Day 8: Hamburg to Canandaiqua, New York 95 miles, 4,698 feet of climbing

I think I woke up this morning in a time warp.  When I went to bed last night, it was raining, but it was still summer.  This morning, it was Fall Foliage season.  We left the hotel in the mist of a morning fog with temperatures in the low 50's.  Windbreakers, leg and arm warmers all around.  The temperatures remained in the mid-60's as a high for the day.  Brrr!

Reader's Challenge #1:  Anyone know what "Southtowns" are?

The ride?  Pure hell.  Unrelenting, undulating hills over 95 miles with a moderate headwind for all but the last three miles.  With nearly 5,000 feet of climb, today was one of the hardest days of this entire cross-country ride.  Just after surmounting one hill, there was another, and another, and another right in front of us.  Demoralizing.  Just demoralizing.  There was one single mile of flat roadway, along the Genesee Valley floor.  I can't remember a day, other than Montrose, Colorado with a 30-mile per hour head wind, that compared with the challenges we faced today.

Reader Challenge #2:  Anyone know what it means to be "A Right to Farm Community"?  Any reason why you wouldn't be able to farm?  (Every town we passed through had one of those signs)

One of the historical highlights of today's ride was going through the town of East Aurora.  Besides being the headquarters for Fisher-Price Toys, East Aurora is where Millard Filmore, a local resident and our 13th President, started his law and political careers.

Vidler's 5 and 10.  An East Aurora institution for over 85 years.  I don't know if you can see it, but the main street in town is paved in all brick. 

We had a bit of a food challenge this afternoon.  The locals from the ride leadership team who used to live in the area, swear by a local burger joint called Tom Wahl's.  More importantly, they think Tom's homemade Root Beer is the best there is.  Well, after having tried Richardson's Root Beer at the White Turkey Drive-In in Ohio, the riders all agreed that Ohio beat New York this time.  But Tom's burgers were, indeed, awesome.

Tom Wahl's, a local burger joint with their own version of homemade Root Beer.  Not as good as what we tasted in Ohio, but not too shabby either.  Their burgers rocked.

Hey, we have a winner to an earlier trivia question!  Cathy Robins, from Seattle, used to live in Ohio and knows what those stars on houses signify.  "They are 'Barn Stars,' a symbol of good luck in Ohio that dates back to the Civil War."

Tomorrow, we continue through the Finger Lakes countryside and along parts of the Erie Canal.

Day 7: Erie, Pennsylvania to Hamburg, New York 81 miles, 2300 feet of climbing

I think I'm turning into a duck.  Well, I will if the rains keep up.

Pennsylvania vineyards in front of Lake Erie.  Now, it started to look like one the Great Lakes!  Some of the vineyards here and on the New York State side are for wine production.  But the majority are concord grapes for Welch's, the jam/jelly/juice company.

The first 20 miles of today's ride was along Lake Erie in the Pennsylvania wine country.  Vineyards on both sides of the road, but especially along the lake shore.  It was overcast and cool and the ride was a joy.

That's not a distorted shot.  It's the heavy rains just starting to come down that made the picture look odd.  No sooner than I took the shot, we were all running for cover into a tractor shed at the golf course to the right of the trailer.

Almost like clockwork, we hit the New York state border and the heavens opened up.  Not a light rain, but a torrential downpour with lightning and thunder all around us.  Six of us ducked into the tractor shed of a nearby golf course (picture to follow from one of the ride leaders who was alert enough to take a shot of us all huddling under cover, surrounding by tractors and all kinds of golf course landscaping equipment).  The management of said golf course was not all that pleased by finally acquiesced and allowed us to stay until the storm blew through, about half an hour later.

There were numerous sluiceways along the lake shore road.  It was amazing how much water flooded the streets.  Many of the streams were overflowing their banks.  The runoff was emptying into the lake, but I'd never seen this volume of water pouring off the land before today.

