I finished my tour of the northwest corner of Pennsylvania this morning and entered Ohio, so now I've been in 6 states and one province. Maybe I shouldn't count New Hampshire, Ontario, and Pennsylvania because they were so short - but I did bicycle in all three, so I think I'll count them.
Today was one of those "I could have stopped earlier, maybe I should have stopped earlier" days. I had finished 50 miles when I arrived in Geneva-on-the-Lake, but I wasn't tired and I wanted to do another 10 miles. I thought there were places to stay up ahead, but I was wrong. There were 2 pretty awful looking motels, and no campgrounds. I'm sure my sister is proud of me for passing up those places... I spoke to someone who lives in (or near) Madison, and he told me there wasn't really anything decent until Mentor. He also told me it takes him 30 minutes to drive there. At that point I could have gone back to Geneva-on-the-Lake but I decided to press on. It was an unexpected 80-mile day, but it was a good one. It turned out to be another 20 miles from Madison. I was feeling good, the weather was good, the terrain was good, and I really didn't start fading until close to the end. And I did end the day in Mentor, which is not too far east of Cleveland. This will actually work out well, because I will be riding through Cleveland tomorrow. I think riding through the busy Cleveland lakefront area will be more pleasant on a Sunday than during the week.
The ride today followed Lake Erie for a good part of the way, and there were actually sections where the road was next to (but above) the lake. Most of the time there were houses between me and the lake. For the most part they were rather unassuming structures, but there was a section between Conneaut and Ashtabula where there were some pretty imposing houses. It really makes me wonder what the people who live there do to support themselves, since there doesn't seem to be much around there. Maybe they work in Cleveland, but it seems like that would be a pretty nasty commute.
Coming into Ashtabula, the scenery went from pristine lakefront to heavy industry. It was amazing how abrupt the change was. Right after I crossed the Ashtabula River just after entering the town, I saw a sign that said "The Ohio Department of Health advises against eating fish caught in this area". What are they doing to the water? I wonder if they mean fish caught in the river, or if the danger area extends into the lake too.
The next town after Ashtabula was Geneva-on-the-Lake. It would have been fun to stay there if I hadn't still been so full of riding energy. It was a very funky resort town, with the main street lined with mom & pop motels, arcades, ice cream places, bars, restaurants, etc. The streets were also lined with an unbelievable number of motorcycles. It was kind of amazing to compare Geneva-on-the-Lake which had a population of 1600+ and was very alive with the towns of Ashtabula and Conneaut which were much larger and didn't seem nearly as active. That could have been a function of where I was riding though, because I passed through all 3 towns along the lakefront, and the two larger towns probably had a lot more going on further from the water.
I spent some time looking at maps last night, and realized that I might not want to ride straight across Indiana and Illinois. It would make more sense to find a diagonal path to meet up with the Transamerica route. If I follow my planned route I will go west to Iowa, then back off and come east a bit as I head south through Illinois and Missouri. Of course, I left home with only my Adventure Cycling maps. My stack of AAA maps is still at home. I was hoping to find a AAA office sometime next week, figuring that today was out of the question since it is a weekend day. I rode into Conneaut, Ohio, and one of the first things I saw was a big AAA sign. Imagine my surprise to find that they were open today! I now have road maps of Indiana and Illinois, a campground book, and pages torn out of the tour book showing motels. The tour book was too big and heavy for me, so I only took the sections that I thought I'd need. I'm not sure a diagonal route is possible without riding on Interstates, so I may still end up following my original route. At least now I can attempt to figure out if it's possible to take a more direct route. That's a task for another day...
When I was talking to the owner of the bakery I stopped at in Conneaut, I mentioned that I was glad to be in a new state because I felt like I was never going to finish riding across New York. She told me she thought I'd feel that way about Ohio too since it is pretty wide. She was surprised when I told her that I thought I'd be through Ohio in much fewer days than it took me to cross New York.
As I was leaving Erie this morning, I noticed something that I thought was a typo on a sign yesterday but that appears to be deliberate. The people in Erie spell diner as "dinor". Very odd. Everywhere else I've been they're are called diners, not dinors. Is that an acceptable alternative spelling, or is it an Erie thing?
While I'm asking questions, maybe one of you can answer these for me. I've obviously had too much time on the bike to think of odd things, and now I need answers... My questions have to do with farming. The first is - why are barns red? I've seen a few white barns, but most of them have been red. Maybe it's just a custom, but it seems like there must have been something behind the color. And the second question - how do farmers manage to have straight rows of crops with dirt but no weeds between them? It seems like the weeds grow in my garden as soon as I walk inside. (OK, so now you know I'm really crazy...)
Wildlife... I've been seeing quite a few squirrels and groundhogs, and more red-winged blackbirds. Some of the squirrels have been playing suicide games with cars, but luckily I haven't seen any of them get hit.
