New York - The Empire State

Our riding day began with a police motorcycle escort out of Erie. It was nice to be able to go through red lights without stopping.

It was a beautiful day for biking with blue skies and minimal winds. We had a very nice, wide berm with little traffic most of the way. The scenery was mostly vineyards and nice views of Lake Erie.

We entered New York State about 20 miles into our 81 mile ride. We stopped at an old lighthouse on our way to Hamburg, New York.

We arrived at the hotel around 1:00 p.m. Average speed was 16.6. Tomorrow is a big climbing day to Canandaigua, New York. We'll be riding in NY for 4 more days.

Today was another of those days that one dreams about when anticipating a ride across the country. Ninety one miles with slightly favorable crosswinds or a tailwind all of the way! The roads were relatively flat and in good condition. We averaged 16.7 mph.

After yesterday's harder ride, today's ride was welcomed. The temps were in the 70's and the skies were sunny after being overcast for much of the morning.

At one point we were about 1000 feet behind a big tractor and planter going down a lightly traveled country road. I saw a flash of light but didn't realize until we got up to some lines on the road that the planter had caught some electric lines. We stopped as we crossed a cable and backed up real fast before we got to the live wires. We walked our bike behind some trailers to stay away from the downed lines.

One of the highlights was a stop at the White Turkey Drive-In on route 20 just east of the Pennsylvania line. We had root beer floats which were a real treat!!

As you can see Janie was especially glad to get back into Pennsylvania. We are looking forward to a rest day here in Erie before the last seven days of biking to Boston.

Today was more difficult. After 109 and 99 miles the previous two days, today's ride of 95 miles seemed to take more effort than either of the longer rides. A headwind much of the day as well as some climbing during the first third of the ride made it seem as though we were working extra hard. Our riding time was just over 7 hours.

Again today, it was raining when we woke up but stopped before we got on the bike. The roads were wet and it was overcast, almost chilly for much of the morning. The road conditions varied from some fairly nice berms to some very, very rough sections.

We had one flat from a piece of glass. That makes a total of six flats on the road and five overnight in the hotel room. We will put on a new front tire on our day off in Erie.

We are in Niles, Ohio this evening. The picture at the beginning is typical as we finish many of our days with the exception that Janie is very much involved in cleaning the bike as well. We are doing a much better job of keeping the bike cleaned and oiled.

We are tired and hope that we will be able to recover for another long day of riding tomorrow. We are very much anticipating a day off in Erie on Thursday.

Climbing to Wooster

Okay, we've heard some comments that our trip seems easy from what we say in our blog. Now, we certainly don't want to leave that impression, at least not me, Janie.

We did a total of 99.3 miles today. That's almost 2 centuries back to back. And yes, we worked! It takes strong legs, a lot of goo and energy bars to make it up all those miles!! The first 75 miles or so we didn't have a lot of climbing. Then we reached Wayne County and we had some serious hills with the steepest grades reportedly registering at 15%. We actually "topped off" a couple of the hills by walking. (Our term for that is "butt-breaks on the move".) We decided to save our legs occasionally rather than pedal every steep grade that comes along.

The scenery was small towns, farms and crops. It rained during the night and early morning in Marysville so we started our day with wet roads again. The staff do a nice job of encouraging the riders along the way.

We did not have rain during our ride, but the bike was really grimy again so we needed to wash it before bringing it in our room. We are at a Best Western in Wooster this evening. Our room is on the 2nd floor and the elevator was not working. So, Zach, one of our staff, volunteered to help carry the tandem up to our room. I was happy about that!

We have two more days before our rest day in Erie, PA. Tomorrow's terrain will be more rolling with slightly fewer miles. We had a half gallon of chocolate milk for our recovery food. After dinner with the biking group, we met Merlin and Loretta Erb who took us for some great ice cream. We enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with them (Merlin was LaVern's college roommate). Now we need to rest up for another big biking day tomorrow!

Ohio - The Buckeye State

Today was a great ride even though we rode 108 miles. Technically, it's the last century on our schedule to Boston. But tomorrow's ride is 98 miles so there really isn't much difference.

The sky was overcast and the roads were still damp from an overnight rain. No showers today. The clouds kept the temperatures down a bit. The terrain was quite flat except for a few nice rollers around West Liberty.

We reached the Ohio line several miles from Richmond, Indiana. We saw very nice soybean and corn fields as we rode country roads to Central Ohio. We saw an octagonal barn and a round barn. It's obvious that there has been plenty of rain. There are areas of fields that are under water.

Art and Mary Newcomer met us at the second sag which was about 15 miles from their home. We worked with them in Colorado 40 years ago and it has been great to keep in touch over the years. They brought some homemade cookies and some very special buckeye candy to share with the riders. (The buckeye tree is Ohio's state tree. Buckeyes are the nuts on the trees and buckeye candy is made to look like the nuts.)

We very much enjoyed today's ride. The scenery was great, and it was especially interesting because we were riding close to Plain City where LaVern grew up. We are staying in Marysville, Ohio. LaVern's mother and sister Luann visited us this evening. LaVern's family spent the weekend together at the cabin in Belleville. Of course, we needed to miss the reunion but it was great to them this evening.

A Rainy Morning for the Ride to Richmond

When we left Indy this morning, it was raining. We had showers (no thunder) for the first hour or so, but then it stopped and the roads were wet for most of our ride to Richmond, IN. For those bikers out there, you know how the dirt from the road ends up on one's back. This is one time, the captain stays a bit cleaner than the stoker!

We were quite focused on biking with the wet weather. It took us 12 - 15 miles to get out of Indianapolis. Traffic wasn't too bad on a Saturday morning.

We saw our first Amish buggy near Hagerstown, IN. Of course, that is a common site for us being from Lancaster County. It really felt like we were getting close to home.

We rode about 85 miles and had an elevation gain of 2,974 feet. Tomorrow we ride into Ohio. We will be riding close to where LaVern grew up and hope to see some of his family.

Again, we are really glad to be clean and dry! Our bike (and ourselves) were quite grimy when we reached our motel! We took care of cleaning our bike before getting to our room.

Many Turns to Indianapolis

Today was another beautiful day for biking. It was sunny to partly cloudy. The temperatures were comfortable in the morning but by noon the heat and humidity were quite noticeable.

Today's 70 mile route was a bit shorter than some days so we took our time meandering through the countryside. Our SAG stop was at a farm so it was fun to talk with the farmer. He sold his dairy cows two years ago and now raises heifers and corn and soybeans. We were kept on our toes by the 58 turns that were involved in our ride today.

We stopped at a Velodrome, which is a race track for bicycles. Sides of the track are banked so that you can use the grade to pick up speed. We tried it a bit and enjoyed the feel of the banked sides.

A band of thunderstorms are nearing Indianapolis now. Sure glad we finished our ride several hours ago.