Flying before the wind

Day 39, July 29
Napoleon, OH, to Sandusky, OH
87 miles
Cumulative: 2741 miles

Today was a bicyclist's dream: Smooth roads, virtually no traffic and a brisk tailwind. We flew east along narrow farm-to-market roads. With tall cornstalks often lining both sides of the road, it sometimes seemed that we were riding down a long green gully. We all enjoy going fast with the help of the wind. "I feel so much more fit," explained one rider. I set my fastest rolling average speed of the trip today, nearly 15 mph. That's fast for me, slow for many of my fellow riders.

Mid-morning, we stopped en route at Grounds for Thought, a combination coffee bar and bookstore in downtown Bowling Green, OH. The French Roast coffee was wonderfully tasty, so different from the thin, insipid brew found in most Midwestern eateries. And 10 miles from the end of the ride, several of us enjoyed huge milkshakes at Otto's Pizza and Ice Cream.

We're overnighting in Sandusky, a city of 27,000 on the shore of Lake Eire between Toledo and Cleveland. It's one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ohio, largely because of Cedar Point, a world-famous amusement park with 16, count 'em, 16 roller coasters. Some of them were among the largest, fastest and otherwise best in the world at the time they were built. The Top Thrill Dragster, for example, accelerates from a dead stop to 120 miles per hour in just four seconds. My friend Slim in Santa Cruz, California, a serious coaster buff, will be disappointed when he learns that I declined to spend my evening riding the thrill machines.

Tomorrow, we ride through Cleveland.

Comments

[Joyce/Lee Berndt]

Birthday Blessings to Martin Berndt from the Berndt's in Louisville.

Safer riding and have fun.

Joyce and Lee Berndt

[bracelet]

http://www.pearlsjewelry.co.uk/category/pearl-necklace
http://www.pearlsjewelry.co.uk/category/cultured-pearl

http://www.pearlsjewelry.co.uk/category/pearl-ring

Surround yourself with friends.
Believe that people will like you for who you are.
Forgive and forget.