Day 40

Niles, OH to Erie, PA -- 92 miles Today we crossed our 10th state line into Pennsylvania and are in Erie enjoying our fifth and final rest day. The weather was pretty miserable for today's ride. The high for today was only supposed to be in the low 60's but I'm not sure it ever warmed up that much. Around mile 18 we started getting rain and with a cold wind from the NW (our ride was straight north most of the day) we were wet and freezing for most of the day. About six or seven riders stopped at the first SAG stop (mile 33) and decided they were just too wet and cold to continue. My socks were soaking wet and I was so cold that I couldn't even feel my fingers. I hooked up with Rich and Laura Kuhlman (Chicago), Darryl English (Park City, UT) and Jim Simone (Chicago) who have been riding together almost the entire tour. Laura is the strongest female rider in the group -- she even has a coach from Colorado and is very serious about her cycling. I was able to stay with them with little difficulty and we rode either in a pace line or an eschelon (new to me) to make the best time in the windy, rainy conditions. When we pulled into the second SAG stop (mile 71) the rain had stopped and we were starting to dry out with the intermittent sunshine. The SAG was at the greatest place called the White Turkey Inn in Conneaut, OH. This place looked like something out of the 50's with miniature juke boxes on the counter. My buddy, Mike Lee (Portsmouth, England) played "Peggy Sue" in my honor while we ate and drank the specialities of the house -- chopped turkey sandwiches and root beer floats. Lee would have LOVED these root beer floats. I took a picture of one so that I could show him! For once I was thankful to have 30 more miles to ride so that I could burn off some of those calories! My eating habits will have to go through a drastic change when I get home. We eat whatever we want whenever we want with no regard to caloric or nutritional value. At first I felt a little guilty about this but I'm getting used to it now! I guess that's our reward for all of the hard work we do every day. Since our last rest day a week ago in Champaign we've ridden across the rest of Illinois, all of Indiana and all of Ohio. After these last seven days we really need this rest day!