The rain let up but left massive flooding in its wake.  We were all getting text alerts of flash floods along today's ride path.  The thunderstorm the night before brought four inches of rain in one hour, according to some locals.  This just added to the damage.  Vineyards and front lawns of homes along the roadway were completely flooded and there were many times when we had to navigate through flooded streets, slowing cycling through the runoff.

The lighthouse in Barcelona.  

After the rains, the sky turned bright, the sun made a brief appearance and our one sag stop of the day, in the town of Dunkirk, was a pleasant and dry rest area in the local park along the shoreline.  Then came the bad news.  We weren't going to make it into the hotel before getting hit with a second front.  More rain, but at least no lightning.

The marina in Barcelona.  The picture doesn't quite tell the whole story here.  This was taken about half an hour after the first storm blew through.  On the left side of the parking lot, you should be seeing 14 boat slips.  There are only two visible as the other 12 are under water.  That's how much rain these folks had over the past 24 hours!

Sure enough, 15 miles for the end, the soaking rains came down again.  At least it was warm enough that we didn't need to run for rain gear.  Unfortunately, I wound up with a different dilemma.  Seven miles from the finish, I caught a piece of metal in my back tire and blew it flat.  It would have been worse if I had to change it in the pouring rain.  Luckily, there was a church nearby and I ducked under its portico for cover and so I could work on my tire.  There I found other riders who had also sought shelter from the storm.  Shortly after I got there, the minister of the church invited us in to use the bathrooms, to get cold water and to just get out of the rain.  He was a former policeman in Buffalo before changing bosses.  A very sweet and caring man.

Seven miles later, through the challenges of rain so heavy that seeing the road, the route map and my bike computer to check mileage for turning cues, I made it to the Comfort Inn in Hamburg.  A hot shower and a biking cleaning later, and I was good to go.

Day 6: Rest Day in Erie, Pennsylvania

Erie, Pennsylvania is not the Garden Spot you might think it is.  Yeah, I never thought that either.  But it certainly is up there with other hot spots for "the land that time forgot."  This is a city that has seen far better days.  What can you say about a place when you've asked five different locals, "what should I see while I'm in your town?" and the only answer you get back is, "go see the lake."  That's it!?  The lake?

Oliver Hazard Perry commanded American naval forces that won a decisive battle on Lake Erie against the British in the War of 1812.  He's the big attraction down here.

I wanted to visit the Niagara at the Brig Museum, but "she's out sailing today."  Oh well.

The locals brag that their sunset ranks as one of the top three in the States.  I don't know who is keeping score, but a sunset into the water is pretty cool.  Still, it doesn't beat the sunset off the balcony from Nepenthe Restaurant in
Big Sur, California.  (I took this last night as it's raining like crazy today.)

And, oddly enough, you don't really get the sense of how big Lake Erie is when you walk down to the bottom of State Street to the water's edge.  That's because you are staring across a small body of water that separates the mainland of Pennsylvania from Presque Isle, the peninsula that juts out from the mainland into the lake.  On a grand scale, it's not that big a peninsula, but from the vantage point of Erie, it's big enough to obscure the ocean vista that you would see when walking down North Michigan Avenue to stare out onto Lake Michigan.  Somewhere on the other side of Presque Isle lies the majority of Lake Erie.

At 8:00 this morning, most of us were out cleaning our frames, wheels and chains, getting any remaining tar off the wheels and frames as well as cleaning the grit from our gears and chains.

Chain flossing.  No that's not me.  (You could tell because he's wearing a watch!)

Apart from a bit of sightseeing, today was about bike washing, bike repairs, doing laundry and just resting.  We're covered 466 miles over the past five days.  630 more to go over the next eight days.  And more rain and thunderstorms in the forecast.

Day 5: Youngstown, Ohio to Erie, Pennsylvania 97 miles

Another state down, three more to go.  We bade goodbye to Ohio and its awful roads and said hello, however briefly it will be, to Pennsylvania.

It was so obvious we were entering a new state…the roads were well-paved.

