Day 27 Niles to Dunkirk in 140 miles. Now this was a beautiful 140 in every respect. First, it's a beautiful ride, for the most part, and very interesting. Second, the weather cooperated so we had no rain and a tail wind for all but about 20 miles. And finally, we're in great riding shape and the miles just clicked off and at a good speed too...but first what we saw. Last night in Ohio, there were terrible storms beginning at dinner time. The advice on the TV was to get into the tub and put a mattress over you!!! That's a tornado survival secret, apparently, but I was in the middle of dinner, so didn't give it much thought. The power went out and luckily the restraunt I was at had backup power, so dinner went without a hitch. Ray, on the other hand, settled for four bowls of soup at a different place and was starving this morning. It dumped a lot of rain and there was some substantial flooding, though all the roads we were taking were passable and only one was under a little water. It was still below the bottom bracket on the bikes, so not bad. We saw a continuation of beautiful Ohio...man what a state...as we ran north a few miles from the PA border. PA was just a 50 stretch...and the most noteworthy part was the vineyards that continued into NY. That part was very pretty. New York had some nice vineyards and then we rode up the edge of Lake Erie. Every time you'd hit an open spot where you could see the lake, the temperature would drop about 20 degrees...boy it was a cool breeze off the lake for sure. The lake is very pretty, though not the type of pristine beauty we've become accustomed to seeing.

I saw Ray at breakfast...as he was looking to make up for a lost dinner. Didn't see him on the ride, though. I rode with Jari today as a twosome for much of the ride. Eddie, Chuck, Shane, and Arthur skipped breakfast since it was a long ride, I guess and they didn't want to get in late. We caught up at mile 91...so we were moving right along. It's nice to be feeling good again and processing food and all that, so today was a real riding treat. And to have someone like Jari to ride with since he just matches what you want...as hard or easy as you want that to be...made it all the more enjoyable. Hard to believe that's the final Saturday on this trip...but there's still nearly 20% to go yet, so we need to stay focused on the goal.

Tomorrow we're only riding 83 miles to Batavia...I think there's a bike museum tour planned...I wonder if we'll even wear our biking stuff. Anyway, should be great.

Here are some photos...look at the water (especially Steve Cutter who has a thing about standing water), some beautiful though soggy fields, a vineyard, and the lake.





- posted by Tom @ 1:58 PM

 
Day 26 Wooster to Niles, OH in 95 miles. I guess we're really conditioned when 95 miles seems ultra short, aren't we? The day started with a huge thunderstorm crashing all around at about 4 am. There were sparks from a tree across the parking lot and it rained so hard that some schools were canceled anticipating roads being underwater. By the time we hit the road, though, it was clearing and it turned out to be a beautiful day all around. Ohio continues to amaze with it's beautiful scenery. It's getting to be a little more what we're used to seeing on the East coast...where "country" means occasional working farm and a lot of large residential "farms." As an example, we had our SAG stop at Norm's...and yes the place was trimmed up and there were fresh baked goods all around. There's a photo of his large and expansive front yard/field, complete with a big pond. (thank you Norm, that was great!) We must have been within the Akron/Canton orbit and some of these places are their version of "sprawl." It's all quite pretty and as we approached Niles we didn't really see much of the Youngstown influence. In Niles, there is a huge McKinley memorial. Perhaps he's from here, I can't say, but it was big.

Ray seems to be back in full swing. Actually, I'm pleased to report that he's past that. He's really gotten into a bike preventive maintenance mode, which for those of us that ride with him, is quite a change. He's a great craftsman when he's doing carpentry and home improvement things, but somehow this zeal was always missing with his bike work until now. His bike is really good looking..cleaned up, tires inspected, chain lubed, cassette "flossed" and shining. It's great to see. Both of us felt great today and the ride was particularly short, so...one more down and about 6 to go. Actually, on that point...it's easy to imagine that with 6 to go, that this thing is in-the-bag...but I was reminded today of how we need to focus on safety every second and there's plenty of time to need to fly home yet. Jari and I whizzed right past a stop sign at the bottom of a hill...the road was brick and so rough that we were focusing on keeping our bikes together and missed the "stop ahead" sign, the stop sign, and our two stopped riding partners. Yikes! Anyway...it was a cheap lesson as it happens...very lucky.

Tomorrow, we leave Ohio, clip a small part of Pennsylvania, and end up in Batavia NY. It's a long ride at over 130, so we'll need to be strong for that. It should be great.

Here are a bunch of photos. A photo of the beautiful countryside, two of Ohio roads, a photo of Norm's, and McKinley memorial in Niles.






