Yesterday morning we said goodbye to our dear friend Richard Hunt at his boyhood home in North Royalton, Ohio. He was heading home to family...and work. We had a great five days together from Grand Rapids, Michigan to the Cleveland area. Here's the photo of the two of us on the first day.
I don't know who is going to pull me up those long hills now. A true Ohio native son, Richard couldn't resist giving us each a symbol of his home state.
The Buckeye.
Yesterday Dee and I had an (overly) ambitious plan to take advantage of our rest day in Cleveland. We were going to see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Museum of Art. We arrived at the Rock Museum just at opening at 10am and, had we spent as much time as we really could have, would have been kicked out at 5:30. As it was, we stayed until a little after four and then headed off to get "lunch." I couldn't resist this pose on our arrival.
There was a Bellingham connection here. I forgot to take the photo of the poster, but I did get a very bad photo of the description, which is very hard to read, but it's about the Posies, the band that was fronted by Bellinghamsters John Auer and Ken Stringfellow, who, both now living in Europe, continue to perform both individually and together. It was great to see them mentioned in the museum.
On our way out we had a chance to tour the bus that Johnny Cash toured in for years. He, June Carter, and their son, John Carter Cash, each had separate compartments in the bus. Johnny's was lined with illegally imported hardwood from Jamaica that was smuggled in especially for the bus. We tried to trade our Rialta for it, but weren't successful.
Just because we missed seeing the Cleveland Museum of Art, I wouldn't want you to think we missed seeing art. First, there were many great concert posters at the Rock museum, including this one that promotes a show with the Doors, Chuck Berry, Big Brother and the Holding Company and others. The reason we were so interested in this one is the groups performed for six nights, including December 30, 1967, the night of our wedding.
A few blocks away, on our way to the Urban Farmer restaurant, a place where I'd eaten when I was in Cleveland three years ago for a community foundation convention, we spotted this sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.
I've been a big fan of their work for years. Seattle has the Typewriter Eraser Scale X at Sculpture Park, and Minneapolis has Spoonbridge and Cherry. I'm not sure this qualifies as art, but this sign got our attention and might really be considered satiric art.
The early part of this morning's ride was on quiet, suburban streets, followed by a sign any biker loves to see, especially when accompanied by a well-marked, well-paved lane.
The roads varied greatly today. Some had very narrow and rough shoulders. Others were wide, quiet country roads with varying surfaces. Once again, most drivers were very respectful and gave a wide berth.
I chose to ride without music for the first part of the day, maybe two and a half hours. I spent the time thinking about the past few days, our Cleveland visit yesterday included. As one comment noted the other night, "Cleveland is no longer the mistake on the lake." We really want to come back to visit here again, and to see the art museum.
Later, perhaps in honor of yesterday's visit, I cranked up a Rock Anthems album, then Linda Ronstadt, a longtime favorite who we saw in concert in L.A. back in 1977. I ended the day with Jake Shimabukuro, my favorite ukulele player. I own three ukes, which I don't play often, and I vacillate between being inspired and totally daunted by his playing. Either way, I love to hear him. I think I went through the album at least one and a half times before arriving at the campground.
Fairly early today I spotted this gaggle of geese on the grounds of an elementary school. They are sure pretty birds to see, but they leave a real mess. The photo only shows about half of the geese that were in the school yard.
As far as other wildlife, most of what I've seen in Ohio are those that haven't made it across the road. I've seen many raccoons, several possums, and a number of carcasses that were unidentifiable. I imagine that the urbanization of the area has concentrated these smaller animals in places were there is a lot of traffic to contend with. It's not such a pleasant sight, and sometimes not such a pleasant odor.
There were two semi-encounters with dogs today, very close together. In the first case, a medium sized black dog came straight at me. I yelled "NO" and pedaled faster, leaving him behind. In the second case, a ways farther on, a dog who could have been the first dog's cousin began to rush toward the bike then ran along side a bit, barking as we went. I also left him behind. So, no harm, no foul.
There were often views of Lake Erie today as much of the route was near the lake. That will continue tomorrow when I have the chance to ride in three states in one day. I'll begin here in Ohio and in about quarter of an hour ride into Pennsylvania. Later in the day we'll end up in New York State.
Ride Day Nineteen by the numbers:
62 — miles ridden
1036.7 — feet in elevation gained
6200.89 — calories burned
0 — falls
2 — dogs (see above)
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