Archives

You are viewing the week of 08/03/03 - 08/09/03

Archive Index | Main Page

Saturday, August 9, 03

Helllllooooooo loyal readers and occasional traitors, how are you? Whats that? I can't hear you, you're talking at a computer. Leave a comment instead, silly. (sorry, that was funny in my head, but I'm leaving it in anyway)

Anyway, I'm doing the update concerning today, and Jesse just finished doing an update concerning yesterday. Yay! Teamwork!

Anyway, today was fun. We rode from Rochester (see update below) to Baldwinsville. Again, I rode with Mike and Mark today, so I don't know much of how the other guy's days went. I know they ate really good ice cream, but I think that's all they said was worth mentioning. The ice cream, btw, is local ice cream done by Byrn/Byern/Beyrn dairy (one of those) that is really good. I got to have it yesterday at a different location. It really is phenominal.

So, anyway, Mark, Mike and I had a slightly more remarkable day. Don't worry, it was a good day though. Our luck changed once we got out of evil haunted Ohio, so you'll hear no complaining from me in this entry. Well, aside from the sidewall of my rear tire exploding this morning, that is. But we've come to expect exploding tires, so no worries.

After fixing my tire and hiding from the rain we rode through Newark, where we saw a guy doing Flowersticks (like devil sticks, but slightly different) in front of store. We thought he looked pretty cool so we went and hung out with him for awhile. Noah (formerly known as "a guy") was pretty good and did some tricks I hadn't seen so we traded some moves back and forth. He also did poi and gave us a quick demo of that. We hung out for awhile and then met Ronald, owner of the store he was performing in front of. Ronald was really nice and gave us some free coffee and candy bars. He seemed to be a big player in the community, and he did a write up of us for the paper and took our picture. (the picture may be posted in the picture section if I have received it). Yea, pretty cool. We ended up hanging out there for about 3 or 4 hours, and didn't get out of there until 4pm. We then rode the final 40 miles in about three hours, including stops, and made to the house we are staying at in time for pizza.

Oh yes, we're staying with the Jacksons tonight. They bought us pizza and are letting us stay in their back yard. Jesse and co. found them at the local catholic church after striking out multiple times and in multiple towns trying to find a place to stay. Apparently the cops don't like you staying in parks around here. *grumble grumble stupid east coast* Anyway, the Jacksons are really fun, and do backpacking, biking, and running. Their son also juggles so we did a quick show for them. Soon, I will be going to bed and hiding from the rain. All in all, it's quite wonderful here. They're even letting us use their internet.

Only 6-ish days left... I can't believe we're going to make it. Thanks for reading. Tata!

ILYQ

Posted by Seager @ 08:28 PM CST Link |

Here is a brief update yesterday's ride since Paul's last entry. We stayed at the library in Holley for awhile to plan out our itinerary for the rest of the ride to Boston. When leaving the library, we ran into a couple that we saw earlier in a sailboat on the canal. It turns out that they are on a several year trip and plan to eventually go to Costa Rica. We were advised to take a "short cut" to avoid some of the construction and make it back to the canal a bit faster. This path turned out to be quite scenic and we even saw a waterfall. But as "shortcuts" often do, this turned out to be quite a trek and we did some mountain biking in order to make it back to the canal. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful until the end of the day. The canal trail was very rough in the Rochester area. Right before we arrived at our overnight stop, we were followed by a couple of girls in a car that were belting out: "I love to ride my bicycle" to the tune of the Queen song. Crazy stuff.

Last night we stayed at the apartment of some jugglers in Rochester. We would like to thank Jeff Lutkus for contacting us and offering us his apartment to stay in. Jeff was out of town, but his roommate Warren greated us and showed us around. After dinner we watched some of the highlights from the vast library of juggling videos at the apartment. Warren is a fantastic juggler and we were awed at his skills. Aparrently Warren is one of many very talented jugglers in Rochester and hopefully some of us can make it back to Rochester for there juggling festival sometime. Thanks for the place to stay!

Posted by Jesse @ 07:57 PM CST Link |

Friday, August 8, 03

Just a quick update from the road...

Jesse and I are at the library in Holley, NY. We rode along the Erie Canal for most of the morning, but we had to take a detour on the highway for a closed portion of the trail. I think we will get back on the trail now though, as it is very nice and almost perfectly flat.

