Akron, OH to Austinburg, OH
June 6, 2023
84 miles
Tour total: 1285 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1201 miles

I started out the day knowing that thd ride from Akron to Austinburg was our second longest day with 84 miles of riding. My plan was to get to the third rest stop and then decide if I would ride to the end or get in the van. Each rest stop is approximately 20 miles apart, and I knew I could do 60 miles.

I felt rested, but we were starting early … around 7:30 or so. I'm often one of the last ones out and today was no different. Within a mile or so my tour sister Chanda came by just as I was turning back from a wrong turn due to a misunderstanding with one of the RideWithGPS cues. I enjoy riding with Chanda because she doesn't go too fast or too slow, doesn't mind taking breaks when asked and isn't shy if she needs one as well. We ended up riding the entire day together. There wasn't a lot of time to take pictures because we both had our eye on trying to do the entire ride … if we could. What we did have was lots of quiet roads where we could ride side by side and marvel at the beautiful countryside with farm after farm after farm with Amish or Mennonite farmers driving their Belgian draft horses to cut their hay fields or to plow their field to ready it for another crop. Both Chanda and I love horses and it was nice to have that shared appreciation for what we saw. At one point we stopped briefly for a couple of Belgian mares and their foals, one of which was as curious about us as we were of him.

The bulk of the day was spent riding, resting for a minute or so, eating at the rest stops, and finding restrooms. We got to the third rest stop and together we decided we had enough energy to go the distance.

We found a pizza shop at around mile 74 across the street from a helicopter mounted on a large pedestal in a small park and with a rear rotor that was driven by the wind. We knew that we would be headed into the final 8-mile stretch on a rail trail, and although I could have probably been okay without a pit stop, I was going to be more comfortable with one. I took a chance to walk inside to inquire about a restroom (we had visited a few places that didn't have public restrooms). Chanda stayed outside to watch the bikes. The owner happened to be folding empty pizza boxes, presumably to get ready for the evening's dinner rush. I explained that my friend and I had just ridden 74 miles on our bikes and were hoping that there might be a restroom we could use. He answered that he did, but that he didn't have a shower! So funny! A shower? No … we didn't need a shower. We were looking forward to getting to our hotel in Austinburg about 10 miles away for that. He and I and another customer chatted briefly and I explained that I and my friend and the rest of our group were headed to Canada. It is so much fun to watch the reactions.

Was I tired when I arrived at the hotel? Yes, but not exhausted. Was I feeling accomplished? Absolutely! It was my longest single day ride so far and my last chance to beat my previous record of 78 miles … just a few days ago. The final five rides will be considerably shorter than this one.

Rail trails visited today were:
Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail
Western Reserve Greenway

84 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Austinburg, OH to Erie, PA
June 7, 2023
57 miles
Tour total: 1342 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1258 miles

A short ride today ... only 57 miles. I was a bit intimidated by that number a few short weeks ago. Now, it's a relaxing day on the bike with time to stop and take pictures. And then ... nothing catastrophic, thank goodness, but a series of road closures and lane reductions throughout the day made for one challenge after another. Early on in the tour, we started using What'sApp to communicate important and time-critical information, such as where to meet for dinner and when the luggage trailer would be open in the morning. Today, we were all grateful for this app because our quicker riders were finding road after road closed for repairs both near the beginning of our ride and near the end.

Our tour leader, Casey, posted an alternate route for the first one. I was all ready to take the detour when I came up to the wide road that was blocked completely across with "Road Closed" barriers, but I happened to have caught up to a few of my tour sisters, Yolanda, Leigh Anne, and Ethel. What little we could see of the road looked fine, so they all decided to take a chance and check it out ... something I would never have done by myself. Was it a case of safety in numbers or the influence of mob mentality? Of course, I followed them and we had the most lovely ride with a gorgeous view of Lake Erie. It was a bit of a windy day, and without any cars or trucks, I was able to hear the waves lapping on the shore. The rode closure didn't last long. We emerged from the other barrier without having been challenged by our adventurous ways. There still wasn't much traffic to speak of and other than a short lane closure, it was a lovely day of riding ... until ...