Today was a day of unusual discoveries.  Some were structural, some agricultural, some physical and one was gastronomic.  But all were good.  All in all, it was a good, albeit, long day.

We'll actually be, more or less, hugging the coast of Lake Erie over the next day or so.  Then, it's on to Lake Ontario.

It was so surprising how many beautiful homes we were passing along some of the most unimaginably poorly paved roads.  Why people could afford such luxury in their homes but not on their roads escaped us all.

We're back in Amish country, although there were no buggies out on the roads today.

In Ashtabula County, here in Northeastern Ohio, there are many covered bridges along the back roads.  We were lucky enough to see two of them today.  This one was closest to our road and the easier one for picture-taking.

One of the surprises along today's ride were the numerous vineyards.  No, I didn't take any pictures of them as all but one seemed to be at the tops to long, steep climbs.  Who could take pictures when you're trying to catch your breath?  Oddly, three of the four vineyards I passed were new vines that had yet to set.  Odd because even though it's been a cold, wet spring, we're now well into summer.  The fourth vineyard was fully set and seemed to be a very mature property.

The White Turkey Drive-In featuring Richardson's Homemade Root Beer.  Established in 1952.  So was I, so I bought the t-shirt!  (You'll notice there are only cyclists at the counter.)

The gastronomic find was White Turkey Drive-In.  It's a staple of this ride.  Everyone in our group stopped there for lunch.  The place seems small but it's got a huge backyard with dozens of tables and a large car park.  The lines of people waiting to place their order rival those of the Shake Shack in New York City.  45 minutes on a Sunday afternoon is typical for this place.  The burgers and fries were really good.  But their homemade Root Beer was the best I've ever had.  Honest.  Even better than Abita Springs Root Beer outside of New Orleans.

That's Peggy, the owner, talking with Patty (back to the camera in the pink jersey) about RAGBRAI.  Patty also has friends riding in next week's event, so they were comparing notes.

Better still was the owner, Peggy.  She had just arrived for the lunch shift when we all got there.  She had been out cycling herself.  Peggy is in training for next week's RAGBRAI (Register and Gazette Bike Ride Across Iowa), the annual traveling circus with upwards of 10,000 cyclists.  So hearing of our adventures and our destination and we all got the special treatment.  Peggy made room at the counter for us all, with the not-too-happy locals standing in line looking longingly at our places on the counter stools and the promise of immediate service.  Thank you Peggy and good luck on your ride!!

Dorothy, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.  Or Ohio for that matter.  Throughout our tour of Ohio, there was an Ohio State Buckeye poster, banner or mural on seemingly every street corner and barn.  As soon as we crossed over into Pennsylvania, these locals got their turn to brag and cheer their home state team.

But the best discovery of today was me finding another gear.  I was riding at a moderate pace for the first 30 miles.  Just before the covered bridge, Patty passed me.  She's a 70-year old grandmother of four and rides like the wind.  The only reason I was ahead of her was that Patty stops often to take more pictures than I do.  We got to the sag stop about the same time but I departed earlier than she did.  About two miles past the sag stop, Patty passed me again.  This time, I decided to try and stay with her pace.  She rides at an average of 19 miles an hour.  Just as a reminder, on a good day, I'm doing 16 miles per hour.  I kept up with her for the first five miles, but at a moderate rise in the road, I lost the energy to keep up with her.  So I wished her well and said I'd see her later, either at the next sag stop or at dinner.  Patty took off but, for whatever reason, never was more than 100-150 yards ahead of me.  I don't know where I found the energy, but I managed to keep that distance a constant for the next 20 miles.  And Patty hadn't slowed down to my speed.  I was doing a brisk 19/20 miles per hour pace that entire time, hills and all.  After 25 miles, Patty stopped to take a picture and I kept going, actually getting into the drive-in before her.  I was exhausted but happy I found something new today out there on the road.  Maybe I should have someone as a rabbit in front of me every day that I ride!

