Strong Tony from Holland

I have ridden many days with Tony from Holland and he has become a very strong biker considering he has the heaviest bicycle on the tour. Tony rides a lot in the Netherlands where he reports bicycle theft is a huge issue. His bike has a lock that is built into the bicycle and makes it impossible to ride even if stolen! Tony was an accountant and now he and his wife spend time vacationing all over the world. I would say he is probably the most up-beat and positive person I have met this year on the tour across the country.

Ausable Chasm in NY

Our lunch stop was right next to this huge gorge in New York. The diagram looks a lot like what we have in Ohio just near Yellow Springs in Clifton, Ohio. Here the gorge is privately owned and the cost to walk around the 3 miles is 16 dollars. None of us took the tour but we did pause at the highway bridge to take photos! This is only 3 miles from the Port Kent in New York which was our entrance to the ferry to Burlington, Vermont. Weather at time of boarding was 82 degrees, sunny and very windy. The Lake Champlain that we crossed had white caps during our 45 minute excursion.

Elk in New York

Today we ate breakfast at an old hotel in Lake Placid and left under cloud cover around 7:45 a.m. Our ride was short today (46 miles) but we still climbed 2,007 feet and rode in rain for about 45 minutes. Climbing one small grade of road we saw this heard of elk behind a tall fence. They all had their noses in the air because it was thundering in the distance. We figured they sensed rain and we rode off but the rain caught us anyway. Was is so interesting in the mountains is the fact that the rain comes ands goes. Just an hour later we were drying out our shoes and socks at the lunch stop!

Multiple Homes for Layover

In the foreground is my tent for the Saturday evening lodging but on Sunday, today, with a weather forecast of 60% showers we have decided to relocate our bedding to the pavilion area in the background of the photo. One side of the pavilion has glass doors and the other side next to the horse arena is open. We have placed our mattresses and sleeping bags on the wooden floor and used the picnic tables to place our supplies. I am typing this blog from a table next to my sleeping bag and unlike most places we visit, this location has free WiFi that allows me to send out information on the trip. Tonight we head to town (2,5 miles) for dinner and our orientation for the next and final week from here to Gloucester, Massachusetts! Our final 450 miles await us but first we have a few tall mountains to climb! Bikes have been cleaned and lubed for the final trip.

Site of 1980 Olympics

To the left is the Olympic flame from tjhe 1980 winter Olympics held here in Lake Placid. Our tent site is only 200 yards away and the flame is lit at night with just a small electric bulb. Of course, Olympic flames are now much more elaborate than the ones used 30 years ago. To the right are the two ski jumps that we can see from our camp area. They are like huge creatures reaching into the sky. Having never experienced skiing, I cannot imagine going off one of those towers and being airborne! Yet, some people may not comprehend riding a bi9cycle down a mountain side like we do at 50 miles an hour!

Mountain Ranges Coming into View

This is the view from my bicycle as I approached the final descent into Lake Placid on Saturday, August 14. In the past two days we have traveled 140 miles and climbed over 6,600 feet but we know that more climbing will be necessary as we leave this area and head through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and finally Massachusetts to our final destination. This week we pedaled 443 miles from Niagara, Canada to Lake Placid, New York! I think nearly every Coaster has lost considerable weight even though each of us continues to eat large amounts of food!

I am down at least 15 pounds from our first day of cycling.

Beautiful Ports, Inlets and Habors

One right after another we travel through beautiful ports, inlets, marinas and harbors as we travel across a great section of New York State just above the Finger Lakes Region. On day four of the 8th week we will turn in land from Watertown and head to Star Lake as we begin our climb to Lake Placid, NY and our layover from Saturday night until Monday morning. Both excitement and let down are being felt as the Coasters realize the great adventure is coming to an end in just over one week!

Beaches Along Lake Ontario

There are numerous beautiful beaches along Lake Ontario's southern shore and at this one we had our noon picnic meal before traveling on to our stop for the evening. Each day now we are just around 75 to 85 miles of pedaling and now that we are in New York and headed to the Appalachian Mountains, the hills are getting steeper and longer with each new day!

