We spent last night in Perrysburg. Seems many things around here are named for a Perry, either Admiral Matthew Perry, or his older brother Oliver, who won the battle of Lake Erie...more on that later.
Richard captured this photo of me last night as I worked on the blog. He commented that here I was in "the very sexy, bling-filled offices of Chuck Robinson Associates, working out of a KOA, halfway between Ohio cornfields and Lake Erie."
This morning's ride was a relatively short one — 45 miles — to Richard's Sister-in-law's & Brother-in-law's cottage in Marblehead, close to Lake Erie and Sandusky Bay. Big thanks to them for allowing us to use their place. We'll get good showers, real beds, and a chance to do laundry before pushing on to Cleveland.
At the 6-mile point this morning I reached the 1000-mile mark in my journey — half way to Bar Harbor, by my rough calculations. Richard and I decided to stop for a photo.
It's not a great photo — Richard looks like, in the Beatles' words, he's not half the man he used to be. It's also not a dramatic spot. We just happened to reach Reiman Rd as we also reached this journey milestone.
We've been riding through pretty typical Ohio farm land, with soy beans and corn about ready for harvest — we did see one spot yesterday where corn-picking had begun. There was this Monet-like vision of a lily pond, with barely visible water fowl.
At nearly the half-way point we rendezvoused with Dee at Flatiron Park in Oak Harbor. The park is apparently named for its shape, which like the Flatiron Building in NYC, is very narrow at one point and wide at the opposite end. A sign in the park explains its history and present dedication.
And, here's the original dedication monument, with its WWII addition.
In Port Clinton we were greeted by this sign, and I snapped Richard beside it.
Seems the Battle of Lake Erie was a crucial one in the War of 1812. On September 10, 1813, the American Fleet, commanded by Oliver Perry, defeated the British, and Perry dashed off the oft-quoted memo — "We have met the enemy and they are ours."
Port Clinton is also home to a beautiful Ottawa County Courthouse, no doubt built from rock from one of the quarries that dominate this spit that reaches into Lake Erie.
At this point, just over half way into this journey, I'm reminded how grateful I am to those of you who have donated to one or more of the three nonprofits for whom I'm raising money. If you'd still like to donate, here are the links to those three donation pages.
Whatcom Community Foundation: Donate Here
Whatcom Community College Foundation: Donate Here
Book Industry Charitable Foundation: Donate Here
Julie Arterio wrote a very nice story about the ride in Bookselling This Week. You can read it here.
Ride Day Seventeen by the numbers:
45.5 - miles ridden
337.9 - feet in elevation gain
4555.95 - calories burned
0 - falls
4 - dogs —from one house. They began to give chase, but were called off by their owner. We speculated that he was expecting some cold temperatures this winter and was preparing for a four-dog night.
Recent Comments