Sittin by the dock of the bay....In Erie, Pa.

So for starters it appears that I have corrected my little problem with the screen display and so will try cover some of the ground of the last couple of days.
Tom Ryan decided not to ride on Tuesday and so I bid him a farewell and a very real thank-you for not only the ride but even more joining me for that first day's ride.
Tuesday was supposed to be a bit less hilly but that turned out to be a bit of false advertising. The hills were still there but spread out a little more over the entire day and perhaps not quite so steep. In fact we did about 95 miles and by the end of the day had climbed a couple of hundred feet more than the day before...something in the neighborhood of 4500 feet. Grinding out those steep hills of Monday took a toll on my knee, especially the left one. As we got somewhere around the 60 mile point on Tuesday I was really hurting and felt like I was doing 90% of my pedaling with only my right leg. Fortunately I joined up with a couple of guys who were doing a very sensible pace and I managed to stay with them and finally roll into the hotel in Niles under my own power. Other than that it was a very nice day. A bit overcast but no rain and that holds the heat down and good for folks on a bike. I didn't take any pictures primarily because I was so focused on the knee and simply getting from point a to point b. The country side of Ohio continues to surprise and amaze me. It was almost all rolling farm country - lots of corn and soy beans, some dairy cattle and the occasional horse farm. In any case everything is a kind of natural quilt of various shades of green mixed with the occasional browns of hay or (what I guess) winter wheat that has a golden hue. It is still strawberry season and so the SAGs have featured farm fresh strawberries the support folks have bought at farms along the way.
I went to bed Tuesday night with a bit of trepidation. Firstly because I would have to awaken by myself and with my good ear/bad ear situation I have been known to have the good ear buried in a pillow and sleep up to an hour with the alarm clock singing futilely in the background. I set the clock radio to an awful rock station and turned it up loud and lo and behold it worked. Of course, I did not check with the folks in the adjacent room to see if they too woke up at 5:20...fortunately I will never know. So for seconds I was also fearful of what the knee situation would be. We left the hotel at 7 heading due east and right into the rising sun, made a quick right turn (more sun) and right into a long hill. I had a bit of pain going up but paced myself, found an easy gear and to make a long story shorter, after a few miles on fairly flat ground I found the pain disappeared and I could kick up the speed a bit and pretty soon I found myself pedaling with full strength and no pain.
And as it turned out Wednesday was easily the best of the week. The temps started cold (50 degrees in a short-sleeve jersey) but the sun was out and it warmed up soon enough but then never really went above 70 - couldn't ask for a better day. Again, the really beautiful countryside - lots of farms, a couple of Amish farms with the laundry out on the line and the solemn looking kids waving to us we ride by and I do have a couple of photos at the end. We ended the day at about 95 miles (second day in a row) and climbing at about 4500 feet.
One of the real highlights of the day was our second SAG. We stopped at a root beer stand in the little town of Conneaut just a few miles shy of the Pennsylvania border. But this was not just any root beer stand. They already had lines of customers as we drifted in and we discovered why. They specialize in a humongous root beer float as well as a shredded turkey sandwich served on a bun with their secret (of course) spices sauces. It was to die for and we all enjoyed every bit of the food before heading out for the last 35 miles of the day. The next stop was my first state crossing into Pennsylvania and naturally we took the requisite photos. We headed Northeast along the Lake Erie shoreline but inland by a mile or so and while you could sense the nearness of water you never really saw it. Along the way I came upon a camper with a bike parked next to it and stopped out of curiosity. It turned out to be a guy about my age from North Carolina who was doing his own cross country bike tour. He started in Bar Harbor Maine and was headed for the state of Washington. His wife was driving the van and alternately playing tourist and serving as SAG when he needed to stop for the day. He was also trying to raise money for three different charities and was a most interesting guy to talk to. I found that I was in his blog last night so I'm returning the favor.
We worked our way into downtown Erie and to our hotel which is right on the waterfront. And last night someone in the group had arranged for us to get tickets for the local AA baseball game (the team turns out to be a farm team for the Detroit Tigers- couldn't pass that up) and so dinner was ballpark food and a couple of beers. One of the fun parts of the game was watching three or four of our British riders who had never seen a baseball game before. One of the women on the ride is also an ardent Tigers fan and she did a marvelous running commentary for the Brits explaining what is a catcher, a foul ball, a double play...all the stuff we don't even think about. And, BTW, the good guys won - a pitchers duel decided by a home run.
And finally, today was a blessed sleep in day followed by a very leisurely breakfast and the doing of housekeeping chores. I did my laundry, cleaned and lubed the bike and took a quick walk into downtown. Not much there but did visit a Maritime museum around the corner that was delightful - lots of history (war of 1812 especially) in this area and it was fun.
So we are off tomorrow for another state crossing and will be in Hamburg New York tomorrow night. It promises to be a good day for weather and a bit shorter at 80 something miles.
Photos are below....enjoy.