Ages & Injuries

Deidra from Louisiana, Sandy and I have ridden for two weeks together on and off. Here we pose for lunch with Lake Ontario behind us in Watertown, NY. Deidra, a retired nurse who has just become eligible for Medicare, was a strong rider on the flat terrain when she arrived and has become a strong hill climber in the past few days as we are averaging 3,000 feet of climbs each day. Sandy and I are not quite her age but are about the avewrage age for the Cycle Americas Coast to Coasters as we have become known. Our oldest rider is 69 and we have some riders in their early fifties. Injuries have taken another rider this past week when two ran together on a turn and one broke her collar bone and had to return home. Sandy and I have ridden together for several years and we know each others moves on the bicycle yet we still talk a lot as we enter turns, pass each other, and draft behind one another. For example, on turns he knows I take the wide turn and he stays closer to the curb, or we follow one another into a curve. The two riders who crashed had not ridden together. Our "Coasters" number less than 35 now after starting in high 40's.

Chopper Bicycle

On our lay over day in Niagara we walked around town and came upon a gentleman and his friends who had built a variety of bicycles to look like chopper motorcycles. The man was quite proud of his work and says he has only built them so far for friends. As I mounted this long blue one he cautioned me that the pedals are so close top the ground that any sharp turn would lead to disaster when the pedals hit the pavement! I just sat on his bike for the picture!!

Lake Ontario Views for Three Days

At a break along Lake Ontario I snapped this photo of my riding partner Sandy. After leaving Niagara the route we followed in the "Empire Strikes Back" week of the Coast to Coast tour took us all along the coast of this massive Great Lake. When I made the C to C ride in 2001, we were very much inland and out sights were numerous chemical plants! This route took us through residential/seasonal homes. At one point there was a large garage sale taking place early one morning and as several of us rode by a lady yelled out, "Where are you headed?" We responded with "Boston!" Then, spontaneously the entire group of about ten people clapped and cheered loudly for us!! I do not think my fellow riders have a clear comprehension of the amazing physical challenge they have almost accomplished. When we reach Boston and one by one each of us dips his/her front tire in the Atlantic Ocean, the realization will hit people like a rock: each has bicycled across the US North American Continent!

Lake Ontario Light House

This is a light house that sits on Lake Ontario to warn ships of a large sand bar in the Great Lake. The 30 Mile Point Light House is no longer manned but the beacon that had been moved to a steel tower just left of the house has been placed back in the lighthouse after some local volunteer efforts. We had our picnic lunch just a few hundred feet from the lighthouse.

The Natural Wonders

We left Niagara, Canada very early in the morning on Monday after eating in a tower over looking the Niagara Falls and Horse Shoe Falls seen here from a photo I took while riding my bike on the Rainbow Bridge to the Border Crossing into the USA. At the border we were permitted to approach the Border Patrol one biker at a time. Each of us was asked different questions. Mine were simple: are you bringing anything you bought in Canada to the USA?; where do you live? That was it. We then rode through Niagara on the US side. I must say the American side businesses sure looked bad with many closed, at least on the route we took out of town.

Friends at the Falls

Sandy (Hamilton, Ohio), Phillipe (France) and Bob (Oxford, Ohio) stop for a photo in front of Niagara Falls after we arrived in the city, pitched our tents and then walked the two miles into town. Sandy is my riding partner of many years as is Bob who came and joined the Coast to Coast tour for week 6 and 7 only. Phillipe is an attorney who is with Sandy and me for the 9 week cross country adventure. The Canadian side of the Falls is very much tourist oriented with many restaurants and amusements while the American side is like a park that sets out to tell about the history of Niagara and the falls.

King Michael Finds His Throne

For breakfast on Monday morning, our first day of week 8, we traveled from the school play field where we camped to downtown Niagara to have breakfast in what use to be called the Minolta Tower. This is a 25 story building right on the side of the American and Canadian Falls. It was a beautiful place to have breakfast before a 75 mile day along Lake Ontario to Albion in New York. In the lobby was a chair that was actually larger than Big Mike. Mike took the throne and we all captured it on our cameras!

Made it to the Falls!!!

We rode another 72 miles along the northern portion of Lake Erie in Canada and made it to Niagara Falls on a very sunny and warm afternoon. After setting up our tents in a suburban area just about 2 miles from the falls, we walked down to the spectacular wonder of the world and posed for some pictures. The school where we stayed had a large fenced in play area and next to the fence was a path from a street through the park next to the school. Several local people taking this short route to the main street stopped and asked us what we were doing. Like most people we speak to they too were surprised at the challenge we have under taken to cross the USA in 9 weeks. Our arrival here in the eastern most portion of our ride in Canada marks the end of week 7 and on Monday we start week 8. Rain fell during ther evening of our first night but all was dry the next day which was our day off. I spent some time finding tape to repair my tent fly that was damaged in our last school yard by some young teenagers who thought it was fun to throw my camp chair into my tent. I found some tape that works until I locate a place that has tent repair materials. I learned not to place my tent near a sidewalk even if it is under a nice old oak tree. I also learned not to leave any items out that could become weapons against me!

