Day 42, New Waterford to Washington, PA 63 miles, Welcome to the hills.

Best: Waking up after big rains last night and not having any rain from take down to end of ride

Worst: Humidity is pretty much at 100 percent

Most Unexpected: Getting a tornado warning for later today.

Thunder and lightning again last night, but we were able to pack up without getting wet.  We entered the hills of Ohio, and then crossed the border to Pennsylvania, land of the big hills.

Got a picture of the sign entering Ohio from the other side to make up for the lack of the sign on the other side of the state.

Up and down hills for most of the short ride, some up to 12 percent.  Good training for the future days in Pennsylvania.  I probably will miss tomorrows blog due to going to Falling Water and getting to camp really late, but I will make up for it the next day. This is a short blog due to pending hurricane warnings, so here is your pictures for the day.

A little foggy all morning, a result of the 100 percent humidity.  We were not hot on the ride, but when we stopped we broke into a full out sweat.

The hills of Pennsylvania!

And you wonder why this business went kaput.  American foods serving German meat prouducts?

Day 41, Newbury to New Waterford, 66 miles

Best:  Buying a couple of fried pies at Rhodes fruit stand

Worst: Forgetting my water bottle at the first check stop

Most Unexpected:  Tie between Anita's 15 mile wrong turn, and Jenn's chain wrap on her bike.

It rained again last night, but I was prepared.  The group tent site was mostly dirt, and I figured with any rain the tent would be a messy pack job.  I moved right next to our group site on unclaimed grass, did not get kicked off by a ranger, and after the rain I only had to pack up a wet tent and not a wet muddy tent. 

Last nights dinner was eggplant parmigan, baked ziti (not some teenagers acne issue), salad, and an apple pie for dessert.  Lynn couldn't fit on a bench so sat on a chair at the end of the table and appeared to be a very small person.

The bike ride today was a short 66 mile voyage with about half of it trying to get out of the Punderson campgrounds.  I of course exaggerate.  We started with hills, and had some rollers in the middle which were doable.  It is not crazy steep yet.  The best chain wrap occurred at Mile 14 when Jenn's chain came off her large chainring and did some amazing knotting around the front derailleur.  She was taking a picture of this.

While I was taking a picture of.

The Amish must of got mad and caused the chain wrap,

We did a lot of suburban riding through several towns. I recalled from the last Big Ride that on this segment several Big Riders rode into camp with fresh pies that looked like Hostess fruit pies.  I found them in the Rhodes fruit stand where I had a great conversation with the owner and his cousin.  The owner is the grandson of the founder of the fruit stand, and he said he recalled the Big Riders from 2012.  He was interested in my bike, and I was interested in his business, so we had a fun time conversing.

I ended up buying a peach fry pie, and a blackberry fry pie.  The peach pie is history and the blackberry pie will be going down the gullet tomorrow.

One of the towns we went through was Warren which housed the Packard car muserum, and there were a lot of other things named Packard such as the concert hall, streets, businesses, and bathrooms.

The Packard museum was of course closed because we went by it early morning, but I did look in the window and saw an actual car!

I really liked the City Hall in Warren which was formerly somebodies house.  The somebody was famous enough that there was a plaque acknowledging his famousness.

We got to the campground around noon today, and just before the campground I bought some Utz potato chips to balance out my peach pie.  The potato chips were cooked in lard which gave them a slightly different taste.  Between the pie and chips, I think I had all of the major food groups covered.

Showers were down the hill from where we are camped, and they were saunalike when I walked in.  Easy enough fix as I just opened up all of the windows in the sweatroom.  Dinner tonight will be roasted chicken, and I will probably finish it off with a nice piece of fudge bought when I was in Madison.  I won't be able to eat like this when I get home.

This is a coke plant, not that coke, and not that coke, but the coal stuff.

Just because.

This is just one of the roads we were on today, just past the coke plant, not that coke, and not that coke. 

Lots of graveyards next to the roads.  On a typical day we will pass several.  Yesterday, there were a couple of graveyards right on Lake Erie, very valuable real estate.  I am sure there would be no issue with develpment of the graveyards into housing. 

Day 40, Sandusky to Newbury, 90 miles

Best:  Beautiful weather

Worst: Electronic malfunctions

Most Unexpected:  Missing guitars at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After a very restful day yesterday cleaning my bike and lazying around the KOA, I got up this morning (hurrah), did all of the usual things and took off on the bike.  The riding was flat and with a tailwind up to Cleveland, and then the flatness went away.  The road followed one of the Great Lakes and I felt a little strange following it, kind of Erie.  Older houses along the lake gave way to major estates the closer we got to Cleveland.  We made good time with the exception of the stop lights (I would call them their correct name of traffic lights, but they really were stop lights).  

