Day 37, Tuesday, August 5.
Conneautville, PA to Warren, PA
Daily Mileage: 89.22 miles
Total Mileage: 3,317.6 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 6:39 hours
Average Speed: 13.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 43.5 mph
Weather today was unseasonably cool. When we woke up it was 40-degrees outside (and for that matter inside our tent as well) and it went up to around 75 degrees for the day. The windbreaker got a lot of wear today, and it didn't even rain! Every time we stopped we'd get cold.
The baseball dugout was a nice place to camp, we should have started using them sooner. We didn't bother changing into our riding clothes when we broke down camp this morning—we went fully dressed to breakfast at Frannie's. It’s very similar to every café we've hit for breakfast since North Dakota. We ordered our usual: three pancakes, two eggs scrambled, hashbrowns/home fries, toast and water (David had a Coke).
After our morning stretches in the incredibly frigid temperatures, we mounted the bikes only to discover my cleat had finally and completely broken off. We have clipless pedals on our bikes. With our special shoes (equipped with plastic cleats in my case) we are able to snap our shoes right into the pedals, providing more power per stroke. Problem with me cleats is that they're not recessed into the shoe like David's and after a month and a half of walking on them they had worn down completely. The screws on the bottom attaching the cleats were worn so flat that there was no way to remove the broken cleats. A very kind old man at the local hardware store used a hacksaw to put some grooves in the screws in order to unscrew the old cleats and replace them with the new ones that I had carried the entire trip for this very reason.
Today's terrain was rolling hills with a few flat stretches and a wind was coming from an acceptable direction. We saw more Amish houses and people today. They're different from the Indiana Amish as there appears to be more carpenters than farmers, but maybe that's because I'm biking by them and not flying by in my car.
The hills we're dealing with here are much more difficult than the mountains. Sure they're not miles long, but the grades are much steeper. I've found myself almost falling over on a number of occasions because I was going so slow uphill, and if you happen to stop, you might as well start walking your bike up the hill (which we never had to do) because there's no way you're going to start up again.
We rode into town with this forty-seven-year-old biker who was showing us the way because we're now off of the Adventure Cycling Maps and making up our own route from here on out. After eating a hearty, yet not filling, dinner, we hit the street looking for a place to sleep. The first church we stopped at these gentlemen helped us find a nearby ballpark. So, we're repeating last night's camping procedure. After we found our spot we went around the corner for some ice-cream—hey, it's still summer.
(Photo: Tim’s "action" shot.)
Daily Mileage: 89.22 miles
Total Mileage: 3,317.6 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 6:39 hours
Average Speed: 13.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 43.5 mph
Weather today was unseasonably cool. When we woke up it was 40-degrees outside (and for that matter inside our tent as well) and it went up to around 75 degrees for the day. The windbreaker got a lot of wear today, and it didn't even rain! Every time we stopped we'd get cold.
The baseball dugout was a nice place to camp, we should have started using them sooner. We didn't bother changing into our riding clothes when we broke down camp this morning—we went fully dressed to breakfast at Frannie's. It’s very similar to every café we've hit for breakfast since North Dakota. We ordered our usual: three pancakes, two eggs scrambled, hashbrowns/home fries, toast and water (David had a Coke).
After our morning stretches in the incredibly frigid temperatures, we mounted the bikes only to discover my cleat had finally and completely broken off. We have clipless pedals on our bikes. With our special shoes (equipped with plastic cleats in my case) we are able to snap our shoes right into the pedals, providing more power per stroke. Problem with me cleats is that they're not recessed into the shoe like David's and after a month and a half of walking on them they had worn down completely. The screws on the bottom attaching the cleats were worn so flat that there was no way to remove the broken cleats. A very kind old man at the local hardware store used a hacksaw to put some grooves in the screws in order to unscrew the old cleats and replace them with the new ones that I had carried the entire trip for this very reason.
Today's terrain was rolling hills with a few flat stretches and a wind was coming from an acceptable direction. We saw more Amish houses and people today. They're different from the Indiana Amish as there appears to be more carpenters than farmers, but maybe that's because I'm biking by them and not flying by in my car.
The hills we're dealing with here are much more difficult than the mountains. Sure they're not miles long, but the grades are much steeper. I've found myself almost falling over on a number of occasions because I was going so slow uphill, and if you happen to stop, you might as well start walking your bike up the hill (which we never had to do) because there's no way you're going to start up again.
We rode into town with this forty-seven-year-old biker who was showing us the way because we're now off of the Adventure Cycling Maps and making up our own route from here on out. After eating a hearty, yet not filling, dinner, we hit the street looking for a place to sleep. The first church we stopped at these gentlemen helped us find a nearby ballpark. So, we're repeating last night's camping procedure. After we found our spot we went around the corner for some ice-cream—hey, it's still summer.
(Photo: Tim’s "action" shot.)
