Niles, Ohio to Erie, Pennsylvania

Another day's ride and another state now also!

We rode 89 miles today. Leaving Niles, Ohio, we probably went more north than east, and we finally crossed into Pennsylvania at 62 miles into the ride. We are now in the city of Erie. This is our last stop that will be associated with a subsequent full rest day. We relax here tomorrow, and then Friday morning begins the final push to Boston!

I really am tired. I guess that is not difficult to understand. Looking back, this is the fifth consecutive day of rather long mileages. In the five days ending today, we have ridden a total of 464 miles. That's an average of effectively 93 miles daily. I guess that I don't feel too bad that I am tired. I will definitely rest up here in Erie tomorrow. My goal for tomorrow is to do nothing. (Nothing, with the exception of one load of laundry, of course.) Starting then on Thursday morning, we make our final non-stop push to Boston.

Aaaarrrrrr! I can already smell the salt water in the air!

Today's ride was good. There was nicer road quality today than was the case on the pre-Niles pothole-riddled roads yesterday. The winds today were favorable also. There had been some prediction of rain, as a possibility, but mercifully none came. It was a good day.

On getting into Erie, we had the option to take a 2 to 3 mile side trip to Presque Isle. I did that. It really is a pretty area. It is neat to see Lake Erie again, after all of these years. As I think back now, probably the last time that I saw Lake Erie was just about exactly 10 years ago now. That was at the time of our 30th High School reunion, when a few of us went to the beach at John's Dad's house, up at Mentor on the Lake. Maybe we will do that again next month!

Jan, Janie, LaVern and I just had lunch, in the past few minutes. We went to a sleazy place on State Street called "Stevo's Pizza". It was OK. It was fun to be with them after the ride today, even if the food was not the greatest. It is just fun to be here, and to be on this trip. Eating at Stevo's Pizza is all part of the experience.

Incidentally, thanks very much to Andrea for the comments on yesterday's post. I am sorry that both the Dinner Bell restaurant and Frizell's Freeze are gone now. At least I have the awareness that I am not alone in remembering them. Thanks!

I do have some photos from today's ride. Due to my current abyssmally poor Internet connection now however, I cannot upload them. I have repeatedly tried, unsuccessfully so, in the past several minutes. Perhaps I will try later today, if I can get a better signal strength somewhere arround here.