Towards the end of the ride, our route took us into a lovely neighborhood, that reminded me very much of Newton, MA, where one can find lots of very fancy and very big houses spaced very closely together. As I rode through these lovely little streets, I reflected once more on the focus of the tour, the Underground Railroad and the efforts of the freedom seekers. I was riding within sight of Lake Erie, a border lake between the United States and Canada while riding through a neighborhood that would most likely not have been overwhelmingly welcoming to them. And I knew I was nearing the spot where another alert had been noted by our front running riders. Our RideWithGPS route was going to take us over a small bridge from this neighborhood to another. As it turned out, the bridge was not there and there were "Road Closed" barriers on either side of a sizable ditch. The suggestion on WhatsApp was to use our regular map app of choice on our phone to find a way around, which I did with ease. I learned later, that my very adventurous tour sister, Sue, actually walked her bike past the barriers, down into the ravine and back out the other side.

Shortly after that travel puzzle was solved, I needed to find a bike trail. There were several options and the verbal cues were a bit confusing, but I eventually figured out that the path through a crowded playground I'd been avoiding was, in fact, the right choice. The path meandered this way and that and protected me from a few busy streets as I got closer to the hotel. Probably the most disappointing aspect of this bike trail was how the road crossings were constructed. Usually, they are fairly smooth transitions from trail to road crossing and back to trail again. These were two-inch high curbs, which after 50 miles of riding and some extra brain work to get through and past detours, I was in no mood for these bone-jarring crossings. I slowed down, of course, and got through them and made my way to the hotel.

The biggest concern for all of us has been the hazy sky, which is being caused by the smoke from the wildfires in Canada. It's the leading story on the news every time I happen to see a tv news show in the lobby of whichever hotel we're staying at. So far, I haven't been affected, but we are all keeping an eye on the air quality reports.

Rail trails visited today were:
Western Reserve Greenway
Frontier Bikeway
Bayfront Bikeway

All in all, another great ride that I completed ...

57 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Erie, PA to Dunkirk, NY
June 8, 2023
48 miles
Tour total: 1390 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1306 miles

Rode pretty much on one road the entire day ... and except for a few long and gentle rolling hills, the ride was fairly flat. Days like this have taught me that each ride has its challenges. One would think that a nice flat ride would be a piece of cake after all the days and weeks of hill climbing we've done. However, at the end of the day, I wondered why my thighs ached so much. Because the terrain didn't change much in elevation, that meant I was pedaling most of the ride. No wonder my legs were complaining! I didn't have many opportunities to just relax on the downhills because there weren't many to be had.

The biggest excitement was crossing into New York, our seventh state since the start of the tour.

A few miles before the end of the ride, was the Dunkirk Lighthouse. There was no cost to roam the grounds. I ate my sandwich and a few of my snacks at one of the picnic tables, and then walked around to look at the plaques describing the history of the lighthouse and of the history of the region in and around Lake Erie. It was a welcome rest before heading out to finish the ride. We were rewarded with another stay at a lakeside hotel.

I'm taking every opportunity to fit in as many social activities off the bike as on. One of my tour sisters, Linda, is great at making community. She's a relatively fast rider, so she's among the first wave of riders to get to the hotel each day. She makes the most of the extra time she has before the rest of the riders arrive by scouting out things to do in the area. Sometimes it's just a walk over a bridge near the hotel, or playing cards in the lobby or finding a cool place to visit. Tonight, it was a concert on the pier before and after dinner. It was a bit chilly, so we didn't stay long. Nevertheless, it was still fun to walk around and be a part of the local community, if only for a short while.

Another wonderful day ... there aren't many more, but I was pleased to have ridden ...

48 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Dunkirk, NY to Hamburg, NY
June 9, 2023
39 miles
Tour total: 1428 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1345 miles

Another day of riding a relatively flat terrain. The weather was the biggest challenge. I put on my Goretex rain pants over my bike shorts because it was predicted to be chilly when we started out. Within a few miles the temperature rose more than I expected it would, so I needed to stop to take them off. That felt better until we arrived at our one and only rest stop for the day.

