2020 Great Cycle Challenge - Ohio to Erie Trail - Bike Trip - Day 10

  1st goal -raise $2k for children's cancer research. DONE

2nd goal -ride the Ohio to Erie Trail from Cincinnati to Cleveland. DONE.

3rd goal - ride 500 total miles during month of September, including the North Coast Inland Trail across Northern Ohio. . IN PROGRESS.

I got up this morning, checked out of my B&B west of Edgewater Park and rode to the West Side Market Cafe for breakfast.  That is not very far from the spot I left off last night.  

After breakfast I doubled back, following the trail using Google maps.  

There was an event in Edgewater Park for first responders who had lost their lives.  I had to gently remind a lot of participants that the trail was active.   A flag was set up for each  of them in USA.

It seemed like a really long ride past Edgewater Beach, 

 up to Upper Edgewater Park where the Cleveland sign is.

A group of people asked me to take their photo, and then they took mine.  After taking the obligatory photos, and posting, I headed to the southwest to start on my way to Toledo.  

I pedaled through Edgewater, Lakewood, Rocky River and Westlake, and maybe some other communities, on city streets, alternating between marked bike lanes and sidewalks.  I didn't take many photos. 

All the while I was in Rocky River I was texting with a fellow bicyclist who was urging me to take a series of interconnected trails to the North Coast Inland Trail.  I looked at the map and it seemed like it was a long way out of the way to start at the Steel Mill Trail.  But later, as I was pedaling along, I had an epiphany.  I don't have to pedal every mile of the NCIT.  All I have to do is go towards Toledo and record 500 miles.   And if I want to take advantage of the hotel night that I have already paid for through Priceline, I need to plan miles around that day.  I could actually ride the trails that he suggested. 

I ate lunch at a place called Bearden's in Rocky River.  It looked like a '50's diner inside.  The fish sandwich was out of this world good. I could not to begin to eat the huge serving of French fries.

 At 18 miles, I called Ed for a pickup. I got as far as North Ridgeville, having missed the turn for my brother-in-law Bill's development, before he caught up with me, and threw me and my bike into his truck.

Ed thinks I should take a day off.  Maybe I will.  I am tired. And he is tired of driving.