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05/30/2003 Entry: "Ashtabula, Ohio"

*grumble*

Hello folks, I'm writing, slightly wet, from a library in Astabula, OH while Mark and Mike attempt to find us a way home from Boston. (any offers?) The last few days have been fairly difficult for the three of us, the most notable difficulty being the vastly different day we had yesterday when compared with the rest of the Roadshow riders.

The ride through Cleveland went fairly well (we only got lost once), but I definately would take Wyoming and it's vast expanses of nothing over city riding any day. Water with sulfur in it once every 60 miles? - Sure! 50 mph traffic giving you an inch of space over roads littered with potholes for 70 miles? - NO.

The day was supposed to be a 75 mile ride from Avon Lake to Geneva-on-the-Lake or a campground near it yesterday. Well, that's how far we rode. It turns out everyone else stopped 15-ish miles earlier in Madison. It was a good place to stop, they got showers, laundry, and TV for most of the afternoon. I would have stopped there too. We were behind them having mechanical problems at the time (The hook from my pannier ripped out the back and had to be re-fastened with wire "borrowed" from a chain link fence) so we didn't get the message. We got in to Geneva-on-the-Lake at around 8:30. Two-ish hours of pitchblack night highway riding and searching later we finally got in touch with Jesse and found out where they were. He then came with a pickup and gave us a ride back. It wasn't really anyone's fault; mostly the faulty cell phone is to blame, but it still was no fun. We rode 85 miles, 10 of which were in pitch black, got to the cabin at 10:30, took shifts cooking and showering and got to bed at 12:30am. That's insanely late for us. Compare that to riding 70ish miles and relaxing most of the afternoon, doing laundry, and early bed. This morning we got to re-ride the 15 miles to Geneva-on-the-Lake. It was less than fun.

I'd tell you information about where we stayed at and who we should be thanking, but I all remember was that it was a cabin and there was some dude there with short hair. Maybe you'll get the story from Jesse.

Read more if you want to hear about Mark's dabble into "road water rafting"...

The weather hasn't been very welcoming in up here either. I think Cleveland is evil. It's been pouring on us a fair amount, and we were hit by two huge storms yesterday. (luckilly the rest of the riders only were hit by one of the storms due to them being far infront of us.) It rained on us this morning, in fact, and that's why I'm sitting here shivering in the library.

Oooh ooh, here is a good story. Two days ago, on the ride from Sandusky to Avon Lake, it was nice and stormy. Mark was leading the three of us and was boxed into riding through a "puddle" by the speeding cars. It turns out that this puddle was apparently a 3ft x 15ft extension of Lake Erie as he dropped down about 10 inches into the drink. He was going about 15mph and the force of his wake lifted is right year pannier off his rack and flung to the side. There was one strapped still holding it on that then snapped it back and shot it into his wheel and rear brakes tearing a hole in his rain cover. Despite the damage we consider this to be a victory since Mark's not dead. This, combined with 2 flat tires and Mike's rack breaking randomly acounts for the "mechanical troubles" that Jesse hinted at in his last entry.

Tonight we'll be staying in Erie and hopefully visiting a Shriner's Hospital. It's somewhere around 40 miles from here, and we've already ridden 20. Wish us luck, we really really need it.

ILYQ

Replies: Leave us a note! (1)

If you can all shrink yourselves down enough to fit into my parents' trunk we can get you as far as Michigan. Otherwise I recommend Greyhound.
Sorry to hear about all the problems and the crappy weather.
Good luck!

Posted by Amy @ 08/05/2003 12:41 PM CST

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