Medina, NY

Tuesday October 16th

It had rained overnight and it was still raining in the morning. I departed for the library at 8:48am and spent the next few hours updating the blog pages. I finished them at 2:30pm and departed at 2:41pm.

At 3:30pm I entered Ohio and arrived in Defiance at 7pm. I had dinner at a Subway restaurant then continued in the dark to Independence Dam State Park. I arrived there at 8:30pm and found a nice campsite by the Maumee River.



Wednesday October 17th

After departing at 9:25am and riding back to the dam for breakfast, I rode along the canal tow path to Florida and arrived in Napoleon at 11am. A nice lady originally from Holland stopped and asked if I needed help. I asked for directions to the bike shop and she offered to drive ahead of me and show me the way.

When I arrived at the bike store she gave me a bottle of water.

The bike store owner could not change my broken spoke and suggested I stop in Bowling Green at the bike store there.

I arrived in Grand Rapids at 12:58pm and had lunch by the river. At the junction of Tontogany Rd and Poe Rd I took some photos of some wind generators.

At Pemberville I stopped at the library to have a snack and check my email using their wireless internet connection.

At 8:51pm I arrived in Fremont (after dark) and found the start of the North Coast Inland Trail. It is a very nice paved bike path. I found a suitable place to camp for the night at 9:50pm.

I don't know how I did it but I was able to put my tent right next to a very busy railway line. There were goods trains hourly during the night! And it rained during the night.

Thursday October 18th

I woke at 7am, meditated, and departed at 9:51am. It was raining lightly as I departed. There were many cyclists using the trail. I passed a huge Whirlpool (home appliances) factory.

I ate breakfast at a cafe in Clyde a few miles away.

Around 11:26am I saw a bridge out sign on the road I was about to ride. I was stopped at an intersection working out how to detour around the bridge when a guy called Mike stopped and helped me with the navigation. He owned a Rans recumbent bicycle and would have invited me to his home for lunch except that he had a commitment to teach chess to some children.

I managed to get around the bridge and arrived in Avery for lunch at 1:38pm. I saw another road closed sign and followed the detour. I arrived in Huron at 3:06pm and was able to pick up the 3 packages at the post office. I sent my ayurvedic herbs here from Winona, MN and my Nashbar and Campmor orders had arrived.

I passed a harvester similar to the one that caused my accident in Illinois.

I had a nice meal in Vermilion at a restaurant around 5pm and arrived in Lakewood (just west of Cleveland) at 8pm. I decided to stay in a motel that evening. I spread out the tent to dry in the room.

Friday October 19th

I had breakfast in the motel and when I was reading the weather forecast in the US Today newspaper I saw that one can send a text message to 4INFO (44636) with W and the zip code to get a weather forecast. Neato!

I stayed in the motel putting my herbs into capsules for the next 2 weeks. I departed around 11:30am and went directly to the post office to send the herbs back to the ashram.

At 12:30pm I arrived in Cleveland and followed the bicycle path to Mentor. I decided to ride to Madison on busy highways rather than find the many turns that were on the Adventure Cycling map. I stopped at a Quiznos Sub restaurant for dinner and arrived at Geneva State Park at 8:15pm.

Saturday October 20th

I departed at 10:30am, visited the nearby beach, and arrived in Conneaut at 1:19pm. As I was coming into the city I broke the rear derailleur cable. This means no gears at the back end. I didn't have a spare cable with me so I adjusted the derailleur to be in 3rd gear which is like riding a single speed bike. I was able to continue on with a strong tail wind assisting me.
I decided to defer having lunch until I bought the replacement cable in Erie as the store was closing at 4pm.

At 1:30pm I entered Pennsylvania and arrived at the bike store in Erie at 3:45pm. I bought 2 cables and installed one of them outside the bike store.

I stopped at Panera Bread for some soup and to access my email using their wireless internet. Alas, I couldn't get a connection but the soup was good!

Around 5pm I was stopped by a guy who was looking to buy a recumbent bike. We talked for a while and I gave him some web site links to visit for more information.

At 7:32pm I entered New York state and arrived in Barcelona at 8:5pm. I stopped at a restaurant to ask for directions to their city park. Barcelona didn't have one but Westfield did and it was only a mile away. One person in the restaurant suggested camping down by the beach if I couldn't stay at the park. I got to Moore Park in Westfield and called the police for permission to camp in their park. The policeman arrived 15 minutes later and said the town officials didn't want anyone camping in their park. I suggested the beach in Barcelona. He said it was okay to camp there as long as I stayed away from the pier. So I rode back to the beach and found a nice tent site. I was soothed to sleep by the waves on the beach.