We stayed at a church in Sanborn, NY, last night. It was nice to have a place inside and not set up camp stoves and tents. I slept very well, but as usual, not long enough.

On Wednesday night I was passing through Silver Creek, NY, when I stopped to ask someone on the side of the road if I was still on the right street. He said that I was and that he and his family were just about to eat if I would like to join them. Of course, I accepted and had what may be the best food that anyone has had on this trip: salad, chicken parmesan with spaghetti, and fresh chocolate-chip cookies with ice cream for dessert. Thanks again to Dan Drozdiel and family for a wonderful meal.

Posted by Paul @ 12:44 PM CST Link |

Thursday, August 7, 03

Greetings everyone from the great state of New York. With only eight days left, we're nearly to Boston! On Tuesday night we stayed at the Erie Shriners Hospital in Pennsylvania. I'd like to personally thank them for they're generocity with providing us food, shelter, and showers. While we were there, we performed for some of the children, which was very fun. In turn, the kids made us brownies which ended the day very nice.
We trekked onward towards Angola on Wednesday. Being the first one into town, it was respectively my duty to find strangers with shelter. Last Sunday was the first time I had this job, and I discovered through terrible irony that nearly all churches are closed on Sunday. Something should be done about this.
Well, yesterday I felt lucky.
Knock knock...
No answer.
Right, I'll try around back. No prevail.
New church.
There was a large sign saying, "Vacation Bible School". This is a very good thing to see. Not only is there probably someone there to talk to, there's probably kids to perform for.
Knock knock.
Knock knock?
Come on!
Knock knock!
For the love of Pete...

The facts where faced and Jesse was called. We would have to set up tents.
On my way out of town, I passed by a lady who told me she had driven past me earlier on the road. After we had gotten aquainted (Her name was Clair), she agreed to help us out. She led me over toPaster Lue's house down the block who made a few calls. We ended up staying at Camp Pioneer curtisy of a fellow named Mike. They had campers which we entertained that evening, and all was good.
This morning was a little rough getting up.. But rest assured, up was gotten. We voyaged on to Canada, and some pretty exiting things had happened.
Boy oh boy would I like to tell you about them!
But alas, the library is closing.
Dos Vedonya, readers of the page.

-Chris Kohlhaas

Posted by Chris @ 06:57 PM CST Link [more] |

Tuesday, August 5, 03

If you've read the past few journal entries, you can see that everyone has had a bit different story for the past few days. There is one tidbit that was omitted from the last time we wrote. We would like to thank Fred at the Loyal Order of Moose Lodge in Fremont, Ohio for letting us stay in the picnic shelter behind their stately building. It saved us from a heavy downpour. That was a few days ago and with everything going on we forgot to mention it in a previous journal entry.

We also have another round of thanks to make. Yesterday we got to stay in a cabin right on Lake Erie at Bob Stanton City Park in Madison, Ohio. We called the city parks department to see if we could stay in their city park and they hooked us up with a fabulous place to stay. Matt and Paul from the parks department are fellow cyclists and were happy to help us out. Bill Stanton City Park used to be a church camp before the city bought it. They just finished up the renovations to the park and it is a great place to stay. We highly recommend it. The only downside was patchy cell phone service which led to a long day for three of our crew. If you would like to find out more information on reserving a cabin at the park, check out the at Madison Township Parks Department websiteThanks again to Paul and Matt for helping us out, we really appreciate it!

Today was quite a wet ride to Erie, Pennsylvania. The last few miles were a bit more exciting than I would have liked. I had a close encounter with a minivan driver that neglected to look where he is going before turning. We didn't make contact, but it's a good reminder that we have to be ready for bad drivers as we go through more heavily populated areas in the remainder of the trip. Then I hit a pothole and my wheel started to wobble. It took some work, but my wheel is now true again. Practice makes perfect. Today we rode to Erie, Pennsylvania, where the Erie Shriners Hospital is located. Paul, Norm, and I arrived earlier this afternoon and did a show for some of the patients and staff around 4pm. Hopefully the rest of the guys should be arriving soon so we can give them a full show tonight. Once again we are treated to an awesome place to stay. We're inside and we have free food...all that a biker could want!

I've got to get going so I can get some maps for the upcoming days to Niagara Falls. That's all until next time.

