Milan to Parma -Grand Tour of Italy

 I slept pretty well at the campground, only being woken up about six times by passing freight trains.  Otherwise it was very quiet and peaceful.   

I broke camp and started day 2 of my Bike Travel Weekend.  I said goodbye to the campground. 

I rode to the McDonald's up the highway for breakfast, since there didn't seem to be any other alternatives nearby. 

The clerk didn't even balk when I asked him for a European style Americano added to my coffee, since I didn't see espresso shots on the menu.  Great customer service!  Tried to stay on my WW program, had scrambled eggs and oatmeal until I realized instant oatmeal had sugar in it.  So I stopped at half a serving. I crossed US 250 one more time and headed down Mason Road.  It was a great road for cycling, before I had gone half a mile I met three cyclists coming the other way.  The road was all gentle curves and rolling hills. The wind was at my back.  I passed a sign that said "Berlin Heights", and even though Berlin is not in Italy, I stopped to take a photo with my bike. 

 Finally I needed to turn south in order to arrive in Florence.  Now the wind was in my face.  I crossed through the underpass beneath the turnpike, and as I rode up the hill I was doing my normal uphill routine of telling myself I didn't half to climb the whole hill, just to the next pothole. Or just to the next twig at the side of the road.  Or just to the next tree shadow crossing the road. And then when I reach that milestone, I pick a new spot further up the road.   Well, I saw a dandelion and made that my next marker.  Only when I reached it, I saw it wasn't a dandelion, but rather a dead goldfinch. 

This was a bad omen for me.  If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I consider the goldfinch my "spirit animal" and that when they fly alongside my bike, I consider it a token of good luck. I had had several flying with me on Friday morning at the start of my trip, for a while I saw a new one every mile or so.   I wasn't sure what to think when I saw the dead goldfinch. 

 My heart was racing from the effort of climbing up the incline. But it also seemed harder to push the pedals than it had earlier.  Maybe it was the headwind.  Or the goldfinch? Or maybe something worse?  

I thought had better check to see if something from my pack was dragging, or a brake shoe was rubbing the rim, and sure enough, that was what had happened. There was black rubber all over the right side of the back rim. 

 After my heart slowed down a little, I started banging on the brake cable to see if i could get it centered again. Because to find the right tools for the job would mean unpacking all the stuff in the panniers to find my toolkit in the bottom.  

Just then I noticed a woman coming out of the house, asking if I was OK. She said her husband used to own bike shop, he could help me. He was a bike maintenance guru. She mentioned he used to race professionally all over the country. 

 He came out and I noticed he was walking on the road to my bike barefoot!  After I explained the situation, he volunteered to go get an Allen wrench to adjust the brake shoe. Which he did, bless him! 

 Their names were Ben and Tina. I thank them from the bottom of my heart. And  I thank Providence, the Universe and the Lord that if this issue had to happen to me today, I had the good fortune for it to happen in front of their house-just when Tina happened to be looking out the window. How much of a  coincidence could that really be!  I am surely blessed! 

I rode into Berlin Heights.  What a beautiful small town! I saw a restaurant with an outdoor seating area and flowers and a huge awning. 

 I rode past and noticed a smaller restaurant on the main street with a couple outside and lace curtains in the windows.  I thought it would be a good place to stop and get a cold drink. 

The gentleman had an oxygen tank.  He mentioned that when he was younger,  he used to ride his cycle a lot, and that he had once visited Montana with a tour group.  Even though he thought he was in condition for the ride, it was a lot harder than he thought.  Evidently the mountains in Montana are bigger than the hills in Ohio!  He said his wife and daughter stayed home to watch the carpet store while he was touring.  As we were talking, another older gentleman drove up in his Jaguar with historical plates.  Berlin Heights seems like a really nice place to live. 

I bade them goodbye and started on my way to Florence once again.  When I arrived, there is nothing to see there, as I noted in an earlier post, so I kept going to Wakeman, Ohio. Because this is a "Tour of Italy" I stopped at the East of Chicago pizza restaurant. No bike rack, so I chained my bike to a metal bench. Besides pizza, they also have other food such as salads and subs.  I had a taco salad with no cheese or sour cream (still trying to stay on WW plan!)

I got back on my bike and got on the North Coast Inland Trail headed east.  This section of the trail is paved so nicely. I have ridden it before and I always feel like I am flying, the trail is so smooth.  It runs along US 20 for a while, then turns on a small road and follows an old rail line.  The section along the highway was pretty hot, but the rail-trail was shaded and was quite a relief.  I stopped in Kipton, took my shoes off, and lay down in the grass for a little while to rest.  

Later in the 85-degree day, after riding about 35 miles in NINE hours (really slowly, with lots of stops and breaks...) realized wasn't going to make it the remaining 20 miles before dark (or collapsing). I'd taken too many rest stops.   I stopped Oberlin at a park, to refill my water bottle. There were couple of bike club members there and explained my ride to them, and that was going to have to call my husband: to come and get me or else call Uber to get to the B&B. Lo and behold, five miles down the trail, two different older gentlemen, five minutes apart, passed me. Both stopped and offered assistance. One offered his guest bedroom and the other offered lift to my AirBnb. Since my brother in law lived few miles away, declined both offers, but the point is that they offered. The kindness and generosity of my fellow cyclists never fails to amaze me. 

  I did end up calling my brother-in-law, who very kindly put his bike rack on his car and came and collected me and took me the remaining 15 miles to the AirBnB in Middleburg Heights.  I probably COULD have made it before dark, but I was really tired and even though I had been hydrating all day long, I was feeling a few twitches in my muscles as if they wanted to cramp.