Day 57: Raced a storm through downtown Cleveland on my way to Eastlake, OH

After a fabulous dinner on the shores of Lake Erie followed by lots of good conversation and s’mores, I got to bed about 10:30 which is a bit on the late side for me.  I was awakened in the early morning hours by lots of lightning, thunder, high winds and hard rain. When I looked at the radar this mornimg, it looked like I had maybe a 5 hour window before the next band of bad weather hit so, another hurried morning and off I went. As an aside, this ride may be turning me into an astraphobe (look it up). The weather was warm and humid from the start and the wind was gusty and variable- but periodically was a SW tailwind. I had a very pretty ride along route 6  for 30 or 35 miles. Route 6 goes right along the south shore of Lake Erie and goes through many pretty small towns. Then, I rode through downtown Cleveland and over the Cuyahoga River and that was quite an urban experience! I’m glad it was a weekend or it really would have been crazy. I eventually ended up on the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway and began to calm down… And then just past the airport, I came to another road closure and required detour. Google Map led me through some extremely derelict and sketchy neighborhoods in northeast Cleveland. I just smiled and waved at everyone that made eye contact with me and to a person, everyone smiled and waved back! They must have thought I was insane. Eventually I made my way back to some reasonable roads and with the wind really starting to get gusty, I started pedaling hard for the last bit of the ride to the hotel. I am at the hotel now and while overcast and very windy, it hasn’t started to rain yet. I rode the 68 miles in just a tad over 4 hours. Daily mileage: 68, trip miles: 3,110.

Nice roads approaching Cleveland:

Some pretty old homes along the way. I wish I wasn’t so rushed so I could have enjoyed this part of the ride more:

Approaching Cleveland:

Once I rode through downtown Cleveland, I got on some nice bike paths: