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June 26 - 30

Just a quick summary of the last week of riding.  Most of it was spent riding in the SAG van.  You have probably heard of the torrential rainfall amounts in the eastern US.  Some of us were riding through it.  On Monday, I rode 55 miles of 78 scheduled before calling it a day.  I was so tense watching for holes, puddles, etc. that my hands, back, and shoulders were hurting.  Better not to ride.  On Tuesday, flash flood warnings were in the area.  The Mohawk River was 4 to 5 feet above flood stage and it was next to us for the entire ride.  The rain stopped after 30 miles and the riders faced horrible headwinds the rest of the way.  I was in the van the whole day.  On Wednesday, I rode only 8 miles before climbing into the van.  This was a day that I really wanted to ride because of the scenery.  With the rain, we could not see beyond a 1/2 mile all day.  On Thursday, the system had cleared the area and I rode the entire 91 miles into Lexington, outside of Boston.  The steepest hill I have ever been on was part of the route.

Some riders walked up, but I made it up with a gear to spare.  I met Robin at the hotel and it was a joyous reunion.  On Friday, we rode the last 20 miles to the beach.  It was a great feeling to accomplish a 30-year goal.

Pictures of the last week are sparse because I did not carry a camera on 3 days due to weather.  Robin took many pictures today.

People talk about their next life goal.  Mine is to get through the next 3 years until Robin retires and we can travel together as soulmates for life.

Thanks for following me across America!



Tom Dunn

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We rode 95 miles today.  It was hilly country with about 5,000 of elevation gain over rolling hills.  The country side became less agricultural for much of the ride.  Early on the ride, we went through Orchard Park where I think the Buffalo Bills play their games.  It seemed more like a village in the part that we rode through.  There were lots of runners out for their morming exercise.  I thought it was unusual.  As I type this, I see that yesterday was Saturday.  I thought it was Friday when I saw so many runners.  Thought they should have been at work.

We passed the 3,000 mile mark today.  The celebration point was likely before the actual 3,000, but it was in a safe place on the road.

We stopped in Avon at 69 miles for lunch.  It took over an hour to get out of town after we stopped.  My lunch sat heavy in my stomach for a few miles.  Felt like I wanted to leave it on the side of the road.  Canandaigua was disappointing in a way.  We rode into town and it was strip mall city.  I expected a resort.  I did not get down to the lake.  Sometimes after 95 miles, you do not have the energy to do stuff like that even though it is only a short distance away.  I did enough walking by going to the laundromat and a grocery store for photo processing.  The pictures may not be on the website until I finish the ride.  They will not go out until Monday's mail and I will be essentially done on Thursday.

Once again, Michael and I were the last ones to leave.  This continues a habit I had last year.  The same bad food wears on my stomach and I spend too much time in the morning lightening my load, so to speak.  Today was Michael's turn for that.

Judy crashed right behind me at the 23 mile mark.  She was trying to hop a one inch curb to get onto a sidewalk/bike path and did not make it.  I heard it, slowed down, and saw her crashing out of the side of my eyesight.  She laid the bike down on the grass shortly before going into a creek.  She rode on after some care from Michael, me, and Mack who drove up right after the accident.  However, her thumb began to swell and bruise later and she sagged in.  Hopefully, she will be able to continue as she is doing the ride as a fundraiser for 2 students who will be attending college in Colorado.  Her fund raising is on a per-mile basis.

Michael and I stopped at the visitor center for the Women's Rights Visitors Center.  This was in Seneca Falls and was the center of the women's rights movement beginning in about 1850.  A group of women and men passed the Declaration of Sentiments.  It was quite informative.  Our only SAG today was next to a ice cream stand.  I had a peach sundae.

We passed a portion of the Erie Canal today.  The guide encouraged Michael and I to ride our bikes down the tow path.  We did for a mile and rejoined our route.  This part of the canal was at the midpoint of the original canal--350 miles from Buffalo to Albany.  It took only 8 years to construct the canal and began to open the western frontier to commerce.

Only four long riding days left with a 20 mile ride to the Atlantic on the fifth day.  The riders are signing a US map with our route.  I signed as Tom "at last" Dunn.

Oh yeah, my leg and hand have felt great the last 2 days.  The bruise from my lightning-induced fall is gone.

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During the evening, I decided that with the cool temps promised for the morning I would ride from the first SAG on in.  I did not want to tempt a sore muscle with 50 degree weather.  My sore calf held up OK, although it got a little tight at the end of 56.4 miles for the day.

The highlight of this day is a stop at an old root beer stand in Conneaut.  Everyone is in a festive mood for a root beer float.  I do not care for root beer so I had a chocolate shake with my cheeseburger.

In doing some family history research earlier this year, I found out that I may have some relatives in Conneaut OH.  They are from my mother's side.  I wrote down the phone #s and addresses from the phone book.  My mother did not know much about her relatives.  The Internet is a wonderful tool for doing this research.  I will contact them later.  The owner of the root beer stand said that the local Somppi families are fine people and have been active in the town government for a long time.