Shortly after arriving, I felt a few drops of rain, and one of my tour sisters, Rita, showed us the local weather radar. Rain was definitely headed our way. The last time we encountered any rain during our ride was on the first day. Fortunately, I had my rain jacket and helmet cover in the van at the rest stop. Off with my windbreaker ... on with my Goretex pants, rain jacket and helmet cover. And it was getting chilly. A few of my tour sisters decided that they would load their bikes on the van and hitch a ride to the hotel. I've ridden in the rain in the past, and we didn't have far to go ... only 20 more miles. Three of us set out and decided to stick together for safety. I stashed my phone in my front pack, knowing that I would still be able to hear the RideWithGPS cues through the earphones on my helmet.

The rain didn't last long, and by the time we were through it, we noticed a message from one of our tour sisters, Sue, who informed us that GrayCliff, a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, was not only right on our route, but there were tours available. We found the entrance to the grounds and made our way over to the parking lot. They clearly welcomed bike riders because there was a large bike rack. We lucked out because a one-hour tour was due to begin in 20 minutes.

Our tour guide was excellent and knowledgeable about the history of the houses on the property, many of which were still in their original state, with much of the original landscaping and furniture. She invited questions as we walked both inside and outside of the main house. The views of the lake were stunning, which could be seen at almost every part of the property, even when standing in front of the house because there were so many windows both in the front and the back of the house. Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural expertise was evident at every turn.

After the tour we had just under 10 miles to go to get to our hotel on still mostly flat roads, so it went quickly. The last couple of miles were a little challenging as we headed into a fair amount of traffic. I've been getting bolder about picking my spot on the road if there is no shoulder. It's a skill to be sure.

All in all, another great ride that I completed …

39 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Hamburg, NY to Niagara Falls, NY
June 10, 2023
46 miles
Tour total: 1474 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1391 miles

Stop-and-go and safety-in-numbers were the themes of today's ride. Last night, I made sure to transfer my passport from my luggage to my front pannier because we would be crossing the border into Canada in the middle of the ride and back into the United States towards the end of the ride. Today was not a day I wanted to ride by myself, even though I could have with no consequences. I just felt that riding with others at the border crossings would go more smoothly and be more fun to share the experience of coming up to the border guards on a bicycle.

The morning's ride was a lot of fun as I was sandwiched between my tour sisters, MP and Kelly. Both of them have been on many WomanTours rides and have a great sense of humor tempered with excellent bicycling common sense. We were part of a larger group as we left the hotel parking lot. It was Saturday morning, so there wasn't a lot of traffic. We rode through quiet neighborhoods and there were lots and lots and lots of traffic lights as we worked our way through the outskirts of Buffalo and then through the heart of Buffalo.

I didn't have to pay as much attention to all the turns we needed to make because I just followed the others who were in front of me. My mind wandered as it often does when I think about what I want to remember at the end of the day ( or the next morning ) in my journal. As the wind picked up in Buffalo ... and I mean it really picked up ... I thought about the metaphor of my struggle to brace against and ride through the wind and how it compared to the struggles of the freedom seekers, even as they neared their goal of reaching the Canadian border.

In the 1850s after the passage of Fugitive Slave Act, someone escaping an enslaver by living in a northern state that had outlawed slavery did not prevent enslavers in the southern states from claiming them and bringing them back into slavery. Freedom seekers needed to get to Canada in order to ensure their freedom without fear of being deported.

Sometimes the final miles to achieve that freedom could be the most hazardous. To me, the fierce wind through which I had to pedal reminded me of their struggles. That said, it was not lost on me that I was doing this for fun, while the freedom seekers of the 19th century were running for their lives.