Shortest Ferry Ride

Here Sandy, Mike and Bob prepare to cross the Welland Canal that connects Lake Erie to the south (right) with Lake Ontario to the north (left). This very deep canal is larghe enough for large great lakes freighters to travel between the two large lakes. Several years ago one freighter accidently smashed into the bridge that crossed this canal destroying the bridge. The agreement from the shipping company was to provide a pedestrian ferry across the canal at no charge to the users. The ferry has day time only operating hours and can carry no more than 5 passengers at a time!

Wind Turbines Serve Electrical Needs

For several miles along the northen coast of Lake Erie in Ontario we passed by hundreds of huge wind turbines like this one. We first learned of their size when we paused along our way for a police car and a very long tractor trailer carrying one turbine blade. We later learned that blade was 122 feet long and as you can see, each turbine has three blades. Here is an even more astonishing comparison. Each blade is as long as a 737 airplane! It takes just over 5 mile per hour winds to get the turbines moving. All of the ones we passed are used to supply the total electrical needs of a town of 26,000 people in Ontario. Life expectancy of the generation unit is 20 to 25 years.

Pace Lines

Riding in a pace line allows the bikers behind the lead cyclist to get a break from the wind we generate. Here Bob rides along at 17 miles per hour while Sandy, Deidra and Jim ride behind him to get a little break from headwinds. The five of us rode together often across Michigan and Ontario, Canada, to pick up our speed and to lower our time on the bikes. I personally dislike pacing due to the concentration it takes when you follow a biker just a few inches off the rear tire!

Danger Turns to Delight

Just a few hundred yards from the end of our 77 mile day into Richmond, Michigan, I came across several riders sitting on the bike path. At first it appeared that there had been a serious accident. Upon closer inspection it was obvious that a bike trail party had started just a few minutes earlier when Mike from Indiana opened two coolers packed with various ice cold beers. I am not usually a beer drinker but let me tell you, after 77 miles in the sun that Corona was one tasty treat. Air temp was 90 and humidity was just as high! Mike received an award the next night for the most ingenious party of any Coast to Coast ride! Here are Jerry and Dan (Canada), Yan (Netherlands) and Larry (California) toasting Mike!

Speeding Along in Michigan

This smiling young man has been riding with me for the week in Michigan and right now we are sitting under cover watching it rain in Westlorne, Ontario, Canada. Ed is from Kalamazoo, Michigan and we trek along at about the same speed so we have been riding together. He is a great advertisement for Coke because he stops for Cole like I stop for ice cream. He is known for his unusual ice cream selections for his root beer floats. Today...cookies and cream ice cream and root beer...and he had to beg the lady to make the refreshment! He is only riding to Niagra Falls with us and I'll miss our discussions.

View from the "Flight" Deck

This is the view I have often from my seat on the bike. Control central with the bike computer gives me the following information at the touch of a button: time of day, temperature, speed, average speed for the day, altitude, altitude gain, total altitude gain for the trip, percent of climb, and fastest speed for the day. The yellow tape adorns the aero-bars which I use to lower my torso by resting my arms/elbows on these bars. That allows me to increase my speed as I get "under the head winds that I create by traveling faster and/or that Mother Nature creates for us as occasional challenges! The silver tipped items on each side of the handle bars allow me to brake as needed (left is front and right is rear brake). Those brake handles also double as gear shifters with the left controlling three chain rings and the the right controlling 9 chain rings on the rear wheel. That gives me 27 "speeds." Oh, yes, that white stripe in the center is the official bike path for us, otherwise known to motorists as the side white line of a road!

Old Glory

This was the view from my tent at Frankenmuth Middle School's yard where I camped last night. This larhe, beautiful American flag was flying in the breeze with two bright lights on it all night. We leave the USA tomorrow and take a small ferry into Ontario, Canada. We have been significantly advised to not pack our passports or the tour ends for us at the border! Passports must be on our persons as we enter as foot traffic!

Dancing in Michigan

Sandy (left) and I take a moment to do the polka after dinner!

