Beating the storm

Today marked another milestone - 3000 miles cycled to date. Here's the proof:
3000 miles feels like a big deal. Much more than 1000 or 2000. I think we all know we can complete the trip, assuming no catastrophes.

Peg asked me an interesting question last night - How much further do you think you could go? Mentally, I'm looking forward to being done, back with family and off the bike for a spell. Physically, I could do this forever. I asked the question of a group of fellow tourers and they all agree - physically, our daily mileage is normal. It's what we do. It's not a strain on the system. I wondered before the trip if the high mileage would wear the body down over time, but that hasn't been the case.

However, I'm not feeling like Forrest Gump after he ran across the county a few times and said "I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going." I aspire to be Forrest Gump, but haven't quite gotten there.

We had a 95 mile ride today with rolling terrain almost all day. It might have been a hard day, but we found two coffee stops to keep us charged up. I faced a moral dilemna about 80 miles into the ride. I was riding with Roy most of the day, and had gotten a little ahead of him at this point. I figured I'd stop and wait for him, and turned around to see where he was. There was Roy, and right behind him was a line of dark black clouds.

I thought a good friend would wait and hope we could outrun the storm together. On the other hand, I've only known Roy six weeks, and while him getting electrocuted in a thunderstorm would be a bit sad, I'd be no worse off than I was six weeks ago. Also, he had a bottle of fine Kosta Browne pinot waiting at the hotel. That would be a good way to toast Roy's demise, and with Roy not there, there would be more for me.

It turned out not to be a difficult decision, and I bolted off at max speed, arriving at the hotel just ahead of the deluge.
Roy was not so fortunate, but did arrive safe but soaked. The wine was still good, although another glass would have been nice.

I Love New York

We crossed the border into New York today. Here I am with Roy and Greg for our 11th state line photo op. I can ride my bike from home to NY in about 2 hours, so I ought to be able to ride home from here in about 2 hours, right? Even if that logic doesn't quite work, it feels like we're almost there. We've ridden from California to New York, which sounds like riding coast to coast to most people.

We left Erie, Pa with a police escort this morning. An anonymous tour member named Roy ate breakfast early down the street from the hotel. He chatted with a motorcycle cop there and we ended up with the escort. This is the same anonymous tour member named Roy who talks strangers into lending him their Cadillacs. I am in awe of his talents.

We lined up two abreast for the four mile ride out of the city. The two motorcycle cops stopped traffic at all the lights and waved us through. That's the way to travel by bike.

Almost the entire 80 miles today was along the shore of Lake Erie.

Not a bad spot for a home, huh? That's a grape vine in the foreground at the right. We passed thousands of acres of grapes. Wine making along the shore is a big industry.

The weather today was perfect - not a cloud to be seen, mid-70's and no wind. A great day to enjoy the views of the lakeshore and grapevines. There was no reason to hurry, so we rode really fast for parts of the ride.

Dinner tonight was at Dennys. Sandy commented that there were a lot of strange looking people in the restaurant. Sandy just rejoined the tour, having left in Albuquerque. Those of us going the full distance thought the people tonight looked perfectly normal. Perspectives change. For more information on this topic please consult peopleofwalmart.com.


I thought this was a clever idea.

However, after pedaling a few blocks and extracting the drink, I noticed that the foam from the latte had sprayed up and onto the seat tube of the bike. I licked it off the frame, but the mix of foam, dirt and road oil probably won't make the menu at Starbucks.

Bared fangs and foaming at the mouth...

I did something for the first time in my life - call 911. It was a bizarre experience.

Roy and I were having a very pleasant ride on a nice backroad when we spotted a man and two dogs on the road ahead. We slowed and could hear the man screaming in our direction. As we got closer, we realized he was screaming expletives that I won't repeat. We had absolutely no clue what he was worked up about. At this point, he was holding a beautiful Saint Bernard by the collar. The dog wasn't excited at all. I think it just wanted to play.

I asked the man what he wanted us to do, and he just kept the expletives coming. If you removed those words, I think he was upset that we were riding on the road and getting his dogs excited. His face was purple and swollen in a rage. The dogs weren't the ones getting excited. We still had no idea what he wanted us to do.