And then we transitioned to riding on the Shoreline Trail, which was okay at first and then ... the trail appeared to have exploded into an upheaval of asphalt and concrete. By this time we were right next to Lake Erie, so we took a moment to take a picture of ourselves and our bikes with the lake as a backdrop while we checked to see if we were really on the intended route. We were! So we walked our bike amidst the debris until we got to a more rideable part of the trail.

By this time, the larger group that left the hotel had spread out, but as we neared the entrance to the Peace Bridge, we coalesced to ride across together. Perhaps there were 10 or more of us as we approached the official border crossing on the Canadian side. Our RideWithGPS cue sheet instructed us to go to the head of the line of cars, but then we saw a border guard who motioned for us to follow him as a group. He led us to a quiet building off to the side of the long lines of cars and trucks waiting to cross the border. We leaned our bikes up against the wall of the building and walked inside. Three border guards took our passports, scanned them asked each of us a simple question, such as mine who asked if I was planning on leaving anything in Canada. No, I replied.

One of our group asked politely if they had restrooms. They did! We took the time to take care of business, as it were, before going back outside to retrieve our bikes and continue on. Within a mile or two we arrived at our rest stop for our mid-day snack and a bit of a mental break (as well as a physical one) before we resumed the rest of the ride.

The WomanTours photographer, Annette, had joined the group yesterday, and she was on hand at the rest stop. She took the opportunity to ask if we could stay together as a group for the long lakeside ride on the Canadian side before we crossed back over to the U.S. side. We rode together for miles as a mini (and safely-spaced) peloton. The street had very few cars and beautiful homes to look at and went on and on for miles before we stopped for a small rest at a park alongside the river. Annette and our peloton played leapfrog several times as she stationed herself to catch the moment as we rode by. She would then get back in her car to drive ahead of us to prepare for the next encounter.

On the Canadian side, the wind died down completely. Looking at the map it makes sense because we were lakeside in the morning with the wind in our faces and on the north side of Lake Erie in the afternoon as we headed away from the lake. The metaphor of freedom seekers having achieved their dream and goal of reaching the Promised Land of Canada seemed to play itself out for me with the wind that had harrassed me in the morning and released me in the afternoon. Even the smoke from the fires in northern Canada that had cast a haze over our ride for the last few days had dissipated as we rode with clear blue skies above us.

Back on the U.S. side a few of us wanted to visit the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center for a tour before heading to the hotel. Very interesting! Not only that, but I remembered the location because two years ago in 2021 I was here with my first WomanTours bike tour, a 4-day tour around Niagara Falls on the U.S. side only because the border crossings to Canada were still closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. As we got closer to the museum, I realized where we were going. Two years ago the museum either wasn't open on the day we rode by or we might not have had time to stop inside. The walls across the street from the museum have the most beautiful murals of Black leaders and heroes throughout U.S. history. It was those murals I remembered from my first WomanTours ride.

The Shirat HaYam melody played in my head all day. It is Parashat Beha'alot'kha when the "journeys" are chanted. Another link in my brain connecting and binding the journeys of the Israelites of the Bible to the journeys of the freedom seekers.

All in all, another great ride that I completed ...

46 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Niagara Falls, NY to Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON
June 11, 2023
18 miles
Tour total: 1492 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1409 miles

Last ride of the tour. Only 18 miles. Was the last one out of the parking lot several minutes behind the last group that left ahead of me. I was actually looking forward to riding by myself, but a mile or so into the Niagara Falls State Park, I saw a group of four of my tour sisters, Linda, Chanda, Barb, and Betsy, so I rode just a bit faster to catch up to them. It wasn't long before we arrived at the Rainbow Bridge, which we had crossed the day before to come back into the United States after a lovely afternoon riding north along the Canadian side of the Niagara River. It hadn't cost anything to come into the United States, but apparently one needs to pay a dollar in order to leave. No passport needed at the toll booth ... just a dollar. The border guards at the other end of the bridge on the Canadian side ... they needed our passports. Had a nice chat with the border guard as we shared that this was our last day of riding from Mississippi to Canada in memory of the Underground Railroad. Oh! You're part of that group? Yup! We're the last ones. You may see our vans and trailer soon. Chanda asked the border guard if he would please stamp our passports because she had fond memories of looking at her dad's (grandfather's?) passport and seeing all the cool places he had visited. The border guard obliged and stamped our passports. Another memory recorded. We walked our bikes over to the side, so we could put our passports away.