Friends Have Dinner

Ed (Michigan), Diedra (Louisiana), Sandy and Bob (my biking buddies) pose in front of one of the fountains in downtown Frankenmuth, Michigan, after our dinner at the famous local chicken establishment! We walked back to the camp sight/school 2 miles out of town central.

Great Michigan Trail

Here Bob stops to take a look at one of several neat tunnels on the Pere Marquette Trail System that runs east to west across Michigan. We have been able to use the trail system for many of our daily miles. Today, Tuesday, was an 83 mile day that got warm (89 degrees) and was great until the last 18 miles when we had to head south and picked up a head wind into Frankenmuth. This week we have now bicycled 96 and 86 miles in two days. Nights are still warm (68) so no need for sleeping bags...just air pads and sheets make sleeping comfortable. Tonight we are behind the Frankenmuth Middle School on an extremely dry field. Tomorrow is another 86 miles day.

That "Plane" Girl

After coming home to Hamilton and making sure my wife was well and out of danger, I then made arrangements to fly to Grand Rapids, Michigan to rejoin the cycling tour of the USA. To my shear delight I was seated on the plane next to Chelsea, a recent college graduate from Dayton, who was on her way to Rarotonga, New Zeland, to volunteer in an animal clinic for four weeks. Since Susan has had the health issue and Chelsea had an anatomy text open, I asked her about her studies. Our conversation made the flight to Grand Rapids go very quickly. This very intelligent and articulate lady was also recently accepted into The Ohio State Veterinary School of Medicine. After an hour talking with her, I am convinced OSU made an excellent decision! I am now following her volunteer work on her blog where I obtained her photo (www. agrandspadventure.blogspot.com). I know this, if Chelsea decides to change majors at OSU, I hope she takes up geriatrics and works close to Hamilton, Ohio because I know she is going to be one terrific doctor!!!

Back in the Tour Again!

Yesterday I rejoined the Coast to Coast Tour of the USA with Cycle America and caught up with friends Bob and Sandy from Oxford and Hamilton. I missed 15 days of riding due to a family emergency that necessitated me flying from South Dakota to Florida in mid July. Today we bicycled from Lundington to Farwell, Michigan, a distance of 96 miles and climbed only 2,200 feet in 70 to 82 degree overcast weather. Almost a third of our ride was on bike trails! We averaged just over 15 miles an hour and I was on the bike 6.5 hours. I had not been on any bike for 17 days so I felt this was a very good day. Hard to believe in just under 3 weeks we will be dipping our front tires in the Atlantic Ocean. We still have Ontario, Canada, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts to visit in the final 1,300 miles.

Newest Future Coast to Coaster??

This fine looking young biker is my grandson Aidan Patrick who lives in Viera, Florida. A cell call from my daughter Kim while I was crossing South Dakota last week changed my plans immediately. I was graciously returned 90 miles to Rapid City by Cycle America staffer Matt to fly to Florida where my wife Susan had come down with an unknown, life threatening illness while visiting Aidan and his family. It has been a week of serious lows and slow but sure progress. After a week in the cardiac unit in Rockledge, Susan is now getting stronger each day. We bought Aidan his first "big boy's bike", a two wheeler, and he was off and riding! A future Coast to Coast rider? Maybe, because he wanted to go to bed with his helmet on the first night!!! If all continues to go well for Susan, I plan to rejoin my friends Sandy, Mike and Bob in Ludington, MI next week on Sunday to finish the final three weeks of the cross country tour. Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers for Susan and me!

Hydration Critical

Here Mike and Sandy drink water left for us by our support staff of Cycle America. Since we are in such desolate areas of the country as we tour, obtaining safe drinking water is critical for our personal health. We consume about 32 ounces of water an hour (one to two water bottles) and we cannot take the chance of getting dehydrated. Sandy and I use backpacks that have water tanks that hold as much as two water bottles with the benefit of having a tube that we can get water from easy. Cycle America leaves the containers for us every 15 to 25 miles and we are told where they will be each day. This is the road leading to the Badlands.

Riding on the Moon

If you've traveled through the Badlands of South Dakota you'll recognize the moon like crust of the earth behind Sandy and Mike as they speed along the road into the interior sections of the Badlands. What is amazing is that just 100 miles west we had mountains and forests!

Entering the Badlands of S. Dakota

Here Sandy takes a moment to stop in front of the National Park sign for the Badlands. Sandy, Mike and I rode for 89 miles into Interior, S. Dakota to a camp ground. Temps were in the low 90s with little humidity.

