Good evening everyone!,

What a difference a day makes. I was feeling not so well yesterday and the heat and road conditions got the better of me.  I got  good nights sleep and the saddle sores and other pains subsided. At breakfast a lot of the other riders asked me how I felt and if I needed anything. Like I said before, this is a caring group and the folks pull together. My plan was to try to stick with the faster riders until the first SAG and then see what happens. My overall goal was to get out of the heat ASAP and have a day and a half to recuperate. Mike F and Ron allowed (actually they told me not to “pull” or take a turn up front) me to ride in the wake of their draft. Drafting allows you to ride and expend 10% -20% less energy than you would otherwise to attain the same speed. After we took off, I felt a lot better than I expected and the morning did not seem as oppressive as the prior day.

At the first SAG, Ron said that I was doing well. Ron had given me some special salt tablets as well that help replenish natural salts lost through perspiration. Mike F was going to take a “bump” (he and bike driven ahead so he could meet a friend). So I just pushed on. The course from that point on was mainly flat and the roads were in very good condition. I must say that for the most part the drivers in this part of Ohio seemed a lot more courteous. A lot of the riders at SAG 2 stopped to get a Root Beer float. I love floats an ice cream but it is not something that my stomach will tolerate with 30 miles left to ride. I did cross over into Pennsylvania and did the ritual sand sprinkling from the vial of Pacific beach sand.

I only got lost 3 times coming into Erie and one native gave me directions that took me in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. I doubt that I will ever ask for directions again….I made it in having only ridden 5 extra miles – another 5 and I could have had another century! The hotel is probably the nicest we have stayed at and is right on Lake Erie and the marina. Larry and I went over to The Wharf for lunch and I went back later with Chet and Larry just to drink a couple of beers (hey tomorrow is an off day!).

Some of the crew went to a minor league baseball game tonight and the group included our 3 English gentlemen. Before Nick went to the game he kept saying that he was going to get “a beer and a donut”. Since he is English that left most of us scratching our heads. He did come back before the game was over and told us about seeing musical chairs for the 4 and under kids and a limbo contest before the game at the park. From his perspective that was the highlight of the baseball game. John, another one of the Brits feel asleep at the game (as reported by Nick). Nick said that baseball was a storing as Cricket and most of the time was spent “waiting for something to happen”.

I also need to report on living with a rockstar roommate, Larry. I mentioned before that Larry was interviewed by Al Roker on the Today show and he seism to have reporters pop up all over the country to interview him. He also has friends, blog fans and others show up and ask to ride with him. In all fairness, Larry has done a lot for Dyslexia and some folks turn up to talk about their experiences. Today Larry had a gentleman from Pittsburgh show up to ride with hi. Later 4 High School buddies showed up to wish him well (they drove from Pittsburgh). He then went to pick up a cake that the Penn. State Troopers sent to him and ran into a TV news reporter (who naturally wanted to interview him). Larry jokingly asked me if I want to watch and he was surprised when I jumped at the chance. When we got there, the reporter asked Larry ” Where is your bike?” Well it was in our room on the 4th floor – guess who was enlisted to retrieve it? When I came down with his bike, the interview was going on and I thought about Video bombing it, but Ed beat me to it and went over and leaned into the camera shot. Larry kept going but looked perturbed. Then, the reporter saw Larry’s flag that bore the name “Spunky” – a nickname that Larry received from Julie when he said he didn’t feel very Spunky today. So the reporter asked me to come over to hold the flag out so he could get a good shot (I was edited out of the photo. The nice thing that I can say is that larry shared his cake with all the other riders but asked me to clean up….

Tomorrow is our last rest day!

Also least I forget, I had another mysterious care package at the front desk when I arrived! That certainly made my day after a good ride.

Tailwinds

Chuck

1 more state down –

View from my room

Larry heading to the Wharf for dinner

Lots of ducks and duck babies

seems like only yesterday that we were looking at a blank map