Author: Jodi Eller

Three States in one Day! Yeah that’s right we finished our tour through Ohio, made a quick straddle through Pennsylvania and have finished our day in New York. We had great biking weather, clear skies and temperatures in the high 80’s. We continued our day on Lake Road that kept us close to Lake Erie with wide shoulders and nicely, newly paved roads that brought us over the Ohio border into Conneaut, Pennsylvania. We then followed highway 5 on and off for the rest of the day and took a nice bike trail through the town of Erie before crossing the state line into New York, our 12^th state. As the rolling hills of Pennsylvania brought us up toward New York, we started to see our first of many vineyards and a ridge line to the south. We settled into camp and took a quick swim in the Lake. The wind was blowing hard from the west and the lake looked just like the Atlantic. Rolling waves held my mind in distant memory of the salty sea, and for a brief moment I was back at home.

Today was our exciting day to bike through Cleveland. We had a late start, but followed the rising heat up towards the rise of the city and overlook. This was by far the biggest city we would have to bike through. We followed streets lined with multi million dollar homes and then, following a detour was brought into more of the heart of Cleveland. There were a lot of people walking around on the streets and hanging out on front porches. The trail took us towards the Browns stadium and passed the Rock n Roll Hall of fame. We had a snack at the marina, ducking out of a passing rain storm. We continued to skirt around Lake Erie and kept an eye on the storm that was building to the west. Mid afternoon we made a quick call as the wave of black lightening overcame us and we hid out in an overhang at a Day Care building. After a 40 minute break watching the lightening and rain ease up, we headed out in the rain to finish the 20 miles toward the state park. We pulled in right at sunset a little after 8:30. We ate a dinner of Fritos, salsa and chef Boyardee, a quick purchase at the last gas station we saw. The German trio was also staying at the state park and so we camped beside them.

Hello Lake Erie!  There has not been a more favorable site then leaving the dry corn fields and watching as the blue green lake appear to our North. I have been looking forward to this massive body of water since we left the Mississippi River in Iowa. We followed the North Coast Inland Trial that took us just south of Sandusky. We debated about whether we should take a day and go to Cedar Point. As good as roller coasters sound, the terrifying excitement of biking through our first major city of Cleveland pulled us east. Like all good Midwestern states, Ohio did not fall short in its detours.  We followed the lake road for as long as we could, until a detour led us on I-90. The construction worker told us it was only a 3-mile detour after we had asked him if we could just walk our bikes across the bridge that was under construction. The worker said he couldn’t let us pass and that we could easily just follow the detour. We circled back and followed the orange detour sign that led us up onto the Highway. I know it is illegal to ride on the highway in Ohio, but from the look of the road, it was going to be less than a mile before we could get off onto the next exit. We decided to follow the signs and not chance getting lost in the corn fields. The highway had a wide shoulder and rumble strip and we biked as hard as we could to what we thought was the next exit. It turned out, that what we were seeing, was just an overpass with no on or off ramp. So we had to keep going. We passed four more overpasses with no way to get off. We now were debating whether we should try and climb the huge sides of the overpasses to get off, but we would first have to climb over the fences that barricaded them. After eight miles, the all too familiar siren sounded and we slowed as the cop approached us. The police officer was very nice and informed us we needed to get off the highway as soon as possible. First, however he would need to run our licensees. At this point, Matt felt the need to warn the officer that their might be bells and whistles that go off when he enters his name, and began to tell the long story of being pulled over in North Dakota.  After a few minutes the officer came back and said we were all in the clear! We high tailed it to the next exit and was able to rejoin the Northern Tier. After a long day, we ended the day in Bay Village.

We woke after 8 and treated ourselves to the hotel’s continental breakfast of cereal, waffles and yogurt. We then headed out and had a short day into the town of Gibsonberg. For the past few days we have been devouring the snacks that were sent to us by the kind co-workers at Fullerwood. They sent a care package filled with energy rich snacks and loads of sunscreen. We are so appreciative of their thoughtfulness and wonderful taste in snack items. Thank you again, Fullerwood crew!  We camped that night at White Star Park and paid to swim in the quarry that the town had turned into the local swimming hole. They had a concession stand, life guards and best of all a diving board high on top of a hill that Matt and I both used repeatedly.

That night at camp, We met Tony, a bicyclist that was touring the country and trying to bike through every state. He had already completed the TransAmerica trail and was headed northwest toward Michigan. He was deaf, and intends to get the world record in a few years for cycling the globe. We shared stories from the trail and hope to see him in Florida in December as he starts the southern Tier.