I left Abe's at 9 after his mum cooked a delicious bacon and eggs breakfast for us both. Abe was off to his job in the local bike shop so I rode with him for a short way up the road before heading our separate ways. I then headed back down the rather large hill that Abe lives on to cross the river and head out of Pittsburgh. A thermometer reading on a large sign on the edge of the city said 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees C); cooler than yesterday but it still felt humid. Abe described it yesterday as like 'breathing in soup'! As I cycled further into the day it got much cooler and around 3pm it had started to rain lightly, a big change from the past few days.
The ride out of Pittsburgh was very pleasant, but up towards the countryside there wasn't a lot of interesting scenery. The hills slowly flattened out and the roads became long and straight; easy for cycling but not particularly interesting. Abe very kindly provided me a sandwich and a bag of grapes for lunch before I left, and I stopped at the side of the road along the way when I got hungry. About halfway through the day I crossed into Ohio, where theres lots of corn and quite a few oil pumps dotted around the fields. I also got chased by a couple of grumpy dogs along the way, a bit of a fright!
I had called ahead of reaching Akron to my next host, Angelo, who decided we should meet at his bike shop. This became quite difficult as had no way of googling directions and ended up very lost, having to call Angelo back several times before I found the place. Once we met, he took me to the 'Bike Kitchen' he volunteers at where they were assembling bikes for kids donated through the LeBron James Foundation, which gives state school kids a free bike as an reward for staying in school and doing well at their exams. Volunteers from various biking organisations help out putting together these 350 bikes a year and in return get help with their own bikes from people like Angelo. A great idea!
Once at Angelos small apartment not far from the centre of Akron, he cooked me 'bangers and mash' as he thought he wanted to make me feel more at home. We talked a lot about Italy, where his family is from, and about his touring plans to explore Europe before heading down to try to settle in Italy.
All in all, its been an alright day, but I ended up covering many more miles than I had planned to! Onto Fremont tomorrow, where it gets even flatter, but I apparently have the head winds to contend with.
Miles today: 102.3
Total miles: 532.7
The ride out of Pittsburgh was very pleasant, but up towards the countryside there wasn't a lot of interesting scenery. The hills slowly flattened out and the roads became long and straight; easy for cycling but not particularly interesting. Abe very kindly provided me a sandwich and a bag of grapes for lunch before I left, and I stopped at the side of the road along the way when I got hungry. About halfway through the day I crossed into Ohio, where theres lots of corn and quite a few oil pumps dotted around the fields. I also got chased by a couple of grumpy dogs along the way, a bit of a fright!
I had called ahead of reaching Akron to my next host, Angelo, who decided we should meet at his bike shop. This became quite difficult as had no way of googling directions and ended up very lost, having to call Angelo back several times before I found the place. Once we met, he took me to the 'Bike Kitchen' he volunteers at where they were assembling bikes for kids donated through the LeBron James Foundation, which gives state school kids a free bike as an reward for staying in school and doing well at their exams. Volunteers from various biking organisations help out putting together these 350 bikes a year and in return get help with their own bikes from people like Angelo. A great idea!
Once at Angelos small apartment not far from the centre of Akron, he cooked me 'bangers and mash' as he thought he wanted to make me feel more at home. We talked a lot about Italy, where his family is from, and about his touring plans to explore Europe before heading down to try to settle in Italy.
All in all, its been an alright day, but I ended up covering many more miles than I had planned to! Onto Fremont tomorrow, where it gets even flatter, but I apparently have the head winds to contend with.
Miles today: 102.3
Total miles: 532.7
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