It was another scorcher today. I had hoped to cover another 10 miles, but the heat started to get to me and I just had to stop. Or maybe I should say that the heat started to get to me quite a bit earlier, but I finally got to the point where I couldn't handle it anymore!
The entire ride today paralleled Lake Erie, and was mostly through residential areas. The first 60 miles were either residential or urban (downtown Cleveland), and the last nine were more industrial. There were areas on both sides of Cleveland with huge mansions along the lakefront. Most of the other houses were much more reasonable. I started out this morning by running into a biathlon. Unlike Greg O'Shea's stint as the RAAM leader, I was going in the opposite direction of the race. That gave me a chance to watch the cyclists coming toward me. It must have been a "fun run" type of race, or else I just missed the serious racers. The folks I saw were riding all kinds of bikes - some racing bikes with aero bars, but also some hybrids and cruisers - and all kinds of clothes. I even saw someone wearing one of the original Bell Biker helmets! I remember those helmets as being both heavy and hot. Too bad I couldn't tell the guy that he'd be more comfortable (and probably safer) wearing a more modern helmet.
The start of the Cleveland Lakefront Bike path was a little weird. It looped through a park, and then right back out on the road. But it did turn into a real bikepath at the eastern edge of Cleveland, and stayed that way all the way to downtown. That made the ride into Cleveland a good ride instead of a fight with traffic. I was very glad that I rode through Cleveland on a Sunday because there were sections of the road before the bike path appeared that would have been challenging to ride in traffic, to say nothing of the section through downtown. I'm also glad to be done with city riding for a while. The stop lights got old really fast. It seemed that as soon as I got going I had to stop again!
I stopped at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a rest. I didn't go into the museum, which was absolutely swarming with people, but I thought that the building was beautiful. It's a series of glass pyramids. And there was something funny going on outside - the Beggin' Strips dog obstacle course. The dogs only made a brief appearance outside because it was so hot. They were spending most of their time lounging in an air-conditioned RV. The obstacle course was pretty funny. It included a series of fire hydrants, a couch and a shoe that were both teeter-totters, and a blow-up dog that the real dogs ran through.
Just as I was approaching Vermillion I stopped at a farm market to see if anyone know of a place to stay nearby. The heat was just starting to roll off of me. Once couple told me about a Holiday Inn Express that they thought was still a few miles away, and then offered to throw my bike and trailer in their truck and drive me there. She had been working outside all day, and said I looked like I needed to be out of the heat. I almost took them up on it, but then someone who lived in Vermillion told me there were a couple of mom & pop motels within the next one to two miles. I rode on into Vermillion and found a nice cool room for the night. I'd like it if tomorrow is cooler, but the weather forecast is for another hot one.
Time for me to crash for the night...
