From Coal to Goal

... remember me to Herald Square

Wed.  8/2:  Big Coal
The first 1/2 of the ride was pleasant enough... starting out along the Susquehanna river with fruit stands (peaches are in season!).  The 2nd half was punctuated by some of the ugliest scarred landscapes and depressed towns that you'd ever want to see.  Ashland, Gilberton, and Mahanoy City.
In addition to being flat and polluted (there's coal dust runoff in almost every stream) it's pretty hilly.

Who in his right mind wants to bring this back?

The best restaurant in Mahanoy City was a bar.  If I had to live in this town, I'd probably drink too. On the bright side, they had Funnel Cake fries on the menu.  Never saw that b4.  They were pretty good!  The wings, not so much.
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Thur.  8/3:  Family, Friends and sticky buns.

Alpacas on the way to Cousin Billy's

Hilly ride via PA309 over Blue Mountain to New Tripoli (1700 ft vertical for the 27-mile ride) where my cousin Billy and Paula live on their horse farm.  Billy's sister, Sally was visiting with her husband (Michael... who's taking the picture) and son from Israel... I got there just before they had to leave.

Paula, Sally, Sam, Yavin, yours truly, and Cousin Billy hanging out on the farm eating water melon and TastyCakes .

Then, on to the Allentown Fairgrounds farmer's market (Billy drove) for lunch and ice cream at the Ritz, and to pick up sticky buns from the Emmaus Bakery stand for the next day's breakfast.
From there, rode to my friend Susie's house for dinner.  Sue and Jim hosted me for the evening and we had a lovely grilled sticky breakfast.

Me, Bryan, Prenna (Susie's youngest), Jim and Susie.

Fri.  08/04:  NYC
Sue and Jim drove me about 20 miles to Clinton, NJ.  From there rode the last 22 miles to the train in Somerville to catch the NJT train to Newark Penn Station.  Shipped the bike home on Amtrak and caught the next train to NYC Penn Station.  Had an excellent slice of pizza... my end goal for this trip ... at NY Pizza Suprema, across from Madison Square Garden, then walked about a mile to the hotel.
Dinner was pretty OK.   Not up to Quebec standards.

A Chocolate Mousse thing with Hazelnut Ice Creme and Creme Fraisch at Ai Fiori on 5th Ave.

Flying home tomorrow afternoon.

Final Trip Stats:
Miles ridden:  3,502
Total Vertical Climbed:  88,643
 
   

The ups and downs of Pennsylvania

Sun. 7/30: Clearfield, PA
Left my credit card at a restaurant the night before, and didn't figure it out until I was about 5 miles down the road... this added a total of 10 miles to my trip by the time I rode back. Then about another 5 miles of detours from missing a turn around DuBois. The day's total was 78 miles with 3100 ft of vertical.

DuBois, PA... It's not Philadelphia

Mon. 7/31: State College, PA

Only miles from Clearfield to State College (home of my Alma Mater, Penn State), but 2500 ft. of climbing. Ended the ride with ice cream at Penn State's creamery. It took about 20 minutes standing in line. A lot of the people there were high school kids on college tours.

Penn State's creamery.

Tue. 8/01: Lewisburg
Started the day with breakfast at the Diner, where I spent a pretty significant amount of my time in college playing pinball in the back (not there anymore) and having the $0.65 special for breakfast: 2 eggs, potatoes and toast. Now it's about $5.75. Topped that with a grilled sticky. This has gotten very heavily promoted, so they're really mass produced now and not nearly as good as I remember. Of course, back in the '70's I usually had a grilled sticky in college after midnight, often while high.
On the way out of town, stopped in to Meyer's dairy, another top flight ice cream haunt.

Proceeded on roads I biked on when I was an undergrad. Amish country. PA192 is lovely. Gently rolling hills with the last 10 miles predominantly downhill. My hotel is next to a HUGE restaurant (Country Cupboard), seats 500, includes a bakery, creamery, gift shop. The dessert buffet is awesome.
Lewisburg is another college town: Bucknell Today's ride was not as hilly... only 1200 ft.

Wisconsin to Michigan to Ohio to Pennsylvania

Tues 7/18:  Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
Hot muggy ride.  Crossed the Mississippi into Wisconsin.

Wed 7/19:  Prairie du Chien to Spring Green
Spring Green has many buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  He spent many summers there during his childhood... My motel was about a mile from downtown.  There were thunderstorms while I was in town for dinner, so had to wait until they passed to ride back.  By that time it was dark, but there was still a nice lightning show in the eastern sky.