Cleveland was a challenge once again to get through, but the challenge was an easy one and with the exception of some road conditions, everything went right.  The really bad road was next to the airport and was actually called a bike route. Maybe a fat tire bike.  The bad road followed our brief stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was devoid of any decoration on the outside.  Last time we took pictures with some oversize guitars, this time we just took a picture of the front. Right after the Hall of Fame, we went past a parking lot chock full of seagulls, and I got off the bike path and rode right through them.  The other riders were cheering, but it turned out they were cheering for me to get pooped on by the birds. 

We rolled through some nice sections of Cleveland including University Circle and Shaker Heights, the latter having some fine houses, and as we exited Shaker Heights we rolled past the servants houses which were only about 3000 square feet.  Prior to this we stopped in Little Italy and got gelato and Canneloni.  I wasn't sure where to stop in Clevland for food because my Big Ride Buddy Liz forgot to send me directions because she went to Paris.

Somehow we exited Cleveland as the houses slowly went away and to make up for their disappearance, the hills started.  My rear derailleur decided to fart around between three gears making it challenging to get in the right one for the hills.  At the same time my GPS which I lauded in previous blogs decided to have a tantrum and refused to talk to my phone which meant I couldn't load my route for today onto the GPS.  Holy Batman, I had to actually use a q sheet.  I really just followed people who had their q sheets readily available, but I was ready if I needed to be.  So between the Electronic shifting and the GPS, I was on the wrong side of the Electronic gods.

These happy faces were all over Huron.  

Feeling spooky?  How about Erie?  second time for this pun.

'I can't believe it is that big a lake!'

Cleveland as we crossed the bridge to downtown.

Blank shot, nothing on the plaza.

Battle of the planes, but look what they did to the road.

Servants quarters.

Our campground for today.

A clever reverse shot of the previous one.

Day 38, Napoleon to Sandusky, 88 miles

Best: Flat ride on our last of 6 days in a row.

Worst:  Getting caught in a mist shower 16 miles from the end of the ride.

Most Unexpected:  Thunderstorm last night 

I unfortunately missed writing this yesterday due to an impromtu tasting of honey whiskey last night.  I probably wouldn't have spelllledd meny werds write lasst knight.

The dinner at Napoleon was broasted chicken.  I asked the cook what made broasted chicken broasted.  Apparently to be a certified broaster requires you to marinate the chicken 24 hours, then lightly breaded, then put in a pressurized deep fryer.  It tasted like fried chicken to me, and somewhere between the cooking and the transport the chicken got tough.  It did taste better at the lunch stop.

At 1:30 in the morning I heard what sounded like rain on the ground, but I didn't hear any rain on my tent.  After pondering this question, I realized I was under a tree and the tree hadn't released any water yet.  It was a sweltering night when I went to bed so I had pulled back the flysheet and turned on the fan to cool off.  Also took a shower just before bed which cooled me off for 45 seconds. Realizing that it was indeed starting to rain, I left my tent to pull down the rainfly in effect sealing me inside on a warm night.  On went the fan again creating a white noise. This white noise was instantly overwhelmed by a real white noise called thunder.  This went on for some time and then at 3:30 there was a Flash/Boom with no time between shaking the campground and setting off the emergency alarm from the City.  The heavens opened up and down came a downpour that shook the tent.  Everything stayed dry, but nobody slept. 

We loaded the truck at 5:30 after the rain had abated, but because of the cloud layer, nobody could see to leave the campground at 6:00 so we waited around a bit until we could indeed see the road.  Everything was still wet, but fortunately we followed the storm cells and avoided getting wet when we left the campground.  The roads were wet which meant our shoes and legs became damp and full of road grit, but our upper bodies were dry.  I debated wearing a windbreaker but as soon as I put it on I started sweating, so into the bike bag it went for emergency.

We were expecting a headwind, but instead we caught a tailwind which flew us to the first rest stop.  We left as a group from the campground because although we could make out the road, nobody could read their q sheets.  As a result I led the group out using my GPS which is lit and I could actually see.  So picture 11 riders with lights in a line following a bike with GPS weaving around puddles, potholes and cracks like a giant snake.  Once it because lighter, the snake broke up and became little snakes.

After the lunch stop which had the aforementioned famous broasted chicken, we went to the next check point at mile 68, but the clouds were threatening and we rode past the check point with a wave hoping to get around the clouds before they let loose. No such luck, and so for the last 16 miles we rode in this heavy drizzle that when you were riding felt like mini rain, and when you were stopped you couldn't figure out if it was still raining.  We did get wet, but we knew we had cabins for the night and the only issue was that we couldn't dry out our tents from the morning.  We arrived around 12:00 and after showers headed to the closest (the only) restaruant to the KOA and had sandwiches.  Back to the campground we sat around a table and had snacks and goodies supplied by my lovely sister Mary Ann, and the latest shipment of sweetness from Marich Chocolates.  This was accompanied by different flavors of beer.  Sometime later, Kenny supplied a large bottle of Wild Turkey American Honey whiskey and we ordered pizza for dinner from Jacks, the local restaurant/deli.  The other restaurants are in town over 4 miles away.  Somehow after all this eating and drinking, I found myself in my cabin and called it a night.  

