Day 41

Erie, PA -- REST DAY. Today was a big day. We started out doing laundry at the local laundromat and then a few of us rode our bikes to a local bike shop and then down to the Erie harbour area on Lake Erie. There are over 500 shipwrecks at the bottom of Lake Erie, the shallowest of all the Great Lakes. Today the weather is chilly and overcast. The forecast is for cool, rainy days for the remainder of the week. It's very nice to have a relaxing day without being on a schedule. Just seven more full riding days to go! We're in the home stretch now.

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!

Day 39

Wooster,OH to Niles, OH -- 94 miles Today was another long ride. It's almost like any ride under 80miles is like a 25-mile ride along the River Trail used to feel like. My definition of a long ride has changed dramatically since coming on this! It was very cloudy and stormy-looking all day, and to top it all off, it was down-right chilly! The temperature never got above 60 degrees so this was the coolest day we've had since the freezing rain day in Santa Fe last month. This is also our last night in Ohio. We've essentially crossed a very wide state in three days! Tomorrow we'll ride to Erie, PA and thank goodness, we'll have a day off there on Thursday. This will be our tenth state line crossing and our only stopover in Pennsylvania. This is also our last rest day. We'll have a tough week in New York, though. The man who initially told me about crossing the US with CrossRoads told me that crossing New York was the hardest part of the tour. He said that by that time everyone is ready for it to be over and to get home. I can totally understand what he meant now. I told Lee last night that I'm starting to feel like someone who's counting the days until they get out of prison! Of course it's not that bad, but it is a grind doing this many miles this many days and weeks in a row. I'm sure I'll miss a lot of people I've met -- after all, we spend nearly 15 hours a day for 7 weeks together! I won't miss getting up at 5 AM and being on the bike from 7 AM - 3 PM every single day. We'll ride around 87 miles tomorrow. The forecast is for more cold weather and rain tomorrow. Let's hope that changes!

Day 38

Marysville, OH to Wooster, OH -- 98 miles This was a pretty day, too, so we've been blessed with three beautiful days since Indianapolis. We even had a tail wind again today and that is always welcome. Today we biked through Amish country. This area of Ohio (north central) is rural and has some amazing scenery. The homes and barns look like something you'd see in a magazine. We saw several horse-drawn black carriages that are so characteristic of the Amish communities. There was another bike tour on the road today going in the opposite direction. Several of those riders yelled at us that we were going in the wrong direction and that was pretty humorous to us! This group was part of a 3,000- rider tour called GOBA which is an acronym for something along the lines of "bike ride across Ohio." Almost every state has a big state ride like this, RAGBRAI in Iowa being the largest and most famous. We were out on the bikes by 7:05 again this morning, our regular starting time. A few riders who like to ride a little slower and stop more often were requested by Tracy (owner of CrossRoads) to leave a little earlier so as not to be out on the road too late. The last three days have been long ones -- 88, 108, and 98 miles respectively -- and tomorrow will be another one at 91 miles to Niles, OH. Special note to Sharon and Sarah Jane: I'm with Jim and Carol at the Wooster Public Library right now so this a hello to you from all of us. The weather report for tomorrow is for highs in the mid - 60's (wow, that's pretty cold for us!) and for blustery winds with a possibility of thunderstorms. Doesn't sound that great, but we are going to be one day closer to Boston and that's all that matters to me at this point!

Day 37

Richmond, IN to Marysville, OH -- 105 miles HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all you dads out there -- especially to my husband, Lee, and my boys' dad, Tom. My dad died in 1976 when I was 19 years old so it's been a long time since I've celebrated Father's Day with my daddy. I wonder what he would think of what I've been doing for the last 5 weeks! Weather wise, this was a perfect day. The temperature was in the mid 70's starting out at 7 am and ended a little on the warm side in the mid-80's according to my "Yankee" riding buddies (but not by Arkansas standards). We had a strong wind out of the west today which was a blessing for a change. It was a long day but an enjoyable one. The past few days I've been riding with Ken and Bill from Peoria, IL, Bob from St. Joe, MO, Bob from Boston, and today Paula from Sacramento. We stopped and had lunch around mile 66 to break up the day a little bit. We've picked up a few new riders since Champaign. Bob from Boston joined us to completed the second half of his trek across the US which he began in 2001, and Jim and Carol from the Philadelphia area (Westchester) joined us in Indianapolis to complete their 4Th leg of this journey. I'm beginning to think Bob, Jim and Carol were the smart ones to break it up into segments and not try to do it all at once. Two and three weeks at a time would be a lot easier than seven straight weeks. However, since we're nearing the end with just 12 more riding days, I'm going to be glad I have it all behind me in one attempt, I think. Carol said to say hi to her good friends from Westchester, PA (Sharon and the other name escapes me right now) who are reading my blog updates for daily reports. Sorry I can't remember the other lady's name but just ask Ken how bad I am with names! I call him Bill about 5 times a day. Well that's it for now. We have 3 more hard days before we get to our next rest day in Erie, PA. We ride 100 tomorrow and 95 the next, etc., etc. We're a little over 75% finished with the tour -- hard to believe.

Day 36

Indianapolis, IN to Richmond, IN -- 84 miles Today's weather was just perfect. The rain from the day before had blown through and the day was clear and beautiful. We even saw a flag just hanging from a flagpole -- no wind! I almost stopped and took a picture of it because it's something we've never seen before on this trip. I rode with five or six men all day long. We started a pace line about 5 miles outside of Indianapolis and we just stayed together the whole day. It was nice to have a leisurely ride and make good time for a change. We had a lunch stop -- something I'm not used to doing -- in a cute town called Centerville, about 10 miles from our destination of Richmond. We took the last 10 miles pretty easy since we had just eaten. Richmond is a really nice town. The group of us that was riding together today are all Catholic and we have been going to Mass together every Saturday afternoon i n whatever town we're in on that day. Our taxi drive said the people of Richmond either work in "plastics or caskets!" I thought that was pretty funny. Today and the next 4 days will be very long, tough days. We have 104 miles to ride today into Ohio, then 98 tomorrow, 94 the next day, and so on and so forth. We have less than 1,000 miles to go to Boston. I'm ready for this to be over now! We're beginning week 6 today...getting time to go home -- my new home!

Day 35

Crawfordsville to Indianapolis -- 65 miles Today we rode in the rain for most of the ride. We had a fun rest stop at the Gentry's farm. We huddled up on their front porch and had snacks and visited with Donna and Carl who have been welcoming Tracy and her CrossRoads riders for the last ten years. We had a chance to ride on an outdoor velodrome but most of us passed up the opportunity to get out of the rain as soon as possible. We had to ride in pretty heavy city traffic in the rain for the last 4 miles so that was unpleasant and challenging. I wish motorists remembered that cyclists have the same rights as another vehicle and that we obey the same traffic laws as cars. It's frustrating and dangerous some times when they act like we have no right to be on the road (in their nice dry cars!). When we heard thunder and saw the lightening, we rode the last few miles in record time. We were drenched w hen we got to the hotel and very glad to have a dry place to go for the rest of the day.