Day 69, back on the Saddle to North Lima, OH

We decided to leave Adam's house after Cleveland rush hour and took off around 9:3. Iit wasn't too busy riding out of the city. We stopped in Ravenna and grabbed some Obama Schwag for our bikes, and lunch, at Pizza Hut, we were disappointed that they didn't have a buffet. The second half of the day was a little more bumpy ...a lot more bumpy, Matt thinks his filling was knocked loose and may have swallowed it! We were cold all day, no one shed there cold weather clothes! We rolled into North Lima at 76 miles and warmed ourselves in the hotel room.

Leaving Adam's in Cleveland, OH

and Ohio gets the award for worst roads! this one would have been better as a dirt road, its almost to gravel anyway

Day 66, 67, 68 Rest Days Cleveland, OH

Ahhh, 3 days off. We enjoyed these days hanging with Adam, his friends, Steph, Jeff, and the kiddos! Sally made a trip down to Wooster to run some errands and see friends. Kayleen and Matt were lazy and hung around the house, and avoided the rain.  Great time not to be riding! Adam took us to the farmers market Sat, and we actually had a kitchen to make dinner in Sat night, it was a welcome change. Sunday we  had lunch at Great Lakes Brewery and walked around the West Side Market. Then Adam, and Matt worked on the bikes for that last push to the east coast and the next family victim to host us.

Relaxing with Adam

and planning our new route

Biggest Pretzel she could find at the farmers market

the Uber Relaxer

Another Sunny Day in Cleveland at the West Side Market

the market

Great Lakes Brewery for lunch

Done with the market, now time to work on the bikes

Day 65, Cleveland Heights, 92 miles!

Our original plan was stay in Vermillion on the coast, but it made no sense to ride only 45 miles and be 40 miles outside of Adam's place. So we decided to make it another long day. We had a tail wind almost the entire ride, 70 and sunny, and mostly flat. It was a perfect day for a long ride. We spent most of the day riding along the Lake Erie coast on OH-6. Adam (Matt's brother) met us in Cleveland on his bike, and helped us navigate our way through the city to his house. We had a delicious dinner-Indian food, and are looking foward to a couple of days rest before the or finale push to Baltimore.

Start of another long day

Bike trail out of Freemont

Rest stop in Bay Village before Adam's house

Cleveland, OH

Day 64, Fremont OH, 94 miles

It had rained all night, so we were happy to have sprung on a hotel. We set off with no definitive plan on our end point... There was rumor of a nice bike trail, but that didn't pan out. So we headed southeast toward the Freemont area. The Buzz in Whitehouse was our lunch stop, and decided on Fremont as our final destination. The winds were in our favor, it was pancake flat, and we were averaging 15mph, so we could ride a longer day. There was some mid ride route changes when we ran into construction on OH-20 and almost got run over, if we wiggled our elbow it would have hit the semi that shaved our arm hairs off! That was just one of the close calls. Ohio is quickly climbing the ranks of ill considerate drivers, but at least most of the roads so far have had signs. Michigan and North Dakota had issues with putting up street names. We made it to Fremont 94 miles later and found a hotel and got ready to watch the debate.

a wet, but warm start

This is Google's idea of a good bike route ...no wonder we've had so many problems when using Google maps

county court house

Whitehouse, OH

Finally, a quite road! all one lane!

Day 63, Montpelier OH, 72 miles

We woke up and ravaged the continental breakfast at the hotel. Something besides oatmeal is always a welcome change. We decided to forget our biking maps and went with google again today, and surprisingly it didn't steer us wrong. We stopped in Hillsdale MI and gorged ourselves on the Pizza Hut buffet, we each made sure to get our $5 worth. While stuffing our faces at lunch we decided we wanted to stay in a hotel, it looked like it could rain any second. Our original plan was to camp in Pioneer, we looked for a hotel there, but they only had one for horses. So we decided to stop near Montpelier for the night, we didn't get rained on while riding... Wahoo. Hotel turns out to be a good choice, it is now raining.

Another  ride through a small Michigan town

Bike touring down some easy single track!

Since we are off ACA maps, navigation takes  a little more work

But we found lots of gourds

Finally! Out of Michigan!

Day 62, Battle Creek, 72 miles

It was a chilly start to the day, it was in the 30's when we woke up. We definitely move a lot slower when it's below 40. Just needed a few climbs we warmed right up. In Saranac we decided to ditch the map and go our own way. Tired of having to work so hard to find food and a place to stay. Battle Creek was our new choice. The adventure cycling map didn't take us through any towns that had much in food, camping or hotels. We stopped in Hastings for lunch and had one of the best lunches we have had in a while, maybe since Pies for Strength in St. Mary's, MT! The Walldorf Brewpub and Bistro it was delicious, and had more than eggs or cheese pizza for vegetarian options. Portabello sandwiches and bugers...mmmmm!
With pleased bellies we hit the road to Battle Creek, at 72 miles we made it to the Best Western.

It was pretty cold

another lovely chip n' seal road, at least it was short

Hastings, MI

Best lunch in a long time, and good beer too!

Kalamazoo River, Battle Creek, MI

Best Western

Day 61, Smyrna MI, 58 miles

It was a harvest moon last Night, so it was pretty light out when we got up in the morning. The temp was in the 40's which actually felt pretty warm. We started our day out with a nice 300 ft climb... Nothing like some climbing to get your day going the country side was a mix between forest with pretty autumn colors and farms. Today was a little bit flatter than the previous day, but we still did have some good climbs thrown in the mix. Lunch was in Gratten, at an "Irish pub", that had no Irish food and no Guinness on tap, Matt was looking forward to a Guinness. No Irish food and no Irish beer means you are not an Irish Pub! After lunch we had only 9 miles to the camp site, at the Double R Ranch, nice place on the river, with lots of horses, and we had to camp ground to ourselves.

Croton, MI camp

1st hill of the day, right at the start!

Syrma, MI

Campground to ourselves