- posted by Tom @ 1:20 PM

 
Day 25 Marysville to Wooster, OH in 105 miles. Who would believe that Ohio is such a beautiful state? I'm sure we'll see a little bit of everything here from the most pristine and rich farmland to new manufacturing wealth to rust belt, past-it's-prime manufacturing. This state somehow seems like a "can-do" state, attracting Honda for the hard working and skillful Ohioan, more industrial than the farming state of Kansas by a mile, and seeming somehow quite as preserved as Illinois. There's nothing about it that seems left behind, though I'm sure we'll see something different tomorrow around and near Youngstown. Today we had the really quiet and beautiful rural roads...and a terrain that was gently rolling at parts and very rolling in others. It was hard to believe that this was Ohio, though I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting. As we got near Wooster, we saw scrap metal yards grinding up old cars, for example, showing an economic base that was getting increasingly diverse as we move to higher population densities.

The ride was *so much* more enjoyable with a digestive system that was working again. 105 miles simply flew by...and the rollers were really welcome with a chance to push up the hills and know that things were engaged again. Saw Ray at the start and while his stomach is better as well, he is still having trouble with his hamstring. Jean's theory is that he was really down on his electrolytes from his bug and it cramped up and pulled. Probably so and the problem is trying to get the kinks out on the fly. This is a forced march from that standpoint. We'll hope to find a huge arnica "score" here in town.

Tomorrow we're off to Niles, OH and it turns out we pass right by one of the rider's homes so we've moved the SAG stop to his house. I sure hope he's trimmed the grass and cleaned up for us and naturally we'll expect fresh baked goods or failing that...Krispy Kremes. It should be great.

Here are some photos of Ohio and a photo of a country road with Jari, Zach, and Eddie from behind.





- posted by Tom @ 1:23 PM

 
Day 24...Richmond IN to Marysville OH in 106 miles. Ohio and the eastern time zone, if you can believe that! Now Ohio is a very beautiful state and very different than Indiana. It's what I'd call a blended space. Nothing seems entirely one thing or another. The farms will have reasonably big and beautiful fields and 2 or 3 ranch houses with big lawns on it. We'd be going along pretty pure farms space and see 10 ranch houses. I think there are a lot of farms where the 2 or 3 ranches are for the "children," but the other marbled in homes are surely related to commuting types of economic activity and we could not figure what that might be out here in the middle of Ohio for the whole ride...We then ran into a native who simply said "Honda." Ah...it's all clear now. When we first crossed the border, Ohio was pretty unprosperous...little farms, small pens with a lot of standing water, rusted equipment all around, and very overgrown. The underbrush here is really something since there's plenty of rain, the soil's great, and there are lots of woods. That gave way to the Honda influence pretty quickly, though.

Now the ride itself was quite difficult for many of us today. I know that Ray and I were comparing notes to see if there was any single thing we could figure out to eat. I saw him experimenting optimistically with a fig bar, with peanut butter and honey. I steered clear of everything but a few pieces of bread, animal crackers, and eventually honey. The Mountain Dew at about mile 95 did the trick for the final kick. What that means, from a riding point of view, in addition to slowing down, is that you kind of focus on near term goals...sag stop in 10 miles...9.5...9, wait a minute, I thought I had already gone 52 miles. hahaha. A little less easy looking around at the scenery. I'm going to predict that things get better from here, so I'll let you know tomorrow.

Tomorrow's ride is to Wooster...yep, they're "hooked on fonics" when it comes to spelling that one. It's supposed to be a "roller" day, so it should be great.

Here are three photos...One showing a blended farm with a ranch on it, a beautiful big field, and another field of mustard seed.





- posted by Tom @ 2:06 PM

 
Day 23...Lebanon to Richmond, IN in 106 miles. Boy...things were different today since we went by Indianapolis on this ride; probably about 6-8 miles north of their beltway. The first thing we noticed was a bunch of "gentlemen's farms" with beautiful fences and horse pastures and big houses. This was followed by a tremendous amount of suburban sprawl...huge subdivisions of replicated, albeit big and nice, houses. Finally there was evidence of the economics of us "baby boomers" and impending retirement. What better place to build huge gated retirement communities with self contained golf courses...land is available in a way it isn't in many places. The farms being displaced didn't look so good anyway. And not everyone wants to move to Florida with beautiful places in Indiana (of all places!) You do have to wonder what happens after we all kick the bucket...these farms are gone, right? Well, with luck it's only the least productive spaces but that seems a little too good to believe.

