Author: Greg Pezoldt

After the rest day, I was ready to ride! When I woke up though, the weather wasn’t on the same page as me. It was still raining even though the weather said it was only supposed to be cloudy, but NO rain in the forecast. It wasn’t raining very hard and I figured it was going to stop at any time so I took off. It stopped raining within 30 minutes thank goodness.

I am going to transition to a new map today and I hadn’t really looked at it yet to see what lied ahead for me. Well, it was riding through Buffalo, NY. Not a big deal but a surprise to me since I thought I was going to ride to the south of it.

One thing I did know, I was going to ride through Orchard Park, NY. I knew there was something about Orchard Park that sounded familiar to me but I couldn’t figure it out at all. There was Menlo Park, Hyde Park, but what was it about Orchard Park?

As I was riding and looking for a place to have lunch, I figured it out. Well, I should say the answer came to me as I rounded a corner on the road.

The “Buffalo” Bills professional football team has their stadium in Orchard Park! That was it. Problem solved.

Now on the new map it was on to Buffalo and past to find a place to camp. Riding through Buffalo was easy enough. I felt like it took a long time to get out of the east side though. I rode on Hwy 384 for a long time before I felt I was out of the city.

I identified a KOA campground on Grand Island as my camping destination for the evening. To get there, I had to ride over a huge bridge that carried Interstate 190, my first time EVER riding on the interstate system. I did not have to ride on the shoulder though. They had a separated bike and pedestrian path on the bridge so it was stressless.

At the KOA I camped next to a young couple from Massachusetts who just happened to be moving to the Seattle area. That was a bit of a coincidence we all thought.

It was good to get back on the road again.

The rain from last night continues into this morning. I am taking a rest day. It has been about 2 weeks since Mackinac Island so I am ready for a rest day as well.

Here are some ride statistics to date:

Total Miles: 4,908

National Parks: 6

National Monuments: 4

State Parks: ? (sorry, I lost track on this)

Crossed Continental Divide: 7 Times

Highest Elevation: 12,187 Ft ASL

Notes: It is not lost on me that you can ride across the country in 3,000 miles or so. When I first started the ride I never calculated the exact distance I would ride, but figured it would be around 4,000 miles because I intended to take a longer route. I now estimate the entire ride will now be around 5,750 miles which does not include any riding I do after reaching Acadia National Park.

So the big storm never came last night. The weather report now called for rain around 11:00 this morning. So obviously the weather was anything but great. Overcast skies that threatened rain at any time.

I planned to ride from town to town today and re-access at each town whether to continue or hole up for the rest of the day.

Although the wind was still blowing, it did not seem as strong as yesterday which was good. I was able to tap out the miles all the while watching the weather.

Although I was only in Pennsylvania for a short time, I must have been in their wine country since the adjacent land today was predominately planted in grapes.

Maybe this was an extension of the famed New York wine region. I am not sure about this at all.

And then just like that, I was in New York. The grape vineyards continued, but I also had another welcoming gift in New York.

Brand new pavement. So new it did not even gave the stripes painted yet. New pavement is a pure joy to ride on. The best.

I rode along side a runner out for a training run this morning. Of course he asked about my ride, but he also told me about a person he met the week before who was ROLLER BLADING across the country. From San Francisco to New York. That is pretty dang impressive.

I went off route 2 miles to a town named Westfield to find a restaurant for lunch. It was an old style diner that was fun to eat at.

After lunch, the weather continued to hold up so I kept pressing onward. First to Dunkirk, and then onto Irving. Irving was going to be the end of the day no matter what but the weather was starting to deteriorate as well. Rain was imminent so I got a room in the first motel I could find.

And the rain eventually came. It is supposed to last well into tomorrow and maybe even till Tuesday. We’ll see if I ride tomorrow.

I actually have a new plan for today. What a surprise.

This morning is overcast and the wind is blowing. Pretty hard today and if course it is mostly a head wind. The plan is to put my head down, lean into the wind and put in as many miles as possible today.

I am still riding along Lake Erie and it is rough seas out there due to the wind. Would not want to be sailing today. Before the day is over, I might regret riding a bike today too.

Around 11:30 I started thinking about lunch. There was a town just ahead named Geneva-On-The-Lake. With a name like Geneva I thought it might have some up-scale nice bistro or cafes. Boy was I wrong. It was a tourist town with row upon row of cheap food joints and hundreds and hundreds of motorcycles. I couldn’t ride out of that town fast enough. The bad news was that it was another 10 mikes to Ashtabula, the next town, about 45 minutes and I was starving.