800 Foot Climb for Two Miles - Worth It !!!

We decided to skip our lunch stop on this day and instead climb to the top of Mount Rushmore. I made it 1.75 miles before I just ran out of energy and walked the last quarter of a mile to the monument in granite. Here I am in front of this amazing structure honoring Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. Any idea why Jefferson's head is tipped to the air more than the others? (Had they not tipped his head back some his nose would have been built over a huge crack that would have fallen apart quickly when weakened by sculpturing!). This day was 89 miles!

Needles Highway - Tall Needle-like Rock Formations

In all of my 30 years on a bicycle I cannot remember riding along such a remarkable highway as Needles Highway in S. Dakota. After climbing the highway pass for over an hour we started seeing these rock formartions everywhere, many with holes in them that made the structures look like large needles several hundred feet into the air.

Pig Tail Turns on Needles Highway

Here my riding friend Sandy comes under the bridge that is part of a pigs tail turn, one of three, that we had coming down from the 6,000 foot mountain top. To put these heights into perspective, our home sis at 700 feet and when we are in Cincinnati near the river we are about 400 feet above sea level. We climbed from 3,000 feet to the 6,000 on this mountain then dropped for a half hour, some 2,700 feet! These pig tail turns were necessary to make the road fit the terrain!

Herd of Buffalo Stops Traffic

What a beautiful sight we came across as we came to the lower portion of Needles Highway in South Dakota... a buffalo and a baby buffalo right at the edge of the road. As we looked more closely... a huge herd of buffalo had come into the area! The park rangers were moving us back because the buffalo go where the buffalo want to go! I stayed across the road, unlike one of our riders in the left photo, until the parent buffalo with the big horns and its baby moved back with the herd!

Tunnel on Needles Highway

Here Tony (L)(Netherlands), Sandy (R) and me get our picture taken by Dan, one of our great routers, in front of one of several tunnels made through the solid rock on Needles Highway in South Dakota. We climbed over 2,000 feet, often struggling with the steep hills but reached the top and then had a fast down of several miles. Some of us compared the up to waiting in line for hours to ride a roller coaster... and the "down" like a drop from a 2,000 foot roller coaster hill for over 35 minutes at 25- to 35 miles per hour through beautiful pine forest. The "Needles" actually refers to tall stone structures like in the next blog. If you look closely to the left you'll see Mount Rushmore's famous faces between the trees at the turn in Needles Highway!

Road Issues Make it Tough

Sometimes even when you drive a car the roads seem to disappear into the sky as does this road in South Dakota, but the real issue with this road and several others is the pavement surface! This one is gravel...11 miles of it and some up and down hills! This takes considerable concentration by our riders because one false move and the rider is eating the stones. On a couple steep hills I simply dismounted and walked for a quarter mile or more! Later in South Dakota we came to newly paved roads (some with asphalt being laid right next to us) and the tar that is put down collected on our tires and then picked up stones! On one gravel road my gear changer (derailleur) was damaged and had to be repaired so the gears would change properly. The repair and a new chain cost me $60 after that one day!

Camping in the Sky

The photo to the right is a look down to the van that carries our camping gear FROM the camp site in Lead, South Dakota. 88 stairs had to be negotiated to reach the football field that was at the highest point in the area...thus... it was aptly referred to as "Mile High Stadium." The winds at 5,000 feet were quite high until about 2 a.m. before they settled down! Lead, South Dakota, was a gold mining town over a century ago and it is literally built into the hills of the area with many streets extremely steep!

"Luxury" Living with Views

Every 7th day we get a day and a half off to rest, work on our bikes, do laundry, e-mail others and of course work on our blogs. We decided early on when we registered for the 4,250 mile adventure that once in a while we'd get out of our tents and into something with a hard cover over our heads. Here Sandy stands on our cabin's front porch at Devils Tower, Wyoming. The cabin is a little larger than by backyard shed with three beds, two electrical outlets and a ceiling light...but it had a roof that was not made of plastics! We had three great views from the cabin: back window to a pasture with a broken dead tree; front door to the Tower, and here a side view to a bluff along a river with the reddish rocks.

Beautiful Western Scenery

The states we have biked across have some absolutely beautiful

scenery. So far we have cross Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota totaling over 1,800 miles ans 80,000 feet of climbing!

Flying the Flags

Earlier in Wyoming Sandy and I purchased small USA flags to fly on July 3 and 4. We received many nice comments about our patriotic displays. Here at a brief rest stop I snapped a photo of our flags in front of the Grand Tetons.