Coast to Coast 2023

 St. Thomas to Cayuga, ON We woke up a little later than normal this morning -- 7:30, what a treat. We planned on getting a later start in order to get to a bike shop when it opened at 11am, which was 10 miles in the direction we were headed. We cruised those first 10 miles out of the populated city of St. Thomas and found ourselves back in the rural farmlands of Ontario before long. We were on route 3 for the first bit of the day which I must say, I did not like at all. Very busy, almost no shoulder. However it was made up for by the fact that nearly every car in Canada was entirely courteous and moved over across the yellow line to give us space. We rolled up to the bike shop, and saw the words we really did not want to see, "closed". No!! Google lied to us! Audrey was out of spare tubes and had 4 flats in the last 10 days. Quickly we tried to think of an alternative. I remembered my dad had mentioned  that Walmart carries tubes that have sealant already in them.. a bell ru...

 Wallaceberg to St. Thomas, ON Today we woke up at the beautiful Shiloh campground in Wallaceberg, Ontario, right off of Walpole Island. Yesterday was our first evening in Canada and it was so memorable. Today we have a longer day…it’s about 72 miles to our next destination, Dalewood Conservation Area in St. Thomas. Rogan and Olivia left a little earlier than us but about 10 miles down route 40 we magically saw them at a Starbucks and happily pulled over. After an iced coffee and bagel, we got back on the road. It was not a super memorable day, to be honest. No podcasts or music for me, just chatted with Claire and enjoyed the peace. We stopped next at a grocery store in Belheim and Claire ate so many fruit snacks that she gave herself a stomach ache. About 15 miles later Audrey got a flat along route 3 which unfortunately took about an hour to change due to some weird pinching happening around the valve. Once we fixed it (with the help of Dan Surkis as always) it was about 2:30 an...

Oxford, MI to Wallaceburg, ON (Audrey) Welcome to Canada! We had a lovely night at our Warm Showers but unfortunately woke up to a pretty steady rain. We decided to wait until it stopped and got to make a hot breakfast/sleep for another hour, which was absolutely wonderful. After thanking our hosts and saying goodbye to their adorable dachshund, we set off on some quiet dirt roads… only to get drenched by the last bit of the storm. I can’t decide if the worst part was soaking wet sneakers or mud crunching in all my gears, but thankfully everything dried out pretty quickly. Most of today’s ride was on decent bike paths and side roads through eastern Michigan. We caught a great tailwind into Algonac and made good time until I got another flat. Not to brag, but it’s my fourth flat, and now I’m in the lead among our group. We used our future-surgeon skills to remove a shard of glass and a piece of metal wire that had poked through my tire, so hopefully this new tube will last a while. At l...

 Lainsburg>>Oxford, MI Hey y’all! Rogan back at it. This morning we woke up at it was already hot out. We had a 65ish day from the state park we camped at to a very exciting warm showers. The beginning miles were pretty uneventful, but once it got to around 11am the heat was all we could think about. It was super humid, so the hot air just stuck to you with no shade to cool you off. Another thing, I don’t think I have ever seen as much road construction as I have in Michigan - I mean it was like once every ten miles. Thankfully there were some conveniently places bike paths that allowed us to bypass most of the road detours and continue on our slow crawl to Oxford. The thing I remember the most was around mile 50, it was so hot and had become so hilly on these gravel roads that we had to seek shelter to cool off. We got into a AC’ed gas station/subway combo. And oh my god I have never felt more relief than stepping into that store. We all chugged ice cold gatorades and water,...

 8/4/23 This morning we were eager to leave the unfurnished basement apartment that smelled like cat pee. I shouldn’t complain about free lodging, especially when it poured all night, but it was a pretty weird scene. We were immediately biking through busy Albany roads which is a tough way to start the day. We made our way to the pedestrian ramp that would take us across the highway bridge, but when we got there we were met with a gate and signs saying “do not enter” and “walkway does not continue”. Luckily the detour was short and we biked between concrete barriers across the bridge. I have to say, Albany has not been my favorite stop! Since we left the apartment without eating, we stopped at Dunkin for breakfast. Not our first choice, but it worked out well. We ended up sitting there for about an hour eating and trying to differentiate the types of racquet sports.  We then spent another hour outside of the Dunkin trying to fix Kayla’s derailleur. After some heavy duty hosing...

 Day 58: 8/3/2023 Today woke up at lock 16 on the Erie Canal… beautiful free campsite but no water :/ Since we have been so fascinated by the locks on the canal, this was sort of an exciting place to sleep!!! Or it would have been if we didn’t arrive so late almost in the dark the night before. Anyway, it was quiet and no one else was camping in the area. We had enough water to cook breakfast (