Bridge and border crossing managed. A light rain started to fall, so we took a few minutes to put on what rain gear we had packed with us for the day. I had checked the weather before we left and none was predicted for Niagara Falls on the U.S. side, but had not felt the need to check the weather for the Canadian side. It wasn't that cold, but I was glad that I already had my windbreaker on, which does a fair job of handling a light rain, which is what we had. And ... I had put the rain cover for my helmet in my front pack before leaving the hotel ... just in case, because it was cloudy. That made the ride in the rain more pleasant because it kept the random drips from coming through the spaces in my helmet.

Linda was in the lead and being from Canada and an avid cyclist who has frequented this area gave us a first-class tour as we made our way north along the Niagara River. She knew exactly where to stop to find the best views.

We stayed out so long on our short ride that one of our tour guides, Cindi, called one of us to make sure that we were okay. By that time, we were, in fact, only a few minutes away from the hotel, so we hopped back on our bikes and made our way to finish the ride.

We got settled quickly into our rooms at the Pillar and Post Hotel at Niagara-on-the-Lake and went out with my riding companions for lunch. We had a lovely walk into the center of the town, which reminded me of a spread-out version of Bar Harbor, ME, and a lovely lunch of lentil soup and goat cheese on bruschetta.

The riding was over, but the tour was not. Our last event was a lovely banquet in the evening at the hotel, followed by a "white elephant swap" before dessert. My number was one of the last ones and I selected a small roll-on sunscreen stick. After the first participant decided to trade in her original choice for my roll-on sunscreen, that gave me an unexpected opportunity to do a mitzvah.

A few minutes prior to my sunscreen stick being "swiped" by Jacquie, my tour sister Cathy, who was sitting next to me, had selected a beautiful hand-stitched heart that Betsy had made specifically to give away at the end of the tour. Cathy had commented to the entire room on how much she appreciated hand-made items and how it would be the perfect keepsake for her to remember the tour. As things go in these kinds of events, the biking gloves that Linda had selected were taken away from her, which prompted Linda to take the hand-stitched heart away from Cathy. All this swapping and "swiping" left Cathy with a cute little neck cooler cloth that when wet expands and stays cool for a long time. Anyway, after Jacquie took my sunscreen, I realized my good fortune. I took the hand-made heart from Linda, which everyone assumed I would keep. Honestly, I would have loved to keep that heart, but Cathy was so disappointed that she had lost it in the heat of the game. The heart was now mine and could not be taken again according to the rules, so I quickly gave it to Cathy and took the neck cooler before she could say a word. The other tour sisters at our table saw what I had done and approved.

The evening was capped by a very nice tribute by the tour guides to each participant with a participation certificate with their name and recognition of their most significant contribution to the group. Mine was "The Choir Director" because of the time I tried to teach a song to the dishwashing crew.

I'm both happy and sad for the ride to be finished. I'm immensely proud of myself that I achieved my goal of riding almost 1500 miles in 32 days. I chose to ride in the van on only three days ... once for the last 30 miles of our 91-mile day, once for the last 10 miles of a long, hot and hilly day and once for the first 40 miles of a 74-mile day that would include a 2-hour visit and tour of a neighborhood outside of Maysville, KY that was part of the history of the Underground Railroad and Civil War generals on both sides of the conflict.

I'm glad it's over because I'm looking forward to going home, seeing Richard and Amy (our cat) and Lucky (our pony). I'm ready to hop back on the bike and ride around where I live and perhaps lengthen the distance of where I ride. Hills don't intimidate me as they once did. I'm ready for more, but I won't have the opportunity to do another tour as long as this one for quite some time. I'm hoping to find some shorter rides in the summer while I'm off from work. We'll see…

18 miles EBI (every blessed inch)