Thu 7/20 :  Spring Green to Madison (Middleton)]
Stayed with Carl (college roommate and lifelong friends) and Mary Ann at their house across Lake Mendota from Madison.  Carl was kind enough to drive me to Milwaukee on Friday.  Stopped in for frozen custard at Leon's .  After lunch we strolled around the River Walk in downtown Milwaukee

Chillin' with "The Fonz" and Carl in Milwaukee.

Carl returned home and I went over to the Sanford  for the best dinner of this trip so far... Grilled shrimp with Lamb Sausage...

Sat.7/22 :

Caught the 6:00 AM ferry to Muskegon, then rode to Holland, MI.   an unremarkable Michigan town.

Sun.7/23:  Battle Creek

Another unremarkable town.  Kind of depressed.

Mon.7/24:  Hillsdale

A pretty nice small town.  Stayed in a B&B.  Had a really good pulled pork sand..for dinner at a local bar downtown.  The owner, Kevin, is also a bicyclist, and offered to pump up my tires... really friendly people in this town.

Tues. 7/25:  Toledo

All I can say about Toledo is that it makes Cleveland seem like paradise.  The main pasttime here seems to be a 3 square block area of bars where you can take your beer cup and drink on the street in this area.  It looks nicer from my hotel window:

View from the 15th floor of the Inter Continental hotel. 

Wed. 7/26:  Toledo to Huron

Pleasant Small town on Lake Erie.  On the way, saw evidence of Kiwanis activity:

A lot of recreational boaters here, and on a series of towns between on the water between here and Cleveland.  Big lakefront houses.

Thurs. 7/27:  Cleveland

Cleveland's seems to have significantly improved since I was here over 12 years ago.  Stayed with college friend Dave and his lovely wife Joy.  

David and Joy

Went to Corky and Lenny's, one of my favorite delis, for lunch:

One of the country's best Jewish Delis.  A vanishing breed...

In the morning, we drove about 20 miles east and did a little tour of Ohio's Amish country.

Fri. 7/28: Conneaut Lake, PA

This is mostly a weekend resort area that seems to attract visitors from surrounding metro areas (Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Erie, Youngstown).

Sat. 7/29: Clarion, PA

Google Maps routed me into a ditch. Detour cost me 20 hard miles. Finally landed here around 7:00 PM. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell you when its putting you onto gravel or worse. There is a very nice paved trail along the Allegheny river. Quite a few kayaks, canoes and other floaters on the river today.

Iowa: Nice people, and Bike friendly

7/12:  Denison, IA
About midway between Onawa (an unremarkable interstate town) and Denison, I came upon an Iowa State research station on a very lonely road.  Since Alexandra has an interest in planting Milkweed for the butterflies, I stopped to chat, and share my cherries, and fill up the water bottle.

Todd, the Milkweed researcher

In Denison.  Lori, the manager at the Boulder Inn was kind enough to offer to throw in my laundry with a load the hotel was doing...  She also took a keen interest in my trip.  The whole staff there was very friendly and welcoming.

7/13:  Jefferson
Had a craving for some sweet corn... so I found a produce stand.  The bad news, it was a 5.6 mile ride from the hotel with the last 1/4 mile on dirt.  I bought 3 ears for $1.50, and had a nice chat with the owner (Cindy).  When I got back to the hotel, This was waiting for me:

The corn was really good too!  I called her to thank her for the note... and she explained that she felt guilty for taking my money after I rode all that way in the heat just for 3 ears of corn...
On the way to the hotel, I stopped at Bett & Bev's barbecue.  This was the Thurs. night special ($5)

 "Frip pie" : homemade Ripple potato chips covered with pulled pork baked beans and coleslaw.

Fri. 7/14:  Jefferson to Des Moines
Started the day off at the shop I stopped into in 2015.  This time I got there early in the AM when the merchandise is really fresh.

Bunker's Dunkers, Jefferson IA

It turns out that I was able to do the entire ride (69 miles) to Des Moine on dedicated beautiful paved bicycle trails.  Also, the weather finally broke.  Nice and cool for the next 2 days!

 

Racoon River Valley Trail

The Corn goes on forever

Sat. 7/15:  Des Moines to Marshalltown

Des Moines farmers market Saturday morning

Sun. 7/15:  Marshalltown to Cedar Falls

Wind power rising in Iowa

Mon. 7/16:  Cedar Falls to Fayette
A Road closure extended this ride by 10 miles from the planned 58 mile ride.  It's also getting hot again...
About 25 miles south of Fayette (near Hazleton), stopped into an Amish candy shop.  The whole farm ran from a windmill that ran a compressor.  Instead of electricity, the ceiling fans in the store were pneumatic.   I didn't see any electric wires going to the farmhouse or store. Their ovens were wood-burning.

The End of the Road in South Dakota

Wed 7/5 - Martin SD
Another tiny town in cattle country.  The motel was quite nice, but the weather was quite hot (>100°).  I've been trying to leave each town before 7:00 AM to avoid the worst heat of the day.

