Day Forty-five

Last night we made it to Barbara's Gelateria in Erie for some excellent gelato. Joining us for their first gelato experience is Larry, Howard the taxi driver (Special Forces Vietnam) and John Hurley.

This morning's beautiful omen and one of the hi-lites of the trip so far. How many people will ever experience a rainbow over Arby's??

Overlooking Welch's vinyards towards Lake Erie.

Carolyn's loving today's ride.

Robb got kinda emotional when he saw the Thruway sign.

Great ride today Cindy...thanks!

Wheel’s on fire

Rollin’ down the road

If you were going to pick a day to do a long ride you would pick today. Morning temps in the mid-sixties gradually rising to low-eighties. High clouds with some filtered sun early eventually going mostly cloudy. No issues with wind.

If you were going to pick a route you’d choose something like what we did today which was mostly on Route 5 along the southern shore of Lake Erie. Interesting road in good condition with a wide shoulder, mostly flat, and the few climbs very gentle. Throw in spectacular vistas of the lake to the north and rolling vineyards of concord grapes to the south. (You might be eating them on your toast next year.)

We used the rest day to clean our bikes and I put my second replacement tire on the back because I was still riding the Michelin “loaner” that Gerard had thrown on way back in Nevada on the side of I-70. I decided that it didn’t owe me anything and with a lot of cuts that I had super-glued it was cheap insurance to put the Bontrager Kevlar tire on the back. Naturally I expected to get a flat today but Robb covered me by getting one early just after we left Erie.

He managed to catch me at the NY state line so we could get our usual warm and fuzzy photo. After that we rode together for about 10 miles to the first SAG along with Judy Clawson and John Hurley making it an all-Massachusetts gang. We got a few new riders for this segment and one guy is from Winchester. I haven’t met him yet but we’ll see if we can get him in the mix.

The MA gang stayed together coming out of the SAG but I told them I was going to ease-off. A few miles later I came across them helping Sooner Rick change a flat. Sooner had been dropped by Phil and his fast group similar to how Contador took the yellow jersey from Schelck at the TdF yesterday. They didn’t need my help so I continued on and they blasted by me with a happy Sooner a few miles later.

At the second SAG Cindy confided that she had a goal to get in early today. She’s riding much stronger now so we rode together. She talks WAY too much and doesn’t understand that I’m basically deaf on a bike with the road and wind noise and just sort of shake my head and agree with her. But the time went quickly and pretty soon Lester was motioning us to turn into a DQ about 1.5 miles before the hotel. I was concerned about Cindy “losing time” but according to Lester’s rules of riding the DQ qualified as an “official finish”. In fact we did get to the hotel in time to help unload the luggage which was a first for Cindy.

More mileage and a lot more climbing tomorrow so we’ll see if everyone stays mellow.

Today’s ratings: (the higher the better or easier)

Scenery: 7

Road conditions: 8

Grunt factor: 9