The days riding was extremely flat where an overpass was the big climb of the day. It was an easy day of riding if you can call 88 miles easy which at this point in the ride we can.  The next 6 days of riding will be challenging as we are headed to the hills of Pennsylvania where we will pray to have an overpass to climb over rather than the hills. 

Today, Day 39 will be a true rest day, cleaning the bike, and lounging around the campground.  Cedar Point declined to admit us for free after I asked them.  They had requested I tell them how we were treated 2 years ago when they did let us in for free, and after sending an e-mail with the details, the response I got was "we decline your offer".  I am not sure what the offer was, it did not include selling my body.  They did offer us a discount with a 'secret code' which was the same as if you go on their website and look up special offers.  I will not be posting for Day 39 separately, because although I am sure you need your rest, you do not need to be put to sleep by my accounting of resting.  Pictures, such as they are, follow.

Look, I can take pictures from the front.

All that riding and somehow I end up home.  The house prices are just a little less than in California.

A house in Ohio.

A house in Ohio.

A house in Ohio (but on a farm, oohh)

This was kind of cool which shows you how desparate I was for pictures.  The grain tower looks like a castle turret.  Also notice the rain in the background that we are about to ride into.

Again, houses in the country with giant lawns to mow.

Home sweet home.  This is on Day 39 in the morning with the clouds all gone. The table on the right is where we set up last night so you can see how far I had to walk to go home from dinner.  It was hard work.

Day 37, Kendalville to Napoleon Ohio, 70 rip roaring miles

Best: A restful ride today.

Worst: Forgetting to start my bike computer.  (I really don't have a worst, but this did happen)

Most Unexpected:  Stopping at the ice cream store and finding turtle sundaes were on sale.

Last night was warm, so instead of getting in my tent and sweating waiting for my fan to cool me down, I rode my bike down to the lake in my swim shorts, jumped in the lake, and rode back before I dried off.  I climbed into the tent, turned on the fan for about 15 minutes, and I was good.

We pushed back the truck load time until 6:00 because of the time change (it was dark later in the morning), and the shortness of the day.  It was still dark when we packed up our tents, and after loading the truck we were once again treated to a meal by the park and rec staff from Kendalville.  It was a good breakfast, and we started the day on a good note.  The first 12 miles were really fun as we hit our first set of rollers on the trip.  Rollers are hills that if you ride down them, you can get to the next top of the hill using mostly momentum and a little effort.  These are not to be confused with rolling hills we had previously ridden where you go down a hill, and only go up about 1/10 of the way of the next hill before having to pedal hard.  Rollers are fun, rolling hills aren't.  

The ride settled down into small undulations (mostly flat), and the next thing you know, we are at ice cream 2 miles away from our exciting camping experience at the county fairgrounds in Napoleon.  In honor of certain 2012 Big Riders, I had a large Turtle Sundae which just happened to be the special for the day.  I would expect any Turtles out there to comment on this blog. 

The fairgrounds are just as I remember them, bathrooms about 100 yards away.  They don't have my bike shorts that I left two years ago if you can believe it. After stopping for ice cream, setting up the tent and showering, I was pretty settled in before 1:00 and called home for some quality time.  Dinner tonight will be catered, and to help prepare me, I had a v8 to drink.  I know you are all hitting your head and saying 'wow, I could have had a v8. 

It is funny to consider today as a restful day at 70 miles, but after the last 4 days, this was a very peaceful and gloriously short day without any major exertion.  Lets review the mileage for the 4 days before today, 95, 105, 85, 112.  By my calculation this is very close to averaging 100 miles a day.  I should have done a bonus 3 miles to make it exact. Tomorrows ride to Sandusky will close out a fairly tough week, and set the stage for the hills of Pennsylvania. Still no major weather problems and today's high was probably 87.  There is a nice breeze blowing to help keep the temperature reasonable and induce naps.  Pictures were few, but of course they are of incredible quality.

Yeah this is the very clever sign indicating the state border we crossed today into Ohio.  The other indication that we were in Ohio shows up in the picture below.

The double yellow line starts in Ohio.  I am not sure why the double yellow isn't double at the end, maybe there was a border dispute.

Notice how Ohio looks different.

I am amazed at how much lawn these houses have to mow.  These aren't anywhere near the largest ones we saw.  I guess all they have to do for the weekend is ride their sitdown lawnmower.  Yesterday we saw a Mennonite lady pushing a giant lawnmower.

Flat with a tree. I was asked why I am always taking pictures from behind, First, it is more interesting with a rider in the picture, and second when I am in front, you can't tell because there is no one in front of me in the picture to prove i was in front.  Also turning around to take a picture of riders behind you is not a good idea with potholes in front.

I can't tell if they are posed or not.

2012 Big Riders!  I had the Large in your honor.  By the way, I saved 40 cents with this special.

This is our campsite and that is a horse barn in the background.  No horses but the fair does start in 2 weeks so our timing is good.