Had breakfast at the Martin Cattle Auction cafe Thursday Morning. 

Thurs 7/6 - Rosebud, SD
The Salt Camp cabin I stayed at is the most isolated lodging I've had so far.  The cabin was about 1/2 mile down a dirt road.  The land is all Indian Reservation land.  Nothing around... no town, no people.  When I checked in, we saw a coyote running across the owner's road leaving her chicken coop.  She helped me after grabbing her shotgun and making sure the coyote was gone.   The cabin had a full kitchen, with dishes and cookware.  Laura was kind enough to drive me into town (about 10 miles away) to pick up some groceries for dinner.  

Fri 7/7 - Winner, SD
An slightly larger town.  Big enough to support a McDonalds, a Shopko and a few motels besides the Super 8 where I stayed.

Sat 7/8 - Bonesteel, SD
A very tiny town.  1 really basic motel, 2 eateries and a gas station... but, to their credit they had a community swimming pool.   Pretty impressive for a town of less than 300 people.

Sun 7/9 - Whitetail River Lodge, Niobrara, NB
Lovely bed and breakfast.  By the time I got to town it was 104°.

That's right, population 1 !   This town is in SD, about 25 miles west of Niobrara, NB.  I wonder what their city council meetings are like...

Mon 7/10 - Vermillion
A little cooler today (only 90°) .   Now I'm getting headwinds.  This town is home to the University of South Dakota, and a population of about 10,000, making it big enough to support a Walmart and other decent amenities.

Tomorrow will be above 100, with 12 mph dead-on headwinds as I head into Iowa.  Not looking forward to that...

 

The 4th in Nebraska

Black Hills, SD

Fri. 6/30
Crossed into South Dakota from Sundance WY through the lovely town of Spearfish, SD.   Great library there... and good choices for lunch.  It's a lovely green town.

Profiterole at Bay Leaf in Spearfish 

Deadwood, in SD's Black Hills, is an old gold-mining town turned tourist town  with the introduction of gambling.  Lots of hotels and restaurants, with old west themes.

Deadwood's Main Street.   Including the saloon where  Wild Bill Hickok  was shot over a poker hand.

Sat.  7/1:   Mt. Rushmore / Keystone SD
Keystone SD is a town set up to house and feed the hoards of tourists coming to visit Mt. Rushmore, about 3 miles and 1000 ft. of elevation up from the town.

Sun. 7/2:  Hot Springs, SD - nothing remarkable, just a place to stay.
Mon. 7/3:  Onward to Nebraska!  It's going to be hot as hell this week.  90 today.  100 by Thursday.

Sketchy weather + big mountains = Call Avis

Monday 6/27 :  Cody to Ucross
Thunderstorms predicted, and Bighorn Mountains with a 5500 ft. vertical, done in 10% grade for 10 miles made me decide to skip this part of the trip.  I picked up a car at the Cody airport, with the intention of dropping it in Sheridan.   When I got to the Sheridan airport, the sky looked like this:

Sketchy weather in Sheridan

so I got the car for an extra day, to take me all the way to Gillette.

Tues 6/28 :  The Inn at Ucross to Gillette, WY

Riding tall

My guide

The Inn at Ucross

Gillette is the coal mining capitol of the US, in the center of Wyoming's Power River Valley coal mining.  This provide 35% of the nation's coal.   Gillette only 3580 people in 1960.  Now there are over 37,000.  Over the past decade, Gillette expanded significantly.  Now, however, with world energy prices down and coal in decline, the hotels are now running below 30% occupancy.  The same thing that happened in Williston, ND, the epicenter of the Bakken shale oil activity.

A fine rotisserie lunch at the Coop in Gillette

Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Cody WY

Sat. 6/24:  Grand Teton National Park

40 miles from Jackson to Grand Teton / Coulter Bay village.  Nice, laid-back cabins.  Plenty of Mosquitoes.

Snake River level is very high.  Snowpack in WY was about 200% of normal.

Grand Tetons

Jackson Lake

Sun. 6/25:  Yellowstone - Grant Village

40 miles to Grant Village, 2100 ft vertical

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Lewis River canyon from Rt 191.

Mon. 6/26:  Yellowstone Lake to Wapiti (near Cody), WY

86 miles.  The first 40 are up-and-down around Yellowstone Lake, followed by a 1500 ft climb .   miles to Grant Village, totaling 2400 ft vertical.  This was followed by 4650 ft over the next 45 miles.

Bison warming himself next to hot spring (see steam on the right)

Roadside grazing

Forrest die-off - climate change effect

One of many snow-melt waterfalls near Sylvan Pass