Hey, how did they know we were coming?  Nah, this wasn't for us.  There's a major motorcycle rally, The Race to the Lake, that starts this coming Wednesday here in Erie.  Supposed to be over 1,000 cyclists with a big parade/procession down State Street (in the picture) down to the Lake, straight ahead.

Day 4: Wooster to Youngstown, Ohio 86 miles. 4029 feet of climb*

[*Editor's Note:  Yeah, a major correction from yesterday's ride.  Yesterday turned out to be over 3700 feet of climbing]

Ohio farmland in the morning.  It's hard to imagine any state we've ridden through without a strong measure of the farming that takes place.  You could almost forget that there are big cities all around us as well.

We finally got a full day of sunshine.  It was a beautiful day from the standpoint of the weather.  You couldn't say the same thing about the road conditions.  Yesterday, we all voted Morrow County Road #19 as the worst road in America.  Today, two more roads jumped to the head of that line:  North Benton West Road and Leffingwell Road.  Below is an example of how bad the roads were.

This was a minor situation.  In many spots along Leffington and North Benton West, the entire road surface looked like this.  A couple of cyclists broke spokes from the pounding.

It turns out the many of the counties in Northeastern Ohio are among the poorest in the state.  They just don't have the monies to do a proper repaving or even just pour a coat of chip and seal on the country roads.  So patches of asphalt are used, year over year, to repair the worst potholes.  Yet, when one is repaired, more seem to pop up.  Today was all about navigating the entire roadway [often using the opposite lane] and avoiding both the large and small potholes as well as all the loose gravel coughed up from cars and truck driving over recent repairs.

We don't just ride for pie.  We also indulge in great ice cream shops along the way.  This one, in New Baltimore, boasts of the best homemade ice cream in the county.  As far as we were concerned, they didn't lie.  But none of us got the best treat there.  That's reserved for dogs.  It's a cup of vanilla ice cream topped with a Milk-Bone dog biscuit.  We watched as two dogs devoured their treats.  Both took the biscuit off the ice cream, laid it down on the ground and proceeded to eat/lick/inhale the ice cream, then go back for the dog biscuit, as a second dessert.

It wasn't all bad today.  But it was challenging.  At dinner tonight, all the very fast riders were so fatigued from the workout we all got.  They were noticeably worn out with heads down as if defeated by today's ride.  While I felt for them, I felt better that I wasn't the only one who was exhausted by the beating we all got on the roadways.  I guess this is the closest I'll ever get to experience what seasoned cycle pros feel when they ride the classic Paris-Roubaix one-day ride.  The cobblestones in Belgium are so much more jarring to both bike and rider than anything we felt today.  It's no joke that riders lose fillings and see dentists after that ride.  We all ached from the constant pounding as our bikes rattled endlessly underneath us all day long.

The dogs weren't the only ones getting fed today.  I passed by this nest while on a crumbly back road.  The consensus was that mom and dad Osprey were feeding their kids.

Later, I passed by this cattle feeding station along the roadside.  Seems like everyone was having lunch.

Day 3: Marysville to Wooster, Ohio 103 torturous miles. 913' elevation (but, oh, were those were steep feet!)

I've leave most of today's notes to the photos and their captions.

I won't presume to know why so many houses in this area have that star on the front or side .  No one in the group seems to know the answer either.  Any takers out there with a theory?

Two days ago, the forecast was for a sunny day.  Yesterday, it was rain.  Today, it changed again to cloudy.  Actually, we got all three.  Mist and rain in the morning, cool and cloudy much of the late morning and late afternoon, sunny just after lunch.

We passed through small country towns and a couple of larger cities.  Delaware was one of the latter.  Saw this abandoned train station as we were passing through.  A relic of a time when this city was thriving.

The lack of rain allowed me to get off the bike and take more pictures today.  Frankly, the picture taking also gave me the occasional respite from the killer hills.

Warrensburg, on the other hand, was one of the smaller towns.  While the incorporated town limits are much larger (probably owing to farmland), you're looking at the entire town, save for a house or two behind me when I took this shot.