We began the day with a tour of the Rourk plant. It's a specialty manufacturing plant that does a lot of esoteric welding/metal working for aerospace...and an owner that has an interest in bicycles too. He simply appended a spectacular bike manufacturing facility to his "job" shop. They piggy back on cad/cam, metal working, metal bending, and welding. You get fitted for these things on a completely flexible bike hooked to a ergonometer to measure power. They keep tweaking it until you hit your desired comfort/power settings and bingo...these dimensions are entered into the cad cam and out comes every dimension they need to build that bike. The bike makers know exactly the angles to cut each end and how to ovalize each piece to get the perfect fit. They have a completely flexible jig that they put the pieces into...and then they send it to this aerospace certified titantium welder who is unbelievably good at making perfect welds. And I mean perfect. I got to talking to a welder about the certification process and it's amazing. They get certified for specific metals AND thicknesses AND orientation of the weld. So .03 +- inch titantium vertical welds. I saw some of the certification tests the welders were trying to complete to round out their skills and it was a sight to see. First, the pride in their work was palpable and beyond that the tests are rigorous. The welds are sent to a lab, xrayed for oxidation, metal structure, burn throughs and other imperfections and if they pass...and keep on actively welding, they're good to go. Well, needless to say the joints are exceptional. There's a lot more that he told me, but enough already.

Ray's hamstring looked like it was hurting, but I think his stomach was fine. My stomach remains largely in shutdown as far as processing anything in a useful way, so I continue to struggle with that. Not particularly pleasant, but I've been pretty fine for speed though drained at the end of the day. I'm hoping that it doesn't take complete rest to go away as that won't happen for awhile. We'll see. I beat the rain in by about 5 minutes but I know Ray is still out. I doubt it's too bad.

Tomorrow we're into Ohio and the eastern time zone, I think! It should be great.

Here's a photo of Indianapolis money; Suburban sprawl, and the main bike maker with a jig.




- posted by Tom @ 3:27 PM

 
Day 22...Champaign, IL to Lebanon, IN in 104 miles. Well, what a difference a day/state makes. If Illinois was a series of prosperous, big, beautiful, well kept farms...Indiana looks nothing like that. It's called the crossroads state, so one thing that's certain is that it has it's share of interstates. We were on the state roads, so we simply crossed them or saw them off to the side, but they were very prevalent. There were many fed-ex trucks, so it's probably a big distribution point for them, and one of the biggest plants we saw was a giant grocery distribution center. There were other factories...flex-n-gate (surely agribusiness related) and grain millers. One huge miller had the biggest silos I've seen on this trip...and I mean huge. The farms definitely didn't have that pride of ownership showing that the Illinois farms had. Many were kind of run down...equipment strewn around, some corrigated structures/sheds...you get the idea. It was kind of rural "blight." The fields weren't ordinarily big and neat and planted and thriving...the pastureland seemed completely empty. There were pockets of pig farming, or at least cattle...and that generally is an uglier business to begin with. The towns were bigger as there are more people around here, but they were "blighty" as well. Now, to be sure, it wasn't all like that, but that's definitely a point of difference with Illinois.

The 104 miles was reasonably straightforward, though wet. The rain started from the get go, let up for about 40 miles, then kicked in for a nice wet final 20. Saw Ray and he was suffering from the all you can eat Chineese buffet last night...looked awful. I was also relapsing after trying to wean from the immodium and trying to do more calorie loading. I think the great starbucks "double shot" sent from the office (a lunch time treat) was the final straw...though worth every ounce of ultimate dehydration. Oh well...

I'm attaching a few photos, though it was pretty wet and I didn't take many. The first is an example of quasi rural blight, the second a large plant next to a pretty nice farm field as these things go in IN, and the third the obligatory border crossing photo.

Tomorrow we're off to Richmond, IN in 104 miles as well...it should be great.




- posted by Tom @ 1:13 PM

 
Day 21 Springfield to Champaign, IL in 104 miles. Another beautiful day in Illinois. The sun was out, the temperature just about perfect, a small headwind but nothing to write home about (Ok, a bad joke). One thing that has surprised us all is how homogeneous Illinois has been. It's a big state and it's quite the same from when we got into it until now. The fields are big, mostly corn, and well kept and largely flat; the farm houses are beautiful, well maintained, have a manicured yard; there are plenty of trees around the edges. The grass at the drainage culverts is mowed and neat, the roads are well kept. So, there's really not much new to report. We did go on some smaller roads, though, which were very beautiful...so it was a better look than any of the other days. Actually, it all looks pretty prosperous...like the farming business is working nicely, so that's good. We will certainly have corn flakes on the shelves this year anyway. Things are getting more densely populated in spots, though...so we're going through more "viable" towns and seeing subdivisions at the towns too. Champaign had a huge subdivision as we came in, and a little further up the road was "Walden Pond, a subdivision." Not at all like the real thing, but it's marketing afterall.

We're all getting a little used to the 100 mile days rather than the longer days earlier in the ride. It's pretty welcome, honestly, as the grind in MO seems to still be with the group a little. It's taking a little longer to recover after a tough day, which isn't surprising either. Saw Ray at lunch and he was really enjoying this ride and observed "This is worth the price of admission...can you believe some of these roads."

I'm posting 4 photos...a beautiful farm scene with peaceful (non-stampeding) cows, a beautiful big field, a remote farm road, and an action photo of Ray.





- posted by Tom @ 1:24 PM