Day 130, 9/15/10 - Hamburg to Lockport, NY

Just the Basics: Note on Day 130, 9/16/10: We have updated this post!

44 miles, mostly on very busy roads along the outer edge of the Greater Buffalo area, many with inadequate shoulders. Our "urban biking skills" were definitely tested. Our son Hank, who, weather and kids' schedules permitting, commutes by bike in Boston (where we don't even like to drive) says he would rather bike in Boston than in "The Burbs," and we are coming to have the same feeling!

This will be a brief blog - partly because we mostly just biked today, and partly because we are taking a layover day tomorrow and will have more time for blogging then.

We are only about 765 miles from Bar Harbor!!

No Photos Today: Too busy fighting traffic!

Tomorrow: Holding in place at the Comfort Inn in Lockport - rain and thunderstorms predicted all day. YIKES!

For Those Who Want More:

A Confession: As regular readers know, we are following Adventure Cycling's map series for their Northern Tier cross-country bike route. Our current map is #10 of the 11-map series. Although we looked quickly at the entire series as we began planning this trip, we did not read most of them in detail - certainly not Map 10.

BIG MISTAKE: The route takes us into Canada just outside Buffalo, NY. We didn't bring our passports and by the time we realized this would be a problem we were only a few days from needing them. It would have been quite complicated to get them, so we decided to re-route ourselves for a day to avoid Canada and get to a place where we could re-join the route. It means we miss Niagara Falls and, of course, an excursion into Canada, but we will also save about 25 miles. Doing this is one reason we've had some not-so-great riding conditions, as we are essentially riding through the edge of the Greater Buffalo urban area.

Meals: We breakfasted in the motel today and stopped for coffee and pastry in the charming town of Orchard Park, at the Two Sisters Cafe, where we shared a delectable cinnamon roll and a lovely apple Danish. We got to chatting with one of the owners about our ride - as we left she presented each of us with a giant chocolate chip cookie!

We had brought cold pizza left over from last night's dinner for lunch, but stopped at a farm stand to augment our meal - we got two lovely pears, a can of birch beer (like root beer - Becky learned to love it when she lived in Pennsylvania), some veggie chips (which we are saving for later) and a delicious apple turnover. We sat in the farm stand's greenhouse and had a lovely meal.

We took an afternoon break for an apple cider donut and coffee at a Tim Horton's - local fast food. Right now they are selling giant chocolate chip cookies with Happy Faces to benefit a children's hospital fund. = ) = ) The break was not particularly for the snack as much as it was for a chance to get off the road and soothe our rattled nerves - and have access to a restroom.

Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant near our motel - we had a great time using our Spanish and learned that the restaurant is owned and operated entirely by a family from Guanajuato, Mexico. The salsa for the chips was rather mild and Becky asked if they had anything stronger. They did. BIG mistake! Riley had a coughing fit after one chip and a laughing waiter soon showed up with two glasses of ice water, innocently asking if it was spicy enough . . . .

Day 129, 9/14/10 - Dunkirk to Hamburg, NY

Just the Basics: 41 miles - not the cheery sort we had yesterday! The roads mostly had no shoulders and were somewhat busy but it was a pretty day and we still had a good time. Our route took us through a part of the Cattaragus Indian Reservation and was never far from Lake Erie. Near the end of the day we started seeing the end of Lake Erie, with Buffalo on its shores, in the distance ahead.

No long stories to tell today, but see For Those Who Want More for some short ones!

Today's Photos: None today.

Tomorrow: About 45 miles to Lockport, where we will pick up the Erie Canalway Trail which we will then follow for about 90 miles in the days to come.

For Those Who Want More:

Lyle, in Silver Creek: We stopped at a grocery store in Silver Creek and met Lyle in the parking lot. He had lots of questions about our ride and told us about his first good bike - he bought a British-made black 3-speed Indian for $25 he'd earned helping his grandfather do some sort of farm work that involved horses pulling the equipment - he said it was the Rolls Royce of bikes in those days. We also learned a great saying from him: "A yard is hard but an inch is a cinch!" Lyle says this applies to both life and bike rides.