We rolled slowly forward to where the second dog and a woman were standing. I asked why the man was so upset, and she flew into a similar rage using similar language. Her dog was another Saint Bernard, and wasn't the least bit threatening. Her shade was more of a crimson. The couple threatened to send their dogs after us, which may have resulted in a severe licking, so we rolled down the road a bit.

There were about 15 riders a few miles behind us. This seemed like a dangerous situation, so I called 911. The woman basically told me to go away. We called some of the Crossroads staff to alert them of the situation, but the crazy people and dogs were gone by the time the next group arrived. Roy and I speculated that they may have been drunk or on drugs. We thought they might bring out guns when the next cyclists came by. It was completely weird.

Luckily, there was an old fashioned root beer stand, the White Turkey Drive-In, a few miles ahead in Conneaut, Ohio. I highly recommend a lunch of a turkey sandwich (real turkey roasted and shredded), french fries and a root beer float. It was the perfect cure for human insanity.

Here's a shot of Roy's float.

He asked for the smallest, because he's not a manly man. Isn't the face on it adorable? As it melted the candy eyes melted and it was crying. Aaaawwww.

This was our 10th state line crossing, entering Pennsylvania.

This is the new winner for most pathetic state line sign. Also, there were a bunch of other ugly signs near it, making sure the views were spoiled in all directions.

We're in Erie, Pennsylvania for a rest day today. Time to do laundry, buy a few needed items at a bike shop, and sightsee. We just completed seven straight days and 630 miles of riding. That seems like a lot, but I guess we're all getting used to this. We have 8 more days of riding, so we can smell the finish line. I'm anxious to be done, but still enjoying every moment of this journey.

Susan got my goat

The highlight of the day was actually meeting Susan, the winner of the "name that critter" contest. Check out the comments from yesterday's post. Susan not only won, but earned extra credit with her identification and description of the fairly rare Toggenburg goat. It turns out that Susan is the sister-in-law of my fellow tourer Sam, and lives not far from here in Ohio. She and some others were at our SAG stop to see Sam. I was honored to meet such an authority on goats/critters.

We saw some other interesting creatures today, all alive this time. Here's what I'm guessing is an alpaca. And here are the mini-ponies (that's the latin term) that shared the same grazing area.

And last, here's the species homo spandexus gawking at the above creatures.

Our ride today was one of transition. It began with more farmland, but with an increasing population density. It transitioned to more industrial as we went through the Akron/Canton area and to tonight's destination near Youngstown. We knew the world had changed when we passed "U.A.W. Local XXX Ballfields". Most folks in the U.A.W. probably have a lot of time to play ball these days.

Interestingly, the roads deteriorated as we got to the more urban areas. On second thought, that's not very interesting at all, so I'll call it quits for today.

Disturbing images

I found this disturbing. The marker on the side of the road looks like a memorial to someone. Someone needs to explain the possum skins on top. Some sort of weird Ohio custom to honor loved ones? Disturbing...

What made it more disturbing was the setting. Here's what you saw when looked past the marker.

Really beautiful. Lots of birds out on the water and pretty farms beyond. But those possum skins were creepy.

I also found this disturbing.

This mural was on the wall of a Mexican restaurant. A cowboy and a Mexican hombre are stepping on the toes of a little Chinese guy. Their cigars are poised to light his hat on fire. Disturbing...

All of this came during a very nice 98 mile ride. The weather cooperated once again, with storms around us but never on top of us.

We rode through more Amish country today. Here's a home with the buggy out front. There's a cute kid in the front yard running around the wash, but he's tough to see. I played a bit of peekaboo with him.

The couple below make what I'm doing look like nothing. They're from England, and started their journey in South America in January. They biked around there for a few months, then flew to L.A. and headed towards New York.

As you can see, they are carrying their own luggage, and are camping on the trip. No wimpy luggage vans and hotels for them. I'm feeling inadequate, but felt pretty smart after the hot shower and latte today. These folks are heading to Australia next, then to Asia. It's a year-long adventure. Very cool, but they don't have a blog. I guess they stay at campgrounds with no wi-fi.
How primitive.

