An Update

Oh, hello again. I have a chunk of time before bed, as well as a phone charger, so let me tell you about the past three days!

Zero Day in Cleveland

My second day at The Cleveland Hostel (My last post briefly described my first night there) was just a rest day, to have a break and explore the city a bit. Turns out I was too lazy to get out much further than the couple blocks around me, but it made for a great walk, and there was really no need to go further, as the Ohio City neighborhood that I was in was really cool. I saw St. Ignatius High School, St. Patrick Church, the birth place of John Heisman, and a bunch of funky houses. I feel like this is the millennial hipster district of Cleveland.

screenshot Almost every house in some neighborhoods had a funky paint job. The street signs in many of the Cleveland neighborhoods are labeled with a stylized version of the neighborhood name. It reminds me of monopoly.

That night while eating at the hostel I met a fellow traveler named Alma from Amsterdam. She was traveling via public transportation, mainly buses, to various cities in America. Cool! We talked a bit and it was interesting hearing her initial impressions of America. I heard about how some places in the Netherlands support biking throughout the city and never even crossing a road or interacting with street traffic. Wow, that made me jealous.

Sandusky

My destination the next day was Sandusky, notable for its rollercoaster park Cedar Point. My ride want long, and I was making good progress. I was passing by many large and beautiful homes on lakefront property all day. Suddenly, about 10 miles out from my destination, a was flagged down by a woman in a car who told me that she is part of the Warm Showers website (more on that later) and is hosting a fellow bike tourist about my age at her house tonight. She invited me to also stay, but since I already had a place to go for the night I told her I would just pop in and say hi. I met Jacob at her house, who was from California and flew to new York city to start there and bike to San Fransisco. Cool! We shared experiences and our strategies and styles. It was really great meeting a fellow cross country biker, and in retrospect I was dumb for not just staying the night and counting the campground in Sandusky as a loss, but alas, I wasn’t thinking straight, and just stuck to my initial plan. The campground wasn’t so much a campground as a series of pens akin to something animals would be herded into on a large expanse of grass. Not much to report on about the rest of the day.

screenshot Sunrise in Sandusky the next morning.

Today

I woke up early and left Sandusky.

screenshot There are a lot of trains hauling long loads of freight in Ohio. I passed under this one. It was still chugging along a good 5 minutes after it’s engine passed by. Must have been a mile long, and I never saw it’s end.

Then it was a nice ride to meet up with a bike path, the North Coast Inland Trail, in Clyde Ohio. Entering Clyde I passed by a farm building selling apples and had to see if I could get some. Upon entering, I saw it was just self serve, which I though was nice. But then a woman came out from the back and told me to just grab as many as I wanted. Score! She said there had been others to pass through on their way across America. Hm, maybe the bike path drew them too this particular town. In any case code was a nice town, and I used my saved cash to buy some lunch there.

screenshot APPLLES!

screenshot Clyde

The bike trail I joined up with in Clyde was a nice straight shot following telephone lines through tree and shrub lined areas bordered by farmland in either side.

screenshot Nicely paved, and super flat.

It basically acted as a wormhole taking me to the next notable city: Fremont. What, you ask, is Fremont Ohio notable for? Before today I wouldn’t have been able to tell you, but as I learned upon arriving, it is notable for (among other things I’m sure) being the town where former president Rutherford B. Hayes lived. How did I learn that? I was part of a parade.

screenshot I originally heard the marching band and spotted the parade from a bridge on the trail, overlooking downtown Fremont. The head of the parade then literally met me at an intersection and I biked behind them, the crowd getting larger and larger. I was basically part of the thing at this point.

screenshot The procession then gathered in the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, which has been nearly renovated. Today was the Centennial grand re-opening, and I can only imagine the entire town was there at this point to celebrate, as well as the Ohio State marching band. They performed outside of the historic household.

screenshot The library and museum. I didn’t have time to stop in.

Wow. That was surreal. I took lots of video along with the pictures.

Then it was out of Fremont in country roads. Midland Ohio is beautiful, and I hadn’t been in it because I was traveling on the coast, then in the wormhole bike trail. A rainstorm hit me head on near the end of my ride, and it was the first biking I’ve done on my trip in heavy rains, though they were brief.

screenshot You can see the rain far off, hitting the road from afar. This is not something I’m used to in New England, where rain is slower moving and hands over certain areas for a while.

I arrived at the campground, funded by the same country-wide organization that funds the bike trail I rode on, and set up. I didn’t realize until then that there were no showers, and I needed one. The weather is getting warmer, and a bit humid. Luckily I remembered posting a lake open for swimming, and gladly paid the admission fee to jump in and get rinsed off. Ran back to my tent before another patch of rain hit, made a meal, and more here I am.

screenshot My campsite. I set up my tent over the electric outlet, so that I can charge things overnight.

Oh, and I said I would explain what warmshowers is: it’s basically a community of bicycle travelers who offer their homes or yards for sleeping in. I’ll be using it tomorrow to get a place to sleep, so I’ll let you know how my first experiemce is! I’ve already met a few members on my trip, the woman near Sandusky being the latest, and they’ve been very kind, so I think it will be good.

Until next time!