August 27, 2022
It’s time to catch the reader(s) up on this travel blog.
Two weeks ago I was still in Michigan heading south, uncertain how to navigate the cities that lay in my path – south and east (Detroit, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Toledo). I knew that if I could get to Cleveland, I would have a place to stay with Nora and Scot. My thought was to get to a place – Bay CIty being the closest – where I could rent a car and drive around the city scapes. In Bay City there were no cars to rent and no buses to Cleveland until the following day. Nora offered to pick me up in Toledo (two hours from Cleveland), so I hopped on that bus. I spent the next day riding bike paths through Cleveland (without all the weight), visited the Cleveland Museum where I saw a beautiful exhibit of photographs by black photographers of black bodies, “The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion.” I also found myself in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That evening, while having ice cream downtown, Michaela, who works summers at Hope Orchard, approached me saying, “Tom? I thought you were on a bike trip?” Another chance meeting on a journey of chance meetings.
Set out the next day for the Pennsylvania border, Erie, PA and into NY. In Medina, NY I connected with the Erie Canal Bikeway, extending from Buffalo to Albany. I rode the pathway as far as Rome, where I headed north (with some difficult climbs) to where I sit now in the sun on the dock of Echo Lake, where my friends Kate and Don have a lovely home and guesthouse. Here I will spend two nights and today gathering my strength before entering the Adirondack Park, then Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and finally, Morse Road.