Susan pointed out that the critters in yesterday's post were goats. I'll give her only partial credit. They may be goats, but they're not the normal sort of goat you see at state fairs. They must be some kind of fancy goat, or Amish goat. Check out the white markings, and lack of any goat beards. I'll send her my next set of neck hair trimmings, but not the full beard shave, so the contest is still open.

A, O, Way to go Ohio

We rode through 105 miles of beautiful farmland today, crossing the Ohio border just 2 miles into the ride. I can't figure out what Chrissie Hynde was singing about when she said "the farms of Ohio had been replaced by shopping malls and muzak filled the air." Not only were we in farmland all day, but I listened hard for muzak and didn't hear any. We asked these folks where we could find muzak, but they also were at a loss.

Actually, it was really cool to see a few Amish families headed for church. The buggies are works of art. I'm told they're not crazy about having their pictures taken, so I didn't go for the closeup.

If you want to learn more about Amish culture, I recommend seeing the movie "Kingpin", with Randy Quaid playing an Amish bowler.
We didn't spot any bowling alleys, but I'm sure there were lots of them.

We did see several barns with quilt patterns on the sides.

The countryside here is very picturesque. Although it is mostly farmland, it has a very different look and feel than the huge farms of Kansas. The population density is much higher, and the terrain is way more interesting.


EXCITING CONTEST!

I spotted the critters below on today's ride, and have absolutely no clue what they are.

If you are the first to identify these cuties, I'll send you the clippings from my beard when I shave it at the end of the trip. I know that's very generous of me, but that's the kind guy I am.

Karma

Today marked the first day of riding in the rain. Considering that we've been riding for five weeks, that's remarkable. Also, it was a nice rain to ride in - not too heavy, no wind, no lightning and warm temps. However, this meant that my camera spent the day in a ziploc bag, so only one photo.

We rode through Amish country today. I was expecting to get some nice pictures of horse-drawn carts, but didn't see a single one. Amish have more sense than cyclists, and stay inside when it rains. However, I did see an Amish dude riding a foot powered scooter. I guess that's an acceptable form of transportation.

To make up for the lack of Amish photos, I'll tell an Amish joke, as related to me by Rick. I bet most of you have never heard an Amish joke. Here goes:

Olga, a proper Amish woman, takes her horse-drawn buggy into town. On the way out she gets stopped by a highway patrolman.

The patrolman says "Your rear reflector is loose. You should have your husband take a look at that when you get home".

"Why thank you, kind sir. I'll let my husband know when I get home" Olga responds.

"You also may want to have your husband take a look at the reins. One is wrapped around the horse's penis."

"Why thank you, kind sir. I'll let my husband know when I get home".

Olga returns home and tells her husband "A nice patrolman stopped me and pointed out that the rear reflector is loose. He suggested you take a look at it. He also thought you should look at the emergency brake".

Have I been on the road too long? Maybe.

Riding in a light rain means that all the dirt on the road flys up and sticks to you and the bike. The rain wasn't hard enough to wash any of that dirt off. Here's a shot of part of my bike where you can see where the crud accumulated.

Of course, I gave the bike a thorough cleaning, probably more thorough than I gave myself. Keeping the bicycle happy is key on this trip.

Here's a Google Earth shot of our progress on this trip so far. Geoff, one of my fellow tourers, put it together. Pretty cool, huh? Looks like we're almost home. Actually, after today we have less than 1000 miles remaining. Piece of cake.

Now to the title of today's post - karma. If you've been reading this blog regularly, you know that Roy and I have stopped at every espresso bar we passed. Today, wanting to keep going in the rain, we passed a Starbucks and didn't go in. Bad karma. Roy had two flats in the next few miles. Now we know better. As the population density increases in the East, this probably means we will suffer caffeine poisoning, but that's the plan.

I stayed with Roy after the first flat, and helped him fix it. After the second, we spotted a support van. I abandoned him and left him with the staff. I guess I'm a one flat only kind of friend.