Mile 3951.1 - Entering the last stage

I was excited to get up today, certain that I would be home within the week. There were a few minor things I needed to do before I could get on the road. Chief among them was laundry. I hadn't done laundry since Fort Wayne, and a weekend spent in a pannier in a torching hot metal storage unit didn't help. When the clothes were in the machine, I rode down to one of the gas stations for gatorade and a map of Pennsylvania. For the first time on the trip, I would enter a state with the appropriate highway map. As the laundry was in the dryer, I walked down the block and had breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. The food was tasty but the dining room crowded and I was glad to soon be back on my own.

Before Pennsylvania though, I first needed to get out of Ohio. The state line was about 60 miles away and the hills were starting to get harder. Taking the weekend off didn't help. It was also hot, getting well up into the 90's.

I got out of the suburban traffic around Canton and onto a couple longer stretches of state highway. In Deerfield, I stopped at a farmers' market to buy some cherries. Mmm, cherries. Crossing the narrow part of Lake Berlin, I was tempted to join the people in the water, but, of course, the road compelled me onward. Coming into Boardman, the highway was suddenly lined with department stores and strip malls. I took a break for lunch, then ten minutes further down the road, a stop for ice cream. At a red light at one intersection, I spent two light cycles talking with a guy in a yellow dog suit about the trip. I never took notice of what he was advertising, standing out in a sweltering heat of an animal suit. But he told me he was a cyclist and thought it was great that I was going cross country.

A short way down the road later, I had one of my worst interactions with infrastructure. Along this part of the road, there was a turn lane width shoulder for me to ride in, I just had to dodge car going into and out of the store parking lots. The shoulder suddenly shrank down to a white line and the curb for a couple hundred feet. Right as I was about to get back to the wider part, there was a storm drain that was set 3-4 inches below the rest of the curb. There was a wall of traffic next to me that I couldn't swerve into, so I hit the deep concrete border around 16 miles an hour. The bike jumped and all four of my panniers went flying. Somehow, thankfully, none of them flew under a car when they scattered. I gathered up my luggage and saw that there was a nice quarter-sized hole now in my food pannier. Joy. I would like whoever designed that drain to ride a bike over it and see how it feels.

10 miles further down the road, I came to the Pennsylvania Line. I took a quick shot of the Welcome to PA sign, but didn't check it or take a second shot, and as it turned out the picture was out of focus. Bleh. Oh well, I was in PA.

Not far down he road I saw a pair of Amish girls walking down the side of the road. Within a few more miles, I had seen a number of carriages for two riders and the more family friendly four.

Coming into New Wilmington, It was getting to be around 7:00 and I was ready to be done. The hills and the heat were plenty. I found a rustic looking motel/restaurant, but was informed that the owners were out and probably wouldn't be back for a couple hours. So, the man sitting on the bench on the porch told me, I couldn't stay there. He was older than my parents, though not yet my grandmother's age and wore khaki colored slacks and a light blue button down shirt, long sleeved, even in the heat. He asked which direction I was going and I told him I was headed up toward Mercer. He told me about the three places to spend a night in mercer, the two by the interstate were more pricey, but the one further along my path would be less expensive.

Going up and down these hills, I saw several more horse drawn carriages, an older couple sitting on well-crafted rocking chairs in front of a modest house, and a bridge that was out and being rebuilt. I climbed a long hill and came into the range of the noise from the interstate. I stopped on the overpass and took a picture of the final time that I would cross paths with US 80. I crossed over or under 80 in California, Utah, and Illinois, as well as having to ride on it for 11 miles in Wyoming. Now, the road I had encountered more than any other on this trip was passing under me in Pennsylvania. In college I drove from San Francisco to Chicago on I-80, what a different view I have of it now.

Then I climbed the longest hill I've found since leaving the Black Hills way back in western South Dakota. I slowly cranked my way up without benefit of shade and running low on water. I took a moment at the top to rest and watch the sun start to sink below the wooded hills to my west. There was still plenty of daylight, but I would be out of the direct sun for the rest of the day. Then I started downhill and just missed hitting 40 mph for the first time since South Dakota too. Maybe if I hadn't come to a full stop on top of the hill.

I came into Mercer and found the motel I had been told about. The woman inside seemed intrigued and gave me a good deal on the room. I showered and tried to get a pizza, but apparently at 9:00 they don't deliver anymore. I walked around and found some Chinese food instead. I was in Pennsylvania, but I still had a lot ahead of me.

Day 67, Canton, OH - Mercer, Pa
81.8 miles in 6:12:31 for 3951.1 in 298:30:09 and a high speed of 39.8 mph