Sunday October 21st

I departed at 8:50am and arrived in Dunkirk at 11am. I bought some groceries from a supermarket. It seemed like the supermarket was the only place in town that was open. A lot of the people I saw in town looked as if they were of European descent. I tried getting onto the internet outside the Dunkirk library but couldn't find an unsecured link.

I tried at the Silver Creek library as well but didn't find a good link.

I passed through wine-growing country with grape vines everywhere.

As I got closer to Lackawanna I passed by giga-dollar mansions. I arrived at Lackawanna at 5:11pm and followed the route to the Peace Bridge over to Canada. Along the way I stopped for dinner at a park on the bike path. After departing I was stopped by a lady asking for information about recumbent bikes. I gave her some internet links too.

The entry into Canada was simple and after getting to Fort Erie I got lost. I stopped at a gas station for directions. The guy gave me a simple "down the hill to the water then turn left" direction. I was soon following the Niagara Recreation Trail alongside the Niagara River.

After a few miles I arrived at a campground. After asking a few questions I found that the campground was closed but since I was on a bike and it was after dark the guy said I could stay. I just had to depart before the owner returned the next morning. The guy gave me 2 bottles of water when I asked if I could fill my camelbak water bladder.

I put up the tent and walked around the campground. I found a cabin that was open so I filled up the camelbak bladder then returned to the tent and had a nice sleep.

Monday October 22nd

I got up early, had a shower in the cabin, packed up the tent and departed by 7:30am. I walked across the road to a picnic table where I ate breakfast.

I continued riding along the Niagara Recreation Trail and reached the falls around 10am. I realized that my front bike light had fallen off. I had fixed the bracket that held the light after the accident in Henry, IL and finally it had failed. I was not going to go back and find it. So I decided to continue and buy a new light later in the day.

At 10:40am I had my tourist trip on the "Maid of the Mist" boat which I thoroughly enjoyed. I took lots of photos and video on my camera. I still don't know how the videos turned out as I don't have Apple Quicktime installed on my laptop.

Shortly after departing I was stopped by 2 cyclists. Richard Robinson and his friend were out for a ride towards where I was heading so I followed them as best I could. Richard was riding a Bachetta Aero recumbent and his friend an upright Trek bike. There was a bit of a hill where I was a bit slow but I kept up with them on the flat and downhill.

We eventually arrived at the Whirlpool Bridge and we said our goodbyes. I was able to find my way onto the bridge and rode with the vehicle traffic to the US side. Again the entry into the US was a simple procedure and the customs officer wished me well for the rest of the trip.

At 2pm I had lunch along route 104 at a cemetary. One of the headstones was made into a bench seat and it was very nice to sit there eating lunch.

I arrived in Lockport at 4:30pm. After finding that I had to ride 5 miles to get to the bike store I decided not to buy the bike light that day. I spent a few minutes at the Lockport library transferring some money in my bank account so that I could get some cash from an ATM machine.

I bought a few grocery items then rode along the canal path. I passed a lot of pedestrians and arrived in Gasport just before dark. I wanted to replenish my water supply before going to find a tent site. I found a laundromat with a tub and taps and filled up the camelbak bladder and an empty chocolate milk container I had purchased earlier.

I rode past a pub and a couple of Harley Davidson bike riders stopped to talk to me about my trip. They wished me a safe and successful rest of the trip.

I found a nice camp site about a mile out of town on the canal path. I put up the tent and cooked a meal. Shortly after getting into the sleeping bag it started to rain. It rained consistently all night.

Tuesday October 23rd

Today was going to be my rest day. I decided to meditate and rested until 11am. The tent was wet and it was still raining. I decided to have a snack instead of a regular breakfast and would find a restaurant to have a nice meal in later.

I departed at 11:59am and at 1:13pm I arrived in Medina. I found a nice bistro with some vegetarian dishes on their menu so I stopped there to eat brunch.

Around 2pm I departed and found my way to the motel. I spread everything out to dry in the room and went to the Weather Channel on the TV to find the local weather forecast. Cloudy tomorrow and fine the next day. Yes!

I spent a few hours cropping photos for the blog site, bought some food for dinner, and cooked it in my room using the multi-fuel stove (I kept the door open for a while.)

Only 11 days to go! Some of those days will be riding up and down hills and mountains.

Bye for now.