Monday, August 12, 2013, Henry David and I left the Evergreen Lake Campground in Conneaut, Ohio, cycling into town to get coffee at the McDonalds on the edge of town. A few McDonald’s customers came by for the usual questions and well wishes. One gent said that he also loved to travel and he was in town to pick up his son-in-law to drive him to an appointment out of town. Shortly after I crossed the border into Pennsylvania, a few miles out of town, he passed by, son and buddy in the truck, and called out, asking if I needed a push. He noted I hadn’t cycled very far.
Not very encouraging to mention my slow pace.
Well, he was right. I kept getting off the trike to take photos. AND I took a wrong turn--but only lost about 10-15 minutes on that one. The scenery changed markedly in Pennsylvania. Corn and beans gave way to vineyards and small farms and gardens. The trees are so thick that they run to the edges of everyone’s lawn or garden. If the human residents didn’t continue to manage their property, the trees would take over. Mother Nature in her vigor. I am reminded of the shows that suggest how a city would look in 10, 25, 50, 100, and 500 years if humans became extinct.
I saw Amish men building a home: a vision of brown pants, suspenders, shade providing hats, beards--healthy and strong and hardworking men--and using electric saws.
I stopped at a roadside stand and bought peaches. I would have filled my car if I had been driving. This little stand was fantastic. Most of the fruits and veggies were grown by the owner, some of the produce was grown by neighbors, and a small section of produce came from farther away, with the final result being every color and taste you could imagine in a fruit or vegetable was there for sale. I took more photos of the unbelievable colors. Little did I know, then, that roadside stands would become a common sight this time of year throughout the east. Short growing season but when things grow, they GROW!!
The big excitement today was the storm that hit when I reached the east edge of Erie, Pennsylvania. It had been drizzling for at least 30-45 minutes and I had stopped cycling to don my raingear. The rain increased a bit and I reached the edge of Erie and a Country Faire convenience center just as the rain really let loose. I drank a cup of coffee outside, under the eaves with HD, and watched the rain. Then contacted my resources to see what the weather was going to do for the rest of the day so I could refigure where I was going to go. After some research, I called the Colonial Inn in North East, PN (Yes, the town is called North East, and I bet you can’t guess what part of Pennsylvania this creatively named town is located...). We discussed a tentative hold on a room.
After a bit, the rain dissipated and I set out again. There were no more downpours, just a drizzle here and a sprinkle there. It took awhile to get through the center of Erie, which appears to be an old industrial and shipping town. In fact, many towns along the great lakes started as port towns which thrived on the shipping industry. Due to the plentiful supply of water, industries and factories also sprouted. So it is odd to go into some of these large, old cities by the lakes and see the crumbling remains of old factories just a few miles from some of the prime property in the states.
I stayed on hwy 5, or Lake Rd, which is primarily quite rural, with few to no gas stations or grocery stores or coffee shops, and just dotted with homes and an occasional farming or trucking equipment business. I really enjoyed seeing the honor system stands of homegrown produce through the eastern part of Illinois and extending through Pennsylvania and New York. These are small, wood-constructed, shaded stands of 3-5 shelves of produce with a can, box, or jar in which to deposit your money should you take any of the veggies or fruits.
I pulled into the Colonial Inn around 5 pm and the kind owner gave me a good price as well as a bottle of water and a bottle of Sprite to cheer my evening. The closest store was about 2 miles uphill into town and I had some granola bars, the peaches from the roadside stand, and a chocolate bar, so I stayed in the room and contacted family members, talking way into the night and crawling under the covers about 2:30 am.
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This morning, Tuesday, August 13th, I was so tired. I awakened at 6:30 a.m. and it took til 9 a.m. to get it all together and get out the door of the Colonial Inn. I kept lying back down to nurse a headache borne of lack of sleep. It had stormed during the night and the air was cool and the sky cloudy. I felt a bit grumpy as I took to the road, but soon my spirits lifted with the pleasantly cool air, a mild tailwind, and the trees. The trees and their underbrush in Pennsylvania and New York remind you that Mother Nature is ready to reclaim the land at any time.
Within an hour of departure from North East, I passed into New York. I wasn’t sure if it was really the terrain or the road building practices between the two states, but the roads were not as steep along the lake as they had been in Pennsylvania. Just as in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the lake view was hindered by homes and small farms. However, in New York, there seemed to be more state and county parks, allowing the “regular guy” to get up close and personal with the lake. I like that. I got coffee and water in Barcelona and again in Dunkirk. Then, I stopped in Silver Creek at a grocery store and replenished my groceries. It was going to be party time: grapes, bananas, new york sharp white cheddar cheese, carrots, Doritos, and jalapeno dip. For the special treat: Seagram’s wine coolers: one pina colada and one strawberry daquiri flavored. They are pretty light weight; it was light drinking flavored mineral water!
The road was great along hwy 5 with a nice shoulder and smooth surfaces. HD and I pulled into the Evangola State Park around 5 pm after a pleasant, uneventful day. I had spent the day cycling, singing, thinking of my children and loved ones, and how wonderful it is to be out on the road amidst all this beauty.
This was also my first night to actually be “next” to Lake Erie. Even now, after a beautiful sunset, I hear the surf. It was a breezy evening, with whitecaps on the water. This is the way to sleep well---with the sound of water, a LOT of water! Not the drip drip of a faucet or the tinkle of a fountain, but the constant, steady sound of moving water as it hits the shore. It’s not the ocean and it is not stormy tonight, so I can’t exactly say that the “surf is pounding”, but it is certainly giving the shore “what for” as the wind picks up.
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Wednesday, August 14th. The big day. Leaving the USA. I admit I was anxious about crossing the border bridge on my trike. I had the cycling maps but they proved to be more confusing than helpful. I had to revert to my iPhone map and the street signs.
I packed up HD and was on the road by 8:30. Nothing extraordinary on the way to Buffalo. Once I hit Buffalo, I followed the cycling maps along the shoreline and then followed street signs and the iPhone to get to the bridge. Cyclists and walkers have a special walkway/path across the bridge. I was loving it! The Peace Bridge crosses the Niagara River close to the mouth of the river where it opens to Lake Erie. It spans the river from Buffalo, New York to Fort Erie, Ontario. It is actually not a huge bridge in length, but it does well in width, sending traffic to and from Canada at a reasonable pace.
It took most of the day just to get there, after losing myself in Buffalo a few times. When I crossed into Canada, I walked over to the Customs/Border agent and answered the typical questions. Where was I going? How much money did I have? How was I going to pay for things? Where was I staying? How long was I going to be here?
Then the killer.
“Do you have any personal protection equipment? Gun? Pepper spray?”
Damn! I did. I sadly surrendered my pepper sprays. They had given me a sense of protection, more from wild animals or aggressive dogs than from human perpetrators. People had been kind and generous and helpful, but it had still been nice to have the sprays next to my sleeping bag at night in campgrounds. Especially in those county park primitive sites.
It made me nervous to see the agent take out the neurotoxin spray and examine the bottle. I was so afraid he would inadvertently spray himself and go limp for 30 minutes. I warned him that it was strong stuff and also had a paint in it, so be very careful. That brought on his first grin. Up to then, he was all business. Well, he stayed business like and gave me a receipt that “acknowledged that I had surrendered my sprays to the Queen for due destruction”.
Damn.
Introduction to Canada. The Peace Bridge---with special provisions for the cyclist and the walker. Fantastic!!! The border agent was helpful and kind, though business like and quite serious. He wasn’t hard to look at, either. And it wasn’t the uniform. Or maybe it was.
Welcome to Canada!
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