Muffins & Coffee in Silver Creek: We stopped at a little cafe for muffins and coffee. We had a great chat with the owner about the history of her small business which a daughter and son-in-law started about a year ago. She babysat for the kids until it became clear that it might make more sense for the parents to resume their old jobs in management with a chain restaurant - which allowed them to care for the kids themselves - and for her to buy and run the restaurant - so that's what they did! She told us she's wanted her own business since she was 13!

Lunch in Evangola State Park: We stopped on the shore of Lake Erie for our picnic lunch. A large group of folks was picnicking together - mostly young people but not entirely. One of the picnickers came to ask about our trip. Turned out she is a nursing instructor in a Job Corps program which trains Licensed Practical Nurses. She said the group is nearing graduation and she decided they really needed a break - so she invited the whole class to the park for a picnic day! Pretty neat.

Day 128, 9/13/10 - Near PA Road 89 to Dunkirk, NY

Just the Basics: 39 miles, almost all of them on NY State's wonderful roads. We reached NY this morning - our 13th state of the trip. Our Adventure Cycling map says: "Almost all of the state and U.S. highways and many county roads in New York have wide paved shoulders," something we also heard from a couple of cyclists we met in Erie, PA on Sunday. That was certainly true today - great shoulders, pleasant temperatures, and the wind at our backs. The riding was somewhat hilly but basically delightful. A few highlights:

• Instant oatmeal topped with chopped apples and cups of Starbucks instant for breakfast in our cabin;
  
• While Becky washed dishes and packed up. Riley cleaned and oiled our chains.
  
• Nice chat with Kelly and Demaris, owners of the Lake View on the Lake Motel before we left. In the motel office they have an amazing child-sized airplane which they built from blueprints they got from one of their sons - using sheet metal, curving the wood, great paint job, etc. They made it for their first grandchild when he was a year old and it can actually be pedaled and is really gorgeous.
  
• Wonderful lunch in the tiny town of Barcelona, NY: We shared a roasted veggie pannini and a delicious salmon patty sandwich with seafood cocktail sauce, and nice cups of fruit salad lightly dressed with cream or yogurt and honey. YUM!
  
• Great rest stop at Lake Erie State Park where we ate a snack of concord grapes and snickerdoodles and took a nice nap - no mosquitoes!
  
• Our first free beer - see Dawn Medley Buys Us a Beer, below!

Today's Photos: (1) Speaks for Itself; (2) Lighthouse, Barcelona, NY; (3) Dawn Medley, Riley & Becky; and (4) The Gang at the American Legion Bar in Dunkirk: Velvet (behind the bar), Carol, Bill, Dawn and Riley (See For Those Who Want More for details on #s 3 & 4!)

Tomorrow: We go 37 miles to Hamburg, where we'll stay at the Comfort Inn.

For Those Who Want More:

Dawn Medley Buys Us a Beer: As we cycled into Dunkirk today we were going by the American Legion when a couple drove up on a motorcycle and the guy dropped the woman off out front. She saw us and called out to ask where we were going and started walking towards us. When she heard what we were doing she invited us in for a pop or a water. Once we were inside it developed that our hotel, the Clarion, was less than half a mile away so we agreed to having a beer, instead.

This was a real old-fashioned neighborhood bar - Velvet, the bartender, automatically brought Dawn her usual drink, and Dawn signed for her drink and our beers in an old-fashioned lined ledger! There were 3 women and two guys in the bar and from the conversation it was clear that the ladies were all friends - knew each other's birthdays and ages, even! Dawn is a photographer - with a day job working in the toll booth on New York's toll road - and three daughters in college or recently graduated.

We had a really good time visiting with folks and drinking the first beer anyone has bought us on this trip!

Nature Notes:
Grapes: As we wrote yesterday, this is a grape-growing area. They grow both wine and table grapes and in the farm stands we see white, red flame and Concords, but in the fields, mainly Concords. It is harvest time and the smell of grapes is so heavy on the air that we smell them as we cycle by! The roads are full of truckloads of grapes and there are trucks being loaded with giant boxes of grapes. Today we saw a mechanical harvester picking what must have been grapes for juice, jelly or wine. The machine drove down a row with a sort of comb that raked through the vines - the leaves seemed to stay on the vines but the grapes went up a conveyor belt and then came shooting out of a pipe grape-by-grape and poured down into a truck driving a row over at the same rate as the picker. It smelled heavenly!

Caterpillars: We have been meaning to mention caterpillars - if we already did, sorry! For months we've seen lots of the "woolly bear" type - about an inch long, brown, fat and furry. We also see some similar ones that are sort of a rusty orange. However, we occasionally see some that are about the same length but much thinner (albeit furry) and are a pleasing pastel yellow! The first couple that we saw we took for bits of fluff, not living creatures!

Cooler Temperatures: Yesterday we wore our jackets most of the morning - it was sprinkling from time to time but usually not enough to justify jackets - but it was cool enough that we wanted them on anyway! The next couple of days, at least, the highs will be in the 60s. Yikes!

Monarchs: Monarch butterflies are everywhere right now. Today we passed a large field of goldenrod just covered with them.

Day 127, 9/12/10 - Conneaut, OH to Near PA State Roads 5 & 89

Just the Basics: 43 miles on generally great roads with excellent shoulders, and some bike trail - although we experienced some confusion trying to follow our map through Erie, PA.

Tonight we are in a cute little cabin on Lake Erie at the Lakeview on the Lake Motel, about 5 miles west of the intersection of PA State Roads 5 and 89. We're rather far from any restaurants so had a "motel picnic" for dinner. Appetizers: Fresh local Concord grapes we bought at a stand about a mile before we got here, almonds, and Starbucks instant de-caf, which we enjoyed sitting in Adirondack chairs looking out over Lake Erie. Main Meal: Backpacking Mac & Cheese and a lovely fresh tomato given to us yesterday by Cousin Deb; Dessert: Fresh peaches (also a gift from Cousins Deb and Larry), cookies, and Peach-Spice Herbal Tea. = ) = )

We saw a cardinal today when we stopped for lunch! It was either a female or a juvenile, but definitely a cardinal. Lunch, by the way, was great. It was at a bar & grill but we shared a wonderful vegetable pannini (eggplant, tomato, peppers, onions, cheese, etc.) and a great bowl of homemade potato-bacon soup. YUM!

Today's Photos: (1) Speaks for itself; (2) Our Quaker Heritage!

Tomorrow: About 40 miles to a Clarion Hotel on the outskirts of Dunkirk, PA

For Those Who Want More: That's it for today.

Day 126, 9/11/10 - Ashtabula to Conneaut, OH

Just the Basics: Just 20 miles today - riding conditions similar to the challenging ones we've had for the last several days - windy, hilly roads with no shoulders and lots of traffic. In addition, there's a big gathering of Harley-Davidson riders in Geneva on the Lake, a town in this area, and there have been lots of them on the roads in the last couple of days. Nice folks, careful of cyclists, and, as we've noted in the past, folks with whom we have some things in common - we love the outdoors, love to tour, and love the freedom of our chosen ways of travel. Indeed, a case in point - we stopped by a road to let traffic pass and consult our maps and a motorcycle rider saw us, turned around and came back to see if we were OK - he was on a very elegant Honda. That said, Harleys are SO noisy, especially in large groups if you are riding a bike as they pass!

This was really less than a half a day of riding. We didn't leave Becky's cousins until late in the morning, having had a wonderful visit, and barely got our rental car back to Enterprise in Ashtabula before they closed at noon.

We then took off for Ashtabula's Hubbard House, a museum focused on the Underground Railway - William and Catherine Hubbard, its owners, built it to house their family and business, but also with hiding places for runaway slaves who then went on to freedom in nearby Canada, embarking from the Hubbard family's warehouses on Lake Erie and carried by sympathetic ship captains - a really inspiring place.

According to their website (hubbardhouseugrmuseum.org): "It may never be possible to know how many slaves William's family helped on to Canada, as no written account has been located to date. However, it is known from an eyewitness account, that, at one time, there were thirty-nine slaves in hiding, as the gentleman stated 'thirty-nine slaves made short work of a barrel of pickles.' Other observers made note of the fact that fugitive slaves arrived day and night, looking for William and Catherine's assistance and protection."

We then headed out of town around 2:30 p.m - only to be stopped by a raised drawbridge over the Ashtabula River, which we had to cross. We took a picture and then stopped at a coffee house to wait for the bridge to be lowered and enjoy coffee, and shared treats - a cranberry muffin and a Russian Tea Cake with apricots preserves and almonds. YUM!

Right after we crossed the bridge we passed an amazing coal-loading station involving boats, trains, heaps of coal, and a huge overhead conveyor system - we really wish we had seen it in action. We then biked along under the conditions noted above, arriving in Conneaut around 6, where we are settled into the Days Inn and have just had dinner. Now we need to use the computer to work out lodging and such for the next few days.

Today's Photos: (1) Open Drawbridge over the Ashtabula River; and (2) The Coal Transfer Station at the Ashtabula Harbor - note the heaps of coal, and the bridge-like coal conveyor system.

Tomorrow: We expect to go about 42 miles to the Lake View on the Lake Motel on Lake Erie, about 10 miles past Erie, PA, where we will stay in a little cabin with Adirondack chairs on the porch.

For Those Who Want More: That's it for today.

Day 125, 9/10/11 - Mentor to Ashtabula & Chagrin Falls, OH

Just the Basics: Special Note: This is a quick update written on the evening of Day 125, (9/11/10) for reasons that will become apparent! We are falling behind on blogs so are going to leave it brief again!

41 miles of mostly tough riding. Lots of traffic, roads that tended toward hills, curves, and no shoulders - required lots of focus and urban-type skills.

Arrived in Ashtabula in time to pick up a reserved rental car and leave the bikes, and headed basically south to Chagrin Falls, OH, about an hour and a quarter away by car, where we spent the night with Becky's cousin Deb and her husband Larry at their lovely home in the rural outskirts of Chagrin Falls.

Becky and Deb had never met, so as you can imagine we had lots to talk about! We had a lovely, leisurely dinner and talked until after 11 p.m. In the morning we got up and took up where we left off, over breakfast at their favorite diner in town. It was a wonderful visit and a real privilege to find we very much liked cousins whom we had never met!

Day 124, 9/9/10 - Cleveland to Mentor, OH

Just the Basics: 36 miles, mostly difficult - varying kinds of urban riding, lots of traffic, windy, sometimes chilly, with a few hills. There were also some miles on bike trails but the overriding theme of the day was definitely highly-focused somewhat stressful urban riding. We passed Mile 3500 today and have less that 1000 to go!

We also came our closest yet to getting lost, only about 4 miles from our motel - rain was threatening and we missed a turn and a very busy road with no shoulder stretched before us and it was getting closer to dusk. Then a kind motorist gave us alternate directions and we started off. However, the alternate route looked sort of dicey at first so we we pulled off and consulted our big Ohio atlas. Then Cyclist Bob pulled up to see if we needed help. He agreed with the route recommended by the passing motorist and accompanied us through the first two steps of it - the rest was easy. What luck!

Fun Stuff: We had Polish sausages with sauerkraut from a downtown cart and spent a couple of great hours at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. = ) = )

Tonight it's late and we are beat so we're going to sign off with what is likely our shortest blog ever!

No Photos:

Tomorrow: We go about 40 miles to Ashtabula, where we will rent a car and drive down to Chagrin Falls to visit one of Becky's cousins - whom she has never met! We'll have dinner and spend the night there, go out to breakfast in the morning, and then head back to trade the car for the bikes and head for Pennsylvania - which we will reach sometime in the afternoon!