Duck & Weave

J

Duck and weave.

These words definitely summarized our riding experience today. We spent a lot of time riding in bike lanes today. I want you to know, I appreciate a good bike lane. That being said, I appreciate a GOOD bike lane. Not one covered in gravel, not one covered in trash/broken glass, and not one full of asphalt caverns and potholes. We did a lot of swerving today. Thankfully, we made it safely 81 MILES today! Even through the craziness of downtown Cleveland! Wow!

Hello Cleveland. You seem nice and you have a great personality. Maybe we'll have a second date sometime. Cleveland, OH

I can’t believe the difference from last week to this week. Our bodies definitely went through biking boot camp last week, but they are ready to rock and roll this week! Our feet don’t hurt as much. Our rumps don’t hurt as much. We can bike faster for longer without needing breaks, and we’re not getting as sunburned!

In other words, life is good!

Joelle rocking life in the bumpy, crusty bike lane. Vermillion, OH

You know what else is good? People being nice.

When we left our hotel this morning, the manager, who lived in Maine and gave us the free room upgrade yesterday, gave us some promotional codes to get some deals on future hotel stays! Wow!

Then later this morning we stopped at a Speedway and took them up on their buy 2, get 1 free Powerades. While we were enjoying being indoors in an air-conditioned room, a woman struck up a conversation with us about our bike ride. (It’s not hard to figure out who has the two overly-packed bikes…usually there’s only 2 people in the store walking around with bike helmets on.) Before we left, she gave us $6 to support our Powerade fund!

Joelle embracing the oldest and most noble tradition of biking...walking. You can see from our daily stats this was not the first hill we had to climb today. Cleveland, OH

Then later this evening, we were only a couple of miles away from the hotel so we stopped to get some food. As we were pulling up, a gentleman rolled up in a powered wheelchair and started talking with us. While we conversed we learned a lot about this man…like he smoked a lot of things in his younger years, but never crack.

“Never smoke something that has the same name as a body part,” he sagely said.

Anyways, he offered to buy us some alcohol, but after we declined, he settled on getting us some chocolate milk. And let me tell you, chocolate milk never tasted so good!

So our bodies are doing well, and we are in high spirits this evening. We’re watching the weather carefully this week as there’s supposed to be some scattered rain.

So someone mentioned Cleveland has a professional football team but we couldn't find any evidence of their existence. Cleveland, OH

Here’s to hoping our miles tomorrow bring no rain, tailwinds, and smooth roads. And if not? Let the adventure continue.

Today’s Stats:

Left: Huron, OH, 8am
Sleeping in: a hotel in Painesville, OH, arrived at 7:30 pm
Total mileage: 81 miles.
High Speed: 22.2 mph
Avg. Speed: 10.9 mph
Overall weather conditions: Sunny
Elevation Gain: 717 ft
Total Trip mileage: 525 mi.