The morning flew by - with intermittent showers. I stopped for breakfast with Andy..stopped for Chocolate milk and cinnamon butter with Duncan who ate tons of cinnamon butter, Bethany, who claimed to be allergic to Pennsylvania, Eric who was nervous about the ride and hating his mountain bike....
After the chocolate milk stop, I fell behind and spent much of the morning biking to music on my iPod...I grabbed a quick bite at the Tap Room in downtown Erie (best potato salad ever and free wi-fi), took pictures as I meandered along....apparently, Erie has a frog obsession....
I found a bike store to replace my lights that were not working - with more storms rolling through and narrow shoulders on the road, I wanted to be sure that I was visible to cars. As I put the lights on my bike and pulled out of the bike shop parking lot...it poured! I slogged through the rain in full rain gear....with 50+ miles to go on the day, I hoped the storm would pass quickly.
After 15 min I ran into the second rest stop. Mason and Catherine were huddled in the trailer like refugees with Kenny Ron and Eric to wait out the storm.
48 miles to camp and Eric seemed nervous so I told him I would follow him in. Eric is a 19 year old from South Dakota. He has a great attitude and is hilarious...but he had one of the heaviest bikes on the tour and it was killing him.
He was clearly tired that day and and struggling with his bike. He drafted most of the way to our destination. I didn't realize how tired he was and that he hadn't eaten enough....until it was well into out journey.
We rolled into Ashtabula around 8pm (we thought it was 10 miles from camp, but ended up 15). We grabbed a bite to eat. We were both starving after an arduous day of riding.
While eating, we texted our route leaders regarding our whereabouts and we decided to send a desperate tweet to the group...as we knew we would arrive well after sundown : 'Eric and Michelle offering reward for tent setup - fig newtons and cinnamon bread.'
It was good that Eric seemed a little stronger with a full belly. We inched our way toward camp...the sun was setting and before too long it was dark. I was glad that I had stopped at the bike shop to buy lights. Since Eric's were not working, I clipped my red flashing rear light to his jersey so people could see us from behind and we made our way to Geneva...I heard Eric through the darkness...
'Geneva, where are you girl?' I cracked up!
Geneva was a small vacation town with arcades, restaurants, ice cream places and neon signs. Once we went through, we realized that the park was still a few miles away. There were no street lights as we navigated the looonnnggg road through the dense, dark forest to the camp ground. Our small front lights twinkled like tiny stars in the blackness. Exhausted by the long day, we chatted nervously back and forth and kept wondering when we would make it to the campground...as we were pedaling for what seemed like forever. I told Eric we could NOT stop because god knows what animals were lurking in the bushes. Did I mention it was pitch black except for our tiny bike lights???
Finally, when we were well beyond the day's mileage, we called Duncan, one of the route leaders who rode out to where we were. Turns out that the mileage for the day was understated and we were actually almost to camp.
As we arrived at 10:30 that night after our 100 mile ride. People cheered and offered us beers..which I gladly accepted. We hugged and collapsed onto seats at the picnic table.
Miraculously. Our tents had been set up..which allowed us to take showers and head to bed.
We would later find out that Kenny, our resident Irishman was primarily responsible for tent setup...and it was not until the next day that he saw our desperate tweet reward for setup - what a fantastic guy! That is one of the many things that has been really awesome about this trip. People look out for each other in big and little ways...whether is it offering food, or to include someone's clothes with your laundry or offering up cooking utensils.... This is a great group of people. Regardless, let's hope no one has to set up my tent again this summer!! That night, Eric vowed to replace his heavy mountain bike with a road bike.
(Note: Eric did replace his bike two days later, on a rest day in Cleveland and is now living large with a Bianchi road bike)
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