2020 Bike Trip - Great Cycle Challenge - Ohio to Erie Trail. Day 9 - Afternoon

  So right away , after I left the restaurant, I could see it was going to be a day when I would conquer my fears.

  I hate bridges.  I have so many nightmares where I am driving along and come to a bridge, and drive up onto the bridge, and the bridge ends, and we go into the water.  Sometimes I am driving and sometimes it is someone else driving.   So what is the next thing coming up on the Towpath Trail but a bridge.  I rode over it in "granny gear" and was just congratulating myself on my achievement when there was another similar bridge, so I got to repeat the challenge.

Soon after the bridges, I came to the "Aqueduct" where a blue heron caught my eye.  He stood motionless, and my nearness did not seem to bother him at all. 

The trail opened up to a wider expanse of green and I was rolling along when another blue heron appeared in the canal.

I was getting closer and closer to Lake Erie!  Only a few miles to go.  The trailhead at Harvard Boulevard marked a transition between dedicated bike path and riding on the street for a mile or two.  Two older ladies confirmed the direction I should go, but remarked that there wasn't much to see on the next section, it was all "industrial." Obviously they did not know my background in manufacturing. My heart quickens when I hear the presses banging on steel.  A mile or two down the road, a rusty coil of steel, which I know from experience weighs about 15 metric tons or more, caught my eye on the left of the trail On the right was an industrial plant that resembled the Armco/Inland Steel/Cyclops/AK Steel plant in Mansfield that is no longer operational at full scale.  Also on the left was a cute little brick building.  I investigated and found it was part of the parks system.   

I starting riding again, only to feel the sickening squishy feeling of my front tire losing air slowly.  I stopped and dragged my bike off the trail, and tried to pump it up with a hand pump.  As soon as I put air in, it leaked out again.  I had tools and a patch kit in my panniers, so first step was to get out the pump and try to pump some air back in.  No good, it would not hold air.  Theoretically the next step would be to remove the tires from the rims and patch the tube, then simply reinstall the tube and pump it back up.   But my last experience, last week,  in doing this operation resulted in three holes in the tube, so I lacked the necessary confidence in my abilities.  I called Ed to let him know what had happened, then I located the closest bike shop using Google maps.  It was "Simpler Times Vintage Bicycles" (note: do NOT try to locate their web site, it will not take you anywhere you want to go).  I called and explained my predicament.  I could not believe that they actually came to pick me up!!   The mechanic Jeff, made quick work of patching my tire and reinstalling on the bike.  This shop sells refurbished used bicycles.  Although it is difficult to find new bikes right now due to the pandemic, they have thousands of used bicycles in stock.  If you are in Cleveland and looking for a bike, you might want to give them a call, or go down to their store in person.  Really super nice folks.  Since they did not have any new tubes for my bike in stock, they recommended that I visit Joy Bicycles in Cleveland's Gold Coast to get a spare tube.

So, I was back on the road.  I took a shortcut back to nearly where I left off.  This involved crossing a bridge again.  This time it was over the Interstate.  

I walked my bike across this one.  It was a little scary, but I lived through the experience.

I was rewarded with a fantastic view of a steel mill

and then when I rejoined the Towpath Trail, found an official park observation deck for a better view.

Near the observation deck were some hills that looked like someone was either riding mountain bikes or playing king of the mountain.

Going around the next curve, there was a fantastic, if misty, view of downtown Cleveland.

There were quite a few uphills and downhills as I crossed highway bridges and rivers.  Suddenly, I came to an abrupt halt, as the Trail came to a bridge that had an iron infrastructure but no decking!  And no where to go from there.

 This is the stuff of my bridge nightmares.  

Backtracking, there was a spur off the trail that headed downhill.  But at the bottom of the hill was a pile of rubble.  I was waffling between trying to wade my way through the rubble or backtrack to the last street I had passed into the Tremont neighborhood, when some teenagers came through the rubble and told me it was passable.  They were accurate, but when I started riding my bike up the other side, I had a sinking feeling.  The back tire was slowly going soft.  

I was ready to cry.   Getting the first tire fixed had eaten up a good chunk of the afternoon.  I was only a few miles from Edgewater Park.  I had set off that morning at 9:00 expecting two hours of riding time, an hour to eat lunch, and an hour getting on and off the bike to take photos and to take breaks.  It was now almost 5:00.  I didn't think there would be any bike stores open this late. I called Ed, and he went into full rescue mode.  He said he would be there in an hour and a half.  I told him I was going to push my bike through the Tremont neighborhood, and he should check Google maps to locate me when he was getting close.  It seemed like a friendly neighborhood with lots of sidewalk cafes.  And I can't explain this.

 When I reached the corner of 11th street, I saw how the bike trail descended a long way down, under I-90, away from city streets where Ed would be able to reach me.  So I sat down on a park bench, ate a granola bar, I looked up other bike stores and I found out that Joy Machinery was open till 7:00.  I starting drafting this blog post.  

When Ed arrived, he packed me and my bike up, and since it was only 6:30, we went the mile and a half, plus two miles circling around looking for parking places to Joy Machinery.  Alex and Antoine stayed open past their closing time to fix me up with new tires.  Ed had brought a new spare tube, which we had at home, with him.  They looked at my existing tires and said that while they were great tires for riding on hard road surfaces like asphalt or cement, they were not as good for riding on the multiple surfaces that I had been doing all day for the last two days, and because they are thin and flexible, the tubes are taking a beating.  So I bought new tires. The new ones are stiffer and thicker.  The plus is they said with this brand of tire, I should be more easily able to put the tire on the rim without pinching the tube with the tire levers.   They also did not have any tubes in my size.  So they patched my old one and gave it to me to keep as a spare.  Super, super service!

By this time it was getting to be twilight, so I knew it was too late to return to the point I left off and pedal down to the beach.  I had Ed drop me off at the AirBnB (slightly west of the beach) and then he returned to Mansfield.   This AirBnB has self-check-in so there are signs all over the place detailing the expectations.   I am eating the second of Bill's tart, crispy, juicy apples,  finishing up this blog post and hitting the sack.  Tomorrow I will figure out how to cover the missing 3.7 miles between the place I left off and the beach.  Hopefully I can travel the route on my way to breakfast. Then tomorrow's destination is to go south from Cleveland through Lakeside and pick up the North Coast Inland Trail.  I was originally going to try for Kipton tomorrow, and have Ed pick me up to take me home, but with the additional mileage in Cleveland I may stop in Oberlin if I can find a room there.  

Good night!