Posted by Jesse @ 05:37 PM CST Link |

So I haven't seen all that much of the group this past week. I'd like to update everyone on my illness. On July 29, in Lafayette my kind girlfriend Amy was going to come and visit. My achilles tendon had been bothering me so I decided it would be better if she picked me up in Lafayette rather than meet us in Hartford City the end town, so that I could rest it more.

The next morning I woke up around 6am with a bad fever all over my entire body. I didn't feel bad yet, other than the fever. After going back to sleep when I got up again later that morning I was achey all over my entire body and it took a lot of effort just to move around. After Amy did most of the packing we moved on.

Posted by Josh @ 03:46 PM CST Link [more] |

*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"...

Posted by Seager @ 12:36 PM CST Link [more] |

Monday, August 4, 03

Since Paul is covering the ride to Sandusky, I will go over the past couple of days. The day after Cedar Point, we got a bit of a late start. We made it a short day so that we could sleep in a bit after a big day at Cedar Point. As soon as we got on the bikes it started to rain. Early in the ride, a few of us stopped to talk to Jaime, a bicycle tourist going the other way. He is a Canadian and was on the the last leg of a week long bike ride around Lake Erie. It was the first time we have seen a fellow bicycle tourist in quite awhile so it was nice to chat and exchange information. Not long after that, we ran into a couple of bicycle tourists going that were also going East. One of them was on the last day of a trip from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Cleveland, Ohio. His son-in-law, who runs several bike shops in Cleveland, was along to ride with him for a few days. When Paul, Norm, and I stopped for lunch at a grocery store, it started to rain incredibly hard. It was good timing for a stop. Then we met David and his son Peter who are avid cyclists that live in the area. They offered us a place to stay for the night, but it was a bit too far off of our route to be feasible. Then we rode on to Lorain, where we did some juggling for the Shinsky family reunion at a beautiful lakeside park. They were very nice and offered us some food and donations. We stayed the night in a picnic shelter at a lakeside park in Avon Lake.

Later on in the day, we found out that a tornado had touched down 10 miles South of us when we rode through Lorain. Seager, Mark, and Mike had some more mechanical problems so there day did not go very smoothly. Chris, as always, rode nearly straight through the day and got to the end town first. He has earned the title "Enduro" for his surprisingly strong endurance. Josh is recovering from his cold at the right time because his girlfriend Amy had to head home and he is back on the bike today.

Today we will be staying at a state park at Geneva-on-the-Lake. Right now I am writing at a library in Mentor, Ohio which is on the East side of Cleveland. The Adventure Cycling maps we used to get us through Cleveland were very helpful and riding through downtown went much smoother than we expected. We rode through a lot of nice old neighborhoods and also passed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Browns Stadium. For 15 miles or so we rode on a bike path that bordered Lake Erie. By tonight we will have made it out of the Cleveland suburbs. That about sums it up for now. Tomorrow we will be riding through two more states, wow!

Posted by Jesse @ 11:23 AM CST Link |

We changed plans again since my last update and rode the 30 miles to Sandusky on Saturday morning. The campground we stayed at there had a shuttle service to the park. That worked out well for us, as it didn't look like Cedar Point gets a lot of bike traffic. It was a very nice day and we really enjoyed ourselves. I think it was good to get off the bikes for a while too. Thanks again, Don.

There was quite a storm brewing in the morning, and it started raining mid-afternoon. Jesse, Norm, Chris, and I were on the last run of the "Power Tower" before they shut it down for the storm, and we had an amazing view of the storm over the lake. We took shelter in the locker rental area for about 45 minutes and watched people frantically running to their cars. Seager, Mark, and Mike apparently stood in a shop for a while. After the rain passed we went back into the park and rode a few more rides. It was a pretty late night, but we were happy to see that the tents had held up through the storm. We had another short day yesterday, which Jesse will tell you about in the next update.

Posted by Paul @ 11:16 AM CST Link |

Archives

Index


Monthly

May 2003
SMTWTFS
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031   


Weekly

08/31 - 09/06
08/24 - 08/30
08/17 - 08/23
08/10 - 08/16
08/03 - 08/09
07/27 - 08/02
07/20 - 07/26
07/13 - 07/19
07/06 - 07/12
06/29 - 07/05
06/22 - 06/28
06/15 - 06/21
06/08 - 06/14
06/01 - 06/07