Day 40, Through Cleveland to Burton OHIO

BEST: Three of us went out to dinner with Mike's friends to Chagrin Falls for a lovely dinner overlooking the falls. Somehow most of my Bests seem to be about food.

WORST: We got rained on for about 15 miles. It was a hard rain and soaked us enough that we could have skipped a shower.

MOST UNEXPECTED: The water spout we saw in Lake Erie. A resident said he had been here since 1996 and never seen one. (See Picture)

I included a picture of the cabin we stayed at in the KOA plush resort. Last night we ate at Jack's deli and had a great roast beef sandwich and slice of cheesecake with whipped cream and fresh berries. Unfortunately I still had to get up this morning and start riding at 6:00.

Todays ride of 92 miles had more climbing that the last 6 days combined, around 2900 feet of climbing primarily in the latter part of the ride. They call it Shaker Heights for a reason. Speaking of Shaker Heights, I have never seen so many expensive, huge houses located in one area. I took a few pictures to capture the flavor, but I could easily have taken 450 pictures and never repeated. The houses were gorgeous.

We rode to the lunch stop along a road next to Lake Erie with houses between the road and the Lake. Most of these houses were quite gorgeous and probably cost more than my bicycle, One of our riders mom's provided us with incredible food. Definitely beats PB&J. We then rode off into the rain, which I mentioned earlier was pretty intense. When we hit the City sign for Cleveland, it miraculously slowed to a drizzle and then to nothing (Thanks John P. as a Clevlander I know you did something special.) We stopped at the Rock and Roll Hall of fame for some pictures, and then rode on a bike path to get out of part of the City. Then on to University Circle, Shaker Heights, and out of town on narrow but pretty highways with all of the Friday commute traffic. We got to Burton to the fairgrounds, then got picked up to go to dinner. After we got out of the dinner it was raining, and I did a panic call to the fairgrounds to ask someone to please cover my stuff to keep it from getting soaked. As luck would have it, we got back to the fairgrounds before the rain hit, and everything is going to be dry except for the tent, and my jacket from today which never got out of my seatbag. We are all gathered under a pavilion while our tents are getting cleaned by the rain.

In case you didn't get it, the water funnel was awesome. I did get a $20 contribution for the American Lung Association when we stopped in Burton for a malt. A very nice lady and her mom were interested in what we were doing, and ended up giving me a $20 bill which I used for my malt. Okay, I really did turn it in to a rider who is still getting contributions, but I could have gotten the chocolate malt and nobody would have know.