We saw Don and Toni Scherzer at the stand from last year's ride.  Don rode with his daughter Gabe.  Toni made several visits along the way.  The Scherzer family are great people.  Don did not know that I am finishing the ride and was very surprised to see me.  Thanks for visiting us, Don and Toni.

The day was calm enough but ended with a bang.  I got a massage in the morning at a massage school across the street from the school.  It helped to loosen my calf muscle.  After laundry, Bob, Michael, and I went down to the waterfront for lunch and some sightseeing.  The tour celebrated Barrie and Susan's 44th wedding anniversary with some wine and small food at 5.

Then a group of 15 took 3 cars to a restaurant. We had one rental car, Ty's car (he lives in Pittsburgh and his wife Leslie was visiting), and a car used by the parents of Eric.  It was raining on the way to the restaurant.

I stepped from the car and a tremendous lightning bolt hit a tree across the street.  I do not know what happened, but I ended up on my backside in the parking lot.  Others thought I had been struck by the lightning.  It was very frightening.  The tree was split and it was smoking.  I bruised my hand.  It was swelling in the restaurant, so I asked for a bag of ice.  I was not sure how it would react overnight, but it was fine.

Hamburg is outside Buffalo.  We rode along Lake Erie for much of the day.

The roads were great and relatively flat.  We were at the hotel early today.

I had wanted to go to Niagara Falls, but decided to rest up my bruised hand and leg.  Did lots of body massage and took a long nap.  We were surprised by the number of closed businesses on this route.  In one fairly long town, there were 3 closed gas stations.  Had to hold the bladder a little longer than I am used to.

I passed 1000 miles on the ride today.  There are only 6 riding days left before the ceremonial 20 mile ride to the Atlantic.  We will ride 474 miles in the 6 days.  We are looking forward to the end.  My 30+ year dream of crossing the US by bike will be realized.

Best wishes to all.

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Last year's XC05 riders burnt up the roads today.  Al and Jim took turns helping Miguel, Michael, and me crank out 107 miles.  We crossed over into Ohio at 2.5 miles.  Today was the first day of strong tailwinds.  They really helped.  So did good roads.  Spent a lot of time in the aero position today.  I gave Al my camera at the first SAG and asked him to take lots of pictures.  That he did.  I will try to get them mailed off to Brian soon.

We grouped up in Marysville for a lunch before Al and Jim departed.  Thanks Al and Jim for all the help the last two days.  It was great to see you!

Tracy said that there were lots of hills on today's route after the second SAG.  She was right.  They were steep and long.  I was pouring sweat going up them and then enjoying the cool down on the descent.  Unfortunately, we just had to start over again.  I rode the day with Michael.  He is a great riding companion.  We stopped for lunch in Fredericktown.  This part of the country is Amish territory.  We had Amish meats and cheeses in our sandwiches.  Judy joined Michael and I for lunch.  All agreed that they were the best sandwiches of the trip.  It was another century day at 102 miles.

Sue Bartholomew from last year's ride stopped in at the end of the day and brought cookies for the ride.  Thanks Sue! It was great to see you.

My left calf muscle started bothering early into the ride.  I must have had sympathy pains with Ty who had a little spill and suffered a gash in his calf.  Michael and I helped him with first aid cleanup.  My calf got progressively worse.  I decided a few miles before the second sag to get in the van for the last 25 miles.  It was great ride through then.  The sore calf did not slow me down but every pedal stroke bothered me.  Best to save it for another day.  I have spent the afternoon icing and massaging and hope to have Lynn do some body work on the calf this evening.  One more day before a rest day in Erie.  Hope that all my readers are doing well.  Talk to you soon.

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First another word on my decision to not ride in the rain last Sunday.  I treat this as a vacation.  If I were at the beach, would I have gone out on the sand in rain and 52 degrees.  No way!

Today was a nice ride.  We see lots of farm country and had rural roads.

Tracy recommended a restaurant on the ride that loves bicycle riders.  They sure did.  All of the staff and other customers wished us well.

The sheet of directions for today's ride filled 7 panels.  We had to be constantly on the watch for the next turn.  Crossroads put out flags and paint for some of them.  Three of us missed one of the turns.  The road name had changed since last year.  A road crew about a quarter of a mile down the road turned us around.  I rode with Bill Salamone for most of the day.  Bill is 75 years old and lives near Philadelphia.  The roads into Indy were rural enough that we could ride side by side and chat.  I am still getting to know different riders.  Our SAG today was at a farm.  Tracy just asked the owners a few years if the tour could set up in their driveway.  They were gracious hosts.  A rider from a previous year came out to the SAG and gave us checkered flags.  Bill and I went with Bob Grasa, my roommate, to the Major Taylor Velodrome for a few spins around their track.  A track rider was there and he coaxed me up onto the high bank turn.  I did not go all the way up but it was fun anyway.  The countryside outside Indy is filled with huge homes with acreage.  Even the homes in town that we went by had big properties.  They all have nicely mowed lawns.

