, OH

this looks more like art than patching up cracks - one of the roads we were on today

This is the best we got for our welcome to Ohio sign.
...so our crew improvised for us - Marty at the Welcome to Ohio sign
me
a bunch of our bikes at the fairgrounds in Napoleon, OH where we camped tonight

70.59 miles
14.0 mph average

State #10 - Wow, this trip is going really fast. It was a great day riding. I was the last to leave camp this morning, but eventually I caught up with Adam, Margo, and Greg and rode with them for a while. Rode with Bob Dumke at the end of the day. We rode on great country roads today with little traffic. There was an ice cream stand two miles before we got to camp in Napoleon that actually had sorbet - what a treat (since I can't eat ice cream)! We camped at the fairgrounds and had dinner provided by a local catering family. Tomorrow night we will be in Sandusky, OH - where the famous Cedar Point amusement park is. Our rest day after that is in Burton, OH where we would have our first rest day NOT in dorms. We are camping at the fairground for our rest day. This is a bit disappointing because when it's hot out during the day, it's nice to be able to nap inside in a bed. A group of people decided to avoid this rest day by continuing on to Sandusky tonight (riding another 75 -80 miles on top of the 70 miles we rode today) and have a rest day tomorrow in Sandusky and play on the roller coasters and then ride to Burton when everyone else was on their rest day. They took their rest day a day early. It sounded like a great plan, but the thought of riding another 75 miles when I had just put up my tent sounded impossible to me. So, I just relaxed in Napoleon and did some reading. A nice evening, despite the extreme heat and humidity.

Day 36 (7/30) Valparaiso, IN to Kendallville, IN

Vern and a large farm vehicle that we shared the road with. Vern collects abandoned toys that are left on the side of the road and gives them a free ride across the country on his bike - among them are Trix the rabbit, the mouse? from Charlotte's Web, and a two headed talking dragon.

Ane
Brian and Phil
Andy and me
a train over the tunnel
Andy

Andy and Ane
This beautiful farm where we decided to plop down and take a break. The flowers were beautiful!

Andy
Ben

Larry, the 1999 big rider who served us fresh pastries and local canteloupe at our water stop today. He was great to talk to!
somehow Ane ended up in the soybeans today. We're not really sure how it happened, but all of a sudden we found her a ways off in the field. We saw her smile, so we immediately took out our cameras to get a picture - knowing she wasn't hurt.
What I would call a giraffe-poodle. Others call it an alpaca. It just kept running laps back and forth along its track that it created.

112.87 miles
14.8 mph average

This was our second longest day of the ride. I was exhausted this morning and got off to a very slow start. I was riding slower than ever. Our first water stop was given to us by a 1999 big rider named Larry. He was a great guy to talk to and had a amazing spread for us that included local Indiana cantelope and fresh baked cinnamon buns! There was so much food!! He also had little Big Ride Across America bike stickers made up for us and gave them out. He was really great to talk to and very encouraging. With only a handful of riding days left, he reminded us to take time and smell the roses and not rush our way through each ride. He discussed some hardships we would face once the ride ended and we had to get on with our daily lives again. It was really nice to get the perspective of a former rider. I rode with Andy most of the day today. It was nice to ride with someone new and chat about our lives. We rode through Amish country today and passed many horse and buggys. I got my first flat of the trip today! I jinxed myself because earlier that day I said I was hoping to make it to the end without any flats. Sure enough, later that day my rear wheel was flat. I guess going about 2500 miles without a flat is pretty impressive.