Sept 13 - Elkhart, IN to Montpelier, OH = 87 mi / 140 km
Sept 14 - Montpelier, OH to Perrysburg, OH = 53 mi / 85 km
Sept 15 - Perryburg, OH to Amherst, OH = 84 mi / 135 km
Sept 16 - Amherst, OH to Austinburg, OH = 87 mi / 140 km
Sept 17 - Austinburg, OH to Erie, PA = 58 mi / 94 km
Sept 18 - Erie, PA to Springville, NY = 89 mi / 144km
Total = 5626 mi / 9074 km
So I got arrested by the NY State Troopers today. The Tank and I are criminals... riding the Interstate after ignoring the "Motor vehicule only" sign. When crossing the PA-NY border, four police cars were parked on the highway. I just rode by, innocently... I did not have time to blink that one car was in front of me and another one right behind! Who am I? OJ Simpson?? So I started laughing.
- What's going on here?
- Well I'm following that detour for 430 that is closed (yeah, I was totally legal actually ;) )
- OH! Ok, no problem then! Sorry for stopping your momentum! Where are you coming from?
(Ah sh*t..) There is no easy answer for this question. I always try to be pretty vague because it can get complicated very easily. When I say Seattle, people usually ask me how many miles I rode. When I tell the truth (almost 6000), smart people notice that it's a lot. So I have to explain that big zig zag up and down and up the USA that I did. Then, reeeeally smart people realize that 6000 miles is not enough... Grrr.. so I have to detail the fact that I rented a car and blah blah blaaaaah. With some people, it feels like a police interrogation. But this time, I was actually being questioned by four cops.. Better tell the truth! So I started telling my adventures. You should have seen that! It was hilarious! They looked like four boyscouts listening to stories around a firecamp. I could imagine the scene from an outsider perspective: 2 police cars, 4 police officers forming a circle around 1 girl and 1 huuuge bicycle. Anyways, they were still very nice and wished me the best of luck.
That was my story of the day. But let's see here.... Last time you heard from me, I was just out of Chicago and had just entered Indiana. Indiana... we don't here a lot about this state. To tell you the truth, I am not even sure I would have been able to tell you where it is on the States map before this trip.... But you know what? I would go back. I did not stay long (2 days) but really enjoyed the very, very beautiful little towns and friendly people. It was flat but entertaining and the weather was perfect (almost no wind with a nice sun).
Then I entered Ohio. Again, I have to be honest with you guys. A few years ago, when my coworkers needed to go to Ohio for work, I was making fun of them. Now I realize that I was so very wrong. Ohio is fantastic. I rode along Lake Erie (or.. Ocean Erie... the Great Lakes are so gigantic that they really do look like an ocean..).
Wow, wow and wow. Then I rode through Cleveland. It was extremely easy to get around and the bike paths were very well marked. No ghetto riding this time! If it was not from the 20 mi/h wind blasting in my face, it would have been a really enjoyable ride. One word kept coming into my mind to describe what I was experimenting in Ohio: peaceful. But not boring-peaceful! It was peaceful-peaceful. Pennsylvania had pretty much the same vibe.. until I arrived in the town of Erie. I cannot say why, but I really did not like Erie, PA. Maybe it was just due to the fact that I had to ride across more and more towns in the last few days (riding across towns is looong.. with the traffic lights, heavier traffic and the bumpy sidewalk riding, it takes forever) and that Erie was a bigger town.. I don't know.. But it was enough to convince me that I wanted to ride in the fields and farms today. So I mapped a complicated itinerary to make my way to Springville, NY. What I omitted to do was to look at the elevation profile (it has been so flat lately that I did not even bother). Mistake. Yes I had a traffic light-free day, but I was not expecting the hundreds little steep sneaky hills that came along. Definitely a good workout, but 90 miles of this was too much, especially with the rain that started to pour at mile 75. So if you excuse me, I will go to my comfy bed and figure out where I am going next tomorrow morning.Good night!
PS - I will be celebrating my 4 month anniversary on the bike (and work retirement ;) ) tomorrow! Woohoo!
Entering Cleveland
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