2020, Day 13: 3000 Miles

From Dad:

Ugh! The wind is back! For the first part of the ride, it was mostly a side wind, but it still hampered me somewhat. Then, I turned due east and it became a head-wind. I started seeing a few more hills--not steep yet, but with the wind, slowed me down quite a bit. I rode 40.6 miles today in 3:50.

Obviously, I was concerned today about breaking more spokes. Leaving Clyde, the shoulder was very cracked and rough, and the bike was taking a pounding. Somehow, it held together.

Once we were done riding, we drove to Cleveland to get the new wheel for the bike. I also found out another rear gear set would only cost $20.00. So I have a new wheel and “transmission,” too. The gears worked fine today, but after the trouble the repair guy had with them yesterday, and at that price, it was worth replacing them.

So we really hadn’t planned on going to Cleveland this trip, but there we were. So we drove down to Lake Erie and took some pictures. The waves were coming in pretty strong. We also got shots of the skyline and Browns stadium.

Dad's curse has apparently infected the bike as well, considering the number of repairs that have been needed on this leg of the trip. Fortunately, the engine on the bike is self-healing and repairs on a bike transmission are cheaper than a SUV's alternator. Hopefully now it'll be smooth sailing with no more broken spokes or deflated tires or broken axels or breakdowns.

In other news, by my very rough and probably inaccurate estimations that exist on my miles tracker, dad passed the 3000 mile marker today! He'll probably correct me and tell me when he actually did, or will, but by my very official measuring stick of Google MyMaps, we've crossed 3k. Which means 75%ish done. Also, dad's now checked off half of his milestone stops for this trip, which seems like it happened real fast considering the length of that list. Way to go, Dad!