Two of my riding mates from last year came to meet the tour last night.  Jim Heller and Al Simons rode with Michael G and I today.  Jim and Al took turns riding and driving the car.  We met in Hagerstown for the most delicious lunch at the Bookend Cafe.  The entrees are named after famous authors.  I had a great wrap, although I do not remember the author's name.  Hagerstown is in Amish country and I was able to get a picture of a horse drawn Amish buggy.  We had to work hard to catch up to it.  Later on down the road, we saw a young Amish man walking behind two draft horses.  He may even have been getting dragged slightly.  I could not imagine trying to control two of them.  The weather the past 3 days has been good with slightly more favorable winds.  Tomorrow is a 103 mile day with thunderstorms in the PM.

Will be hustling to Marysville Ohio on Sunday.  Talk to you later.

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Today was another difficult day.  I ended up riding up solo for the entire distance.  I got a late start out of the hotel and did not catch another rider until 15 or so miles out.  I could not match up well ability wise with riders who I passed.  I tried to go with Michael Goldsmith out of the SAG but he was too strong for me.  So it was 6 hours alone in the saddle.  I remember listening to Muhammad Ali when I was a boy describing how difficult boxing was.  He said to put on the boxing gloves and try holding them out in front of you for 3 minutes.  I never tried it but can relate to you the difficulty of sitting on a 7 inch or so long and 5 inch wide bicycle saddle for 6 hours fighting a headwind.  Add leaning over onto the handlebars to support your upper body weight and pedaling 80 or so rpm.  Well, I am just a rank amateur.  Don't know how the pros do it at nearly twice the speed.

I got a massage on the morning of the 14th.  Another rider and I rode our bikes 4.5 miles to a massage therapy center.  They had 8 therapists on duty today and were booked for the entire day.  Jim and I were the only cyclists to get in.  The early bird gets the worm.

I may head over to the Univ of Illinois campus later today.  Not sure I will because it would mean getting back on the bike to do it.  We need to treasure the rest days.  I will try to find a place that will process my photos so I can get them to Brian to put up on the website.

For those of you are wondering, my hands and fingers feel great.  No pain, no numbness.  Hope it stays that way.

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I set a record today.  I left Kirksville at 7:45 and I was in Quincy 75 miles later at 9:05.  OK, I cheated.  Thunderstorms surrounded the area all night and into the morning.  The thunder was constant.  I thought a tornado was coming because of the never-ending thunder.  I am dead serious.  They asked for volunteers to skip the day's ride and it was an easy decision for me.  I took the van.  The day turned out rather nicely.  The thunder stopped and the torrential rain let up.  Riders were very cold.  I did ride 6 miles around Quincy checking things out.  Going to the hotel early with other riders gave me a great chance to get to know them.

Today was a long day in the saddle.  I clocked 110 miles on my computer in 7 hours and 15 minutes.  We had slight headwinds the whole day.  After the first sag, I hooked up with 5 others and we maintained a nice paceline through about 70 miles.  Michael Goldsmith from last year's tour was bonking a little, so we split into groups of 3.  Mostly rural roads today.  The waist high corn gave a little shield from the wind, but the soybean fields were worthless for that.  We were joking we should be traveling through this part of the country in 3 weeks when the corn is head high and is a total windbreak.

Got to the hotel and saw that Wednesday's forecast is for westerly winds.  I shouted "Yes" and my roommate Bob reminded me that Wednesday is a rest day.

Hopefully the trend will be changing.  Riders are sick of headwinds.  Last year I had only day of headwinds.  This year, the riders from LA say that all but 3 days have been headwinds.

Talk to you next time.

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Missouri is the show me state.  I knew it was hilly, but these 2 days have shown me what hills really are.  They are relentless.  Some are quite steep, much more so than my training rides in Colorado.  This was an 87 mile day.

I averaged 15mph, fast compared with the 2nd day.  It was 95 degrees at the peak of the day.  The climbing was somewhere around 5000 feet.  A historical society treated to us to rolls and fruit in Maysville.  They do it for this tour each year.  Maysville is the long distance capital of the country.

Seems around 100 years ago, a local resident rode a old high seat bicycle across America.

Someone counted the hills on this day's route on a previous ride.  148 of them, none easy.  I would not even bother to shift to the big ring on a downhill because I would be shifting back down soon enough.  Today was a 75 mile day.  It took as long as yesterday and I averaged only 12.9 mph.  I enjoy the scenery in Missouri.  Green.  With drought in Colorado, green is a nice color to see.  The roads are rough in spots, but better than I was led to believe according to the legends of the state nicknamed Misery by cyclists.  Talk to you all next time.

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Yes, I am beyond hope. After abandoning my attempt to cycle across America last year, I will resume the trip in St. Joseph, Missouri, on June 9. The Crossroads Cycling Adventures tour will reach Boston on June 30 for the traditional wheel dipping ceremony in the Atlantic Ocean.