We arrived at Dana’s cousins’ in Youngstown around noon yesterday, unpacked the bikes and gear and said a heartfelt thank you and good-bye to Tinamarie & Todd as they headed off to Cuyahoga Valley National Park & Cleveland to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
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We’re on our way to Youngstown! We left only 15 minutes past our target time, so an auspicious beginning – for us anyway.
Our original tour plan for this year was to head to Southern Cal in February, but the fires quashed that plan. On anticipation of that trip though, my daughter Sarah’s very thoughtful Christmas present was a “care package” of touring related envelopes filled with encouragement and some cash to enjoy the related activities. Now that we’re finally headed out on tour, I thought it would be a great precursor to share them with you now.
Dana and I are embarking July 15th on a 3,000+ mile adventure through the upper midwest. Our friends Tinamarie and Todd are driving us to Dana’s cousins’ in Youngstown, and we’ll start from there on the 16th. Roughly, we’ll be heading to Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and back to Ohio (and maybe even ride back home through PA).
More to follow soon, of course, but we’re very busy prepping and getting the houses ready for a long absence.
Saturday, September 8, 2024, 0 cycling miles, 5.5 miles hiking: We drove from 4:30 pm to about 2:30 am then pulled into a rest stop in MA to catch little sleep (4 hrs) before continuing on. Now, if you know Dana, you probably know about Dana Head. No movement or exercise for too long and, well, it’s not pretty. So, she found Bennett’s Pond State Park, a short detour off our route, with lots of hiking trails. We got to the park around 8, picked a trail and started out.
Continue readingFriday, September 6, 2024, 9 miles: Our last day in NS. We packed the car, checked out of the hotel and headed to a local park next to a police station to stash the car for the day. The it was back on the bikes across the bridge to Halifax yet again to check out some more recommended sights to see.
Continue readingThursday, September 5, 2024, 46.8 miles: Today we headed back across the bridge to Halifax and to a ride along the western side of the harbour south to the Atlantic Ocean at Ketch Harbour.
Continue readingWednesday, September 4, 2004, 9 whole miles: Today we packed up the car and the house and said goodbye to Parrsboro. We’d been told by multiple people that Halifax wasn’t to be missed, so we decided to go for a couple of days and head home from there.
Continue readingTuesday, September 3, 2004, 29.9 miles: When we get back from one of our trips, we often look at each other and say, “Well, it wasn’t a relaxing vacation!” With some resistance, I reluctantly agreed to riding to a hike. This meant another trek over the logging road we used on our first day to PEI and a 15+/- mile ride to the Five Islands Provincial Park and good hiking as we’d been told.
Continue readingMonday, September 2, 2004, 46 miles: After breakfast at the motel, we took and a walk past the windmills dotting the landscape. It’s Labour Day in Canada as it is in the U.S., and we expected quiet roads and a pleasant and rain-free ride back to Parrsboro. We weren’t disappointed as we followed Routes 302 and 2, somewhat windy and mostly flat roads that took us the 39 miles back “home.”
Continue readingSunday, September 1, 2004, 66 miles: We had a mostly restful night, even with the wind. We packed up, loaded the bikes and headed for McDonald’s for coffee and free wi-fi, and to check out the weather report for the day. Didn’t look like there were going to be any downpours, but we might have rain for our morning ride to the Confederation Bridge.
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