57.7 miles cycling, 937′ of climbing (3567.7 total) – to read from the beginning, click here.
Gordon swims every morning before work, so he was gone by the time we got up, again, a not-unusual thing for a Warmshowers host, and we had said our goodbyes and thanks before we went to bed. We had coffee and breakfast, packed up the bikes, and started out — getting about 300′ before realizing I had a F.L.A.T. rear tire. So, back to Gordon’s garage where I took all the gear off of Papa Hobo, flipped him over and started the process of finding the leak, making sure whatever caused it was out of the tire, and replacing it with a good tube.
That took about a half hour, and finally we were on our way to Vermilion. The first 15 miles were on the North Coast Inland Trail, followed by mostly countryside ride. We had a lunch stop in Castalia and continued on our way to Vermilion, the last leg of which was back on “historic” US 6. We parked the bikes and walked around the lakeside town and then down to a park by Lake Erie, replete with a lighthouse. Dana opted for a nap on one of the benches, but I headed back to where the bikes (and all our stuff) were parked. When Dana got back, we headed to our hosts’ for the evening, David & Mary.
It’s a common occurrence with Warmshowers, but we hit it off immediately with Mary & David, had nice chats about cycling and kids and the state of the world and all that, and sat down for a delicious dinner of pasta with freshly made sauce and scrumptious corn-on-the-cob. David and Mary had lived in Vermilion earlier, moved to the country for a number of years, then moved back after they became empty nesters. They built this house in the style of an old Sears Craftsman house, but with very modern touches including an open floor plan. Beautiful place. We had another relaxing and restful night — tomorrow, Cleveland!
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