Thursday, June 21, 2007

June 12th: Conneaut, OH to Cleveland, OH

We thought we’d left the massive hills behind in Pennsylvania but today’s ride proved us wrong. After having a delicious breakfast of donuts provided to us by our host church, we set out on what looked like a fairly flat day. This was true through the early afternoon as our route wound around Lake Erie lending many picture taking opportunities. However as we approached Cleveland, we were met with the two steepest hills we had yet faced. These hills conveniently hid themselves around corners so the element of surprise was wonderful.


Finally we made it to HubBub bike shop where we received free tune ups and fittings. These generous people spent all afternoon fitting most of the riders and giving everyone much needed tune ups. Having finally put 600 miles on the bikes this trip they were in desperate need of some maintenance.


When all was complete at the bike shop we arrived at our destination for the evening: Kim who was a Central rider from last year. She treated us with the most unbelievable hospitality welcoming us into her brand new home and feeding us a Mexican feast: homemade guacamole, shredded pork burritos, corn salsa, etc. After dinner most watched the NBA finals which we deemed appropriate due to Cleveland’s presence (and unfortunate loss) in the finals. Others enjoyed catching up on much needed sleep and the hot tub!


-Lindsay Collins

PS: Brian is alive and has made it to Cleveland!!!

2 comments:

Matt Korostoff said...

You guys made it to Cleavland! That's a big milestone! Mazeltov!!

Anonymous said...

Dear all,
I have a certain friend who is participating in this epic bike across the United States of America (and North America for that matter . . . we surely did a splendid job of cleansing this land of Indians - the feathered kind). I was a bit disappointed, but not shocked, to see that he has not written a blog. He would probably be tending to sore muscles instead of pounding the keyboard. What I DID see, though, were comments relating to said friend, but they did not seem overly optomistic. The first three phrases that popped up (when searching his name) were the following:

"Brian is alive"
"Brian is still alive"
"Brian [is] indeed alive"

Just by reading this, one would think that you all are doctors monitoring a patient in the intensive care unit, giving reports every hour or so. "Yup, he's still alive. Come back in an hour to check his vitals." Well, I have something to say: Brian will not only survive but will blaze a trail of glory all the way to the Pacific coast. You may be judging his performance by pulse and breathing, but I'm judging it by heart. And he has a lot of heart to give. And if Brian has one thing in his favor, it's his huge cankles. With those behemoths on his side, there is no way that biking will conquer this machine of a man. So, instead of posting Brian's status as if he's an 80-year-old man with liver failure, pronounce his triumphs as he beats America one wheel revolution at a time. That is all.