Just outside if tie , i stopped at a roadside fruit stand and bought a couple of ripe peaches. Next I found a nice place after only 7 miles! And they were known for their pie. And of course everybody knows by now that I like pie! I had the peach pie of course.

Fueled up, I continued bucking the headwind for the town of Erie. To get there, I needed to cross the state line.

My stay in Pennsylvania would not be long. I am riding through this little sliver that rubs along the lake, only about 45 miles.

I got to Erie, PA around 7:00. I stayed at a campground near the port. It was pretty nice. The spotlessly clean showers were the best part. Some of the people staying at the campground were interested in my trip. They ended up bringing me a cocktail that I enjoyed with my dinner. That was greatly appreciated!

It was a long day. I put in 80 miles into the wind. Then on top of all that, a storm was supposed to hit in the middle of the night. I figured I could ride out any storm easy enough and if the rain and wind continued during the next day, I could just pack up and head for a motel in town to dry out.

So I hit the sack waiting for the storm to hit and seeing what tomorrow would bring.

Today I had a plan! Have I ever mentioned that a key to an enjoyable bicycle tour is to not get upset if you don’t meet the goal of your plans. I think we all know where this is leading.

The weather is still unsettled at best. The sky is overcast but it hasn’t rained yet. At least it is cooler and the humidity seems like it has dropped also. I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to get through Cleveland today with time to get far enough away that I could get to a camping spot. That spot was in a town called Perry which as far as I can tell is the first camping opportunity on route.

So heading out, it was good riding. It sprinkled just a bit but not enough to even put on my rain jacket. And I got to Cleveland in a reasonable time also.

Maneuvering through Cleveland was pretty easy because there was a great bike path to follow. It went right along the water except getting over the Cuyahoga River (the river that caught on fire in the 70’s). Getting over the river actually brought me right into downtown so I had lunch right in the shadow of Indian Stadium at an Irish Pub, Flannery’s where I had the Shepard’s Pie.

After lunch and heading out of the city, I went by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The HOF had a great vibe associated with it. Classic rock music blaring outside and lots of very excited people milling around. A carnival atmosphere.

So far, my plan for the day is going well. I had plenty of time to ride the remaining 40 some miles to Perry. Along the way, I passed through the town of Euclid. It is an ordinary town in every way except that by my calculation, it would be exactly 1000 miles to Acadia National Park from there. 3 months ago leaving La Push on day 1, that would sound like an impossible distance to contemplate. Now it seems like the home stretch. Less than 3 weeks of riding to go.

My plan began to unravel in Euclid as well. It started when I noticed that my rear wheel was out of “true” again. I stopped to look for another broken spoke but did not find any more. Then upon a closer inspection, I noticed that my wheel had numerous cracks in it. My wheel was getting ready to catastrophically fail. Not good.

You can see the crack in the rim actually pulling the spoke nipple from the rim. There were at least 7 cracks that I discovered.

I found a bike shop in Mentor-by-the-Lake that was open. They did not have a wheel or the necessary components to fix my wheel but they made a lot of calls around and found a shop that did. Bill Gibson at Blue Sky Bicycles has an entire wheel that would be an exact match for my 1981 geometry. An incredible stroke of good fortune. I had to ride 7 miles to get there and I was out the door within an hour of getting there. An amazing “pit stop”!

The only real problem was that I was not going to make it to Perry and I would have to motel it again tonight.

So my plan failed today. I rode enough miles to have gotten to Perry, but not all in the right direction so I ended up 15 miles short. That is life on the road. But I will live to make another plan for tomorrow!

Great news this morning. It did not rain last night and the “nuke” next door did not suffer a catastrophic core meltdown. All is good.

Well, mostly good. I have always claimed that Murphy was a cyclist. The weather this morning is again threatening rain and the wind is blowing fairly hard. It is NOT blowing toward the east. NOT a tailwind! This might be a long miserable day.

At least everything is dry. Wind always dries everything out. At least I got everything packed up quickly. So I set off with anxiety with what the day would have in store.

My route will be pretty straight forward today. I will follow Ohio Hwy 2 in the morning, detour onto the peninsula north of Sandusky Bay, then come back down to the mainland and continue on US Hwy 6 eastward through Sandusky and toward Cleveland.

