Day 5 - Geneva on the Lake to West Erie, PA

Logistics:

Today will be our 3^rd day of riding. After a very late night getting set up in the Walmart parking lot (thanks to Allstays app), we were not ready to face the heat and miles. We loaded up the Jeep with the bikes, helmets, Doggy Ride and the rest of the stuff we needed and made our first stop at Wegmanns. This store would be one reason to relocate to this area. It has everything and lots of folks to help you find with you need. Theresa could hav spent more time there but her mission was to get 2 coffees and something eatable to fuel us for the days 45 mile ride. The coffee was good and the breakfast sandwich was great. Even Kevin ate the whole thing which is unusual for him to eat any b-fast. We drove about 50 miles to the Indian Creek RV NASCAR resort to check in and see where we could park the car while we do our ride and return with the RV. We were directed to the Laundry building parking which conveniently had the restrooms as well. After everyone made a bathroom stop we were all ready to roll. We left the Wegmanns lot at 7:15 and were finally rolling on our bikes by 8:45... we really need to work on getting up earlier to beat the heat of the day!

Route:

Theresa pulled Zin for the first 19 miles along Lake Erie. Once the sweat started to drip at a steady stream she was able to keep a slow but steady pace of 13 mph. The route was mostly flat with 1 or 2 hills thrown it just to see if she could figure out the right gears to use. All varieties of road kill spotted the road which first took us thru the quaint town of Ashtabula, which was decorated with large hanging basket of flowers for the 4 blocks that defined it's “downtown”. Next there was a long stretch of flat unpopulated road where we took a break to get Zin a drink and roll onward. Theresa was ready to unload the trailer so we stopped at a gas station convenience store at the outskirts of Conneaut but “no bathrooms for you” (nor anyone) was the reply to Kevin's request. We swapped out Zin and move on. Shouldn't it be a requirement to allow customers to use a restroom? We went a bit further and spotted a small cafe with seating outside so we stopped and had a ice tea and used the facilities. When Kevin went inside he immediately spotted the large homemade cinnamon rolls and had to order one to share with Theresa. This hit the spot and would surely fuel them for the remainder of the ride. With Kevin towing the trailer now the speeds increased from a whapping 13mph to 15 mph. With just 7 miles to go Theresa's foot had gone numb and Kevin was about to bonk from the heat. We pulled into a Farmers Market and sat in the shade for a bit just thinking about how our fellow TNR buddies in Cary, NC are facing 100 degrees and we are suffering at 90. Hot is hot at that point! As we rode a few more miles we saw a big down then up hill with barricades and a Detour sign. Glad that we did not have to face yet another hill we turned right but then checked with Theresa's iPhone which way to head. We only had 3 miles to go and of course 1 hill right at the end! Kevin used his granny gear on his triple as Zin was still in tow, while Theresa was comfortably spinning the Green Machine in the middle front ring and the low gear in back. Even without the trailer the GM adds lots of weight to haul up any hill (that is her excuse anyway). We were glad to return to Walmart and see the Smitanic waiting for us.

Stats:

45 miles, 13.5 mph avg, total trip miles 132, days riding 3

After the ride:

We drove the RV back to the RV park which BTW adds NASCAR to it's name because it has a feed of the races that it shows in a large screen at the front of the park. After setting up and downloading pics we decided to try the 'restaurant' out. To our surprise it was a wine bar which we did enjoy along with some dinner! Kevin and Zin proceeded to go into food comma while Theresa finished the blog write up and laundry.

Tomorrow's plans:

We were fortunate to get a site for 4 days at a campground in Vermillion. We plan to do 41 miles tomorrow and then leave the jeep at Saturday's start and Sunday's finish (a Walmart in Willoughby) then do our ride and go directly to Sunday's start (57 miles) in Vermillion. This should save us the drop time on Sunday so maybe we can beat the heat!