And some were even smaller.  There wasn't a "downtown" Peru, just this Town Hall, circa 1901.

The rollers (rolling short, very steep climbs of no more than a quarter mile) on the road to Wooster are notorious among cyclists.  They rival the ones I rode last year in Missouri in both numbers and degrees of incline.  Today's climbs topped out at 14-15% gradients.  For perspective, the mountains I train on in Vermont may be 2-5 miles in length, but they never get beyond 6-9% grades.  Even the climb over Monarch Pass in Colorado (around 7 miles of climb) never got more than 6% on average.

It's not that they were very long.  It's that they were very steep and plentiful.  The large spike around mile 40 is in the town of Butler.  That's their ski resort.  I kid you not; they advertise canoeing and skiing on the same billboards.  How many other towns in America can make that claim?

Today's other highlight was getting chased by a dog.  I honestly didn't think I had anything left in the tank, but I was able to out-sprint the dog, who came up from behind me after it bolted off the front porch of a house along the roadside.

No dogs in this shot (although there was one just off camera who was barking at me when I got close enough to take this picture.  After a moment of interest, these guys just went back to their grazing.

Tomorrow, more rollers, but it's only 85 miles.  The joke at dinner was that tomorrow would be a half-day of riding.  Tell that to my lower back and knees!

As they advertise on the North Fork Century, on Long Island, "we ride for pie."  This cafe in small Frederictown is famous for its pies.  So yes, I stopped in to try a slice.  Peach crumb.  Yum!

Day 2: Richmond, Indiana to Marysville, Ohio 106 miles

I'm knackered! (had dinner with the Brits on the ride).  For those of you not familiar with that expression, I'm exhausted.  It was a long day.  My legs still aren't back to standard form, but I am feeling stronger for longer periods of time.  Just not for 100 miles at a time.

Not a lot of pictures today as the rains were back.  It didn't start that way.  The first 12 miles were cloudy  and cool, but dry.  I kept my rain jacket in my back pocket.  The next five miles, it started spitting -- not really raining, but just that couple of drops now and then.  But soon, it was coming down again and I pulled on the jacket to try and stay dry.

Everyone was lining up to have their pictures taken at the Ohio border.  Say "cheese!"

The rest of the day was on-again, off-again rains and winds.  Fortunately, for my first century since last September's New York Century ride, we had a strong tail wind much of the way to Marysville.

In and out of more one-block-long towns.  This one, St. Paris, didn't have the requisite traffic light.  But it did have a cute little cafe, Braden's, that made great sandwiches and homemade fudge.  A good energy boost for the rest of today's  ride!

Rule No. 2:  every chance you get, take the make-up remover wipes from your hotel and keep them in your bike jersey pocket.  They are great for removing grease when you have to work on your bike chain (twice today, I dropped my chain while shifting).

Much of the day was riding through various farms.  The corn is still a month away from picking.

The rains just screw up the normal routine.  Instead of arriving and checking in, getting into the room and starting the stretching routine before grabbing a hot shower, you have to clean and inspect your bike.  Hosing or wiping it down, cleaning all the gears and cables.  Getting all the water and grit out from small hiding places.  Meanwhile, you start to stiffen up and you're using your cool-down period for other pursuits.  Today was doubly a challenge.  Besides all the grit from the rain, we hit a 3-mile stretch of newly-poured chip and seal.  As the Ohio Department of Transportation workers were still working on the road, the fresh tar underneath the crushed rock was also being kicked up onto our bikes.  That meant two additional steps:  WD-40 to remove all the tar (which takes some serious persuasion to come off), and an alcohol wipe down afterwards to ensure that you don't have any remaining lubricants on your brakes or wheel rims (otherwise trying to stop would result in sliding right through as the brake pads have nothing firm to grip).

Tomorrow is another 100+ mile day, but the forecast actually promises some sun.  It would be nice to ride dry all day.