Right out of the gate, there is a huge rain cell right in my path in the distance. You never know about these things so I just kept going and hoped that it will move out if my path. And luckily, this cell did move. So at least I didn’t get wet first thing this morning, but the wind is not diminishing at all.

The peninsula was pretty nice. Not really busy on a Thursday after Labor Day on an overcast, windy day. But the towns are nice and “touristy”. There are a few light houses on the peninsula as well so I had to go see a couple of them.

Then it was back to the mainland. I took the Hwy 269 across the bay. The bay was a little wider then I thought it was going to be and the Thomas A. Edison Bridge was a long ride.

Getting into Sandusky, I found a place for lunch. Sandusky was also nice. They have a nice marina and downtown.

After lunch, the weather seemed to get better. The wind was still blowing as a headwind but not as strongly and I could almost see the sun.

I had a strategy for the afternoon. I wanted to get close enough to Cleveland so that I can get through tomorrow in a reasonable timeframe and still have enough day left to get far enough away on the east side that I can find a reasonable place to camp or get a cheaper motel. I thought that if I could get to Lorain, that wound be close enough. That would leave about 30 miles to go and could get another 30 miles afterwards.

Once there, there wasn’t a place to camp anywhere near Lorain and the motel that was identified on my map was torn down a few years ago. This was not looking very good. I ended up traveling off route to Amherst which was only 3 miles to the south.

So now I get to watch Thursday Night Football in the Motel 6 tonight. Serendipity!

My stay at the motel last night allowed me to get an early start. It seems like it has been a long time since I was able to get on the road at a decent time. And the nice sunny weather seems to be holding, for now.

Today, I again will try to make it to Ohio. I think I stand a pretty good chance today. It is only about 15-20 miles from here.

The morning’s ride went through Monroe which is the home of General George Custer. I know this because there was a big sign at the city limit letting everyone know it. And there was a statue too.

After Monroe, it was only 5 miles to the Ohio border and it went by quickly.

And the border is also the city limit for Toledo. Now in Ohio, I had a new agenda. An Ohio map. It took a few stops to find one but eventually it was mission accomplished. Then after a lunch, I set about negotiating my way through Toledo and heading east along Lake Erie.

I looked forward to getting to Toledo for several reasons. It marked a new state, not that I was disappointed with Michigan, but rather that I was in Michigan for what seemed like a LONG time! Also, traveling south, I have been bucking a steady south westerly breeze. It was never terrible, but it knocks you back a couple of mph and takes its toll on you eventually. Turning the corner so to speak in Toledo I finally got to get a partial tailwind which has been a long time coming. And finally, reaching Toledo marks the end of the predominate southern direction I have been traveling in and now I will be going mainly east and north into New England eventually.

After Toledo, I am following the coastline of Lake Erie. I have yet to actually see it. My route seems to be a mile or inland of the lake. But I know it is out there somewhere. When I do see it, it will be the third of the Great Lakes that I have seen on the trip. Michigan, Huron, and now Erie. They are all impressive.

Today I also did something else I haven’t done in a while. I stopped riding at 5:00. I got to a private campground at Turtle Creek. Turtle Creek has a pretty dominate skyline to announce your arrival.

The cooling tower of a nuclear power generating station! This is the first one that I have seen on this trip. Well, the first OPERATING one. There was a decommissioned one on the Mississippi River in Wisconsin a while ago.

After getting settled in at my campsite, I took a walk and guess what I found?

Lake Erie! Only a few hundred yards away.

OK, mystery solved. Now I have to get back and cook dinner and do all that camp stuff. And see what tomorrow will bring.

This morning the tent was wet from storms last night. AGAIN.

So after getting things dried out AGAIN, I headed into Novi. I tried to contact Jerry again, but it looks like he is still out of town. Well, I need to go into Novi anyway. I had another broken spoke to get replaced. I really hope that 3,500 miles of potholes and rough roads are not beginning to fatigue my wheel spokes. If they all begin to fail, it will be a long end to the trip. Today, it seemed like the roads were especially rough.

This pavement might as well be Belgium cobblestones (or Pavé as they say in France).

Adam at the Performance Bicycle Shop fixed my wheel right away while I had lunch. Then he helped me find a route out of the area for me.

He told me about the I-275 Metro Bike Trail. The path might not have been in the most bucolic setting, but it was the perfect route out of the area.

Since the weather cleared this morning, the sky has been clear with no sign of thunderstorm activity for the whole day. And it is HOT. Hot and Humid. I sweated a lot and had to stop on a regular basis to re-hydrate. Between the heat, humidity, stops and negotiating the urban environment, I did not get as far down the road as I had hoped. I had high hopes of reaching Ohio today, but that ended up being a bit ambitious.

I made it to within about 25 miles of Toledo, Ohio. I found a good place for dinner in Carlton, but struck out on a place to camp. I am in a cheap motel tonight.

Assuming that there are no major calamities, I should be out of Michigan tomorrow and into Ohio.

As I said yesterday, my camping neighbors said it was going to rain in the morning. Specifically, they said 6:00. It started raining at 5:40! I was not going to get an early start… or even an average start for that matter.

The rain stopped and the sun was out by 10:00. I got the tent dried out and camp packed by 11:00 and headed toward the Lancing suburbs. I had lunch there since it was lunchtime by the time I got there.

From Lancing, I was now heading toward Detroit. WHAT?

Of course there was a reason for this. Normally I would steer clear of a major metropolitan area. Well except for Denver and Colorado Springs, but my reason for going near Detroit was similar. I have old friends, Jerry and Elizabeth Brusher who live in Novi, a Detroit suburb. I had not been able to contact Jerry, but I was hoping that he would back at work on Tuesday and I would have a chance to meet up with him and Elizabeth for lunch so I turned toward Detroit on a chance.

There is an Interstate that runs from Lancing right into Novi. Of course I am not going to ride on the Interstate, nor is it legal. But there is a parallel road, the Grand River Road that also goes right to Novi that I rode.

There was one little problem. I should clarify that. There was one small problem and one really large problem. Afternoon thunder storms. One small one that I mostly rode through and one really big one that drove me to cover for close to an hour. This was causing me to ride well into the evening. I was hoping to camp at Island Lake State Park since it showed that there was camping on my map. Once there, I found out there was camping…. if you had a canoe! The only campsites were only accessible by canoe. My bike was not going to get me there.

My next option was a motel, but there did not seem to be one around the area. So it was another 10 miles to Proud Lake State Park! It was going to be around 7:30 by the time I would get there. I would have to get the tent set up, cook dinner, stow my stuff all in about an hour before dark. It worked out pretty well except I also took a shower so I ended up eating my dinner in the tent by headlamp since it was thundering again and threatening rain.

These afternoon and evening thunderstorms are getting old. I could use a nice high pressure system over Michigan and Ohio. I would like some nice clear weather for about 3 weeks. That’s not asking too much is it?

It rained off and on all night in Mt Pleasant but the weather cleared around 10:00. I thought I might have to intrude on Jenny and Sammy for another day at their house but with the clear weather I headed out for the day.

My stay with Jenny and Sammy was terrific. They were fantastic hosts and the next cyclists they host are in for a nice stay with them. It was also great to have seen Lynne as well. If they ever get to Wenatchee they have a place to stay!

Once on the road I found a nice bike path leading out of town to the south. It went for a few miles and then turned east which was fine so I kept following it to Shepard. I was going to be picking my way southward toward the city of Lancing, the capitol. Well, not Lancing but skirting around the suburbs.

Riding through this part of Michigan started looking and feeling a lot like Iowa. The terrain was flattening out just as the latter part of yesterday was. There was a lot of corn and soy beans just like Iowa too. And it was getting hotter and more humid. The sound of crickets and frogs as the background noise in northern Michigan was again replaced with the sound of cicadas.

There were more trees to remind me that I really wasn’t in Iowa. And there was the occasional dairy farm along the way too.

Dairy farms are more a part of what you would expect from Wisconsin, not Iowa. I guess Michigan is a hybrid state when it comes to its agriculture.

As I mentioned earlier I did not want to go into Lancing. I picked the Sleepy Hollow State Park as my goal for the day. It might be a little dicey though. It is Labor Day Weekend and campgrounds tend to fill up, especially ones near urban areas. The Sleepy Hollow SP is only about 12-15 miles from Lancing.

Pulling into the park, I was relieved to find that they had a “rustic” camp site that was available. It is “rustic” because it does not have a place to park the a car and you have to haul your gear into the site. Of course, this is right up my alley.

I set up my tent, but asked my camping neighbors if they had seen an updated weather report. They said it was 100 percent that we would get rain in the morning. I put the rainfly on!