| Woke up on our normal early schedule after a
great sleep in the trailer, and headed over to the tent site for breakfast
and lunch prep (team #1's duty this morning). That went pretty fast, and we
were on the road by 7:00 am. The winds were blowing off of Lake Erie (from
the north) at about 15-20 mph, so we settled in for a ride with a cross
wind. I think I've become more acclimated to the wind, because even though
it reduced my riding speed to around 14-15 mph, it didn't impact my mood.
As we got closer to Cleveland the traffic
increased, and it seems like the drivers are becoming more aggressive and
less willing to share the road. Jeff (Ride Director) characterized today as
the transition to phase 3 of the Big Ride (phase 1 is the wide open spaces
of the West, phase 2 is the farmlands of the Midwest, and phase 3 is the
hills and traffic of the East). We did have a bike lane for a good part of
the ride through the communities west of Cleveland, but it wasn't of the
quality I'm used to at home; pretty bumpy, lots of debris and holes, and the
tendency to disappear without notice. One of those bits of debris, namely a
very sharp rock, had an altercation with Bruce's rear tire and cut right
through the sidewall. Luckily we're both carrying spare folding tires as
well as tubes, so after a short delay (and a 2nd tube blowout unrelated to
the rock) we were back on our way.
At around mile 42 in the town of Avon Lake, we
came to a park where Scott Broberg's family had setup a rest stop for the
riders. Scott is from the area, and a good part of his family came out to
feed and greet us, and to provide lots of encouragement. Scott's mother Mary
has been following the web sites that Bruce and I have been keeping up, and
she actually knew most of the riders based on the sites. Thanks Mary and the
rest of the Broberg's!
After the "Broberg stop", we continued on into
Cleveland. I started to feel kind of disoriented, and finally figured out
that it was the city riding; I've become so accustomed to the desolation or
quiet countryside that riding with the traffic, intersections, and the stop and
go of lights and stop signs in the city felt significantly different. That
feeling passed quickly and we rode over the Cuyahoga River (this river was
so polluted in the 60's that it actually caught fire) and right through
downtown, ending up at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where Jeff had
arranged for free admission. Bruce wanted to go in for a couple of hours,
but given the time and my desire to see the whole thing and not have to
select just part of it, I decided to pass on the opportunity and continue riding. The route continued
along the Lake Erie shore (don't forget the brisk cross winds!) along a
really nice bike trail, then turned away from the lake through a beautiful
park, through Little Italy, and up the hill to Cleveland Heights. Here I met
up with Jeanette and had an ice cream cone, and we rode together for a while
through some neighborhoods with old, huge mansions to the last water stop.
After a short break we proceeded on, but when the hills started I forged
ahead. I arrived at the Geauga County Fairgrounds in Burton at around 4:00
pm, a long day to be sure but a good one. Bruce arrived around 5:00 and we
started making our rest day plans.
At about 6:15 pm Bruce and I were joined by a
friend of ours from Trek Tri-Island, Kevin Collins, who is one of our
sponsors for the Big Ride and also lives just outside of Cleveland. Kevin
has been keeping in contact with us throughout the summer and offered to
take us to dinner here in Burton, an offer we graciously accepted. Kevin
rode the TransAmerica ride (the original Lung Association cross-country
ride) in 1987 and 1989, and it turns out that he knows two of this year's
Big Riders, Beth Light and David Fuqua, from the 1987 ride. Dinner at a
local restaurant followed the mini-reunion, then it was time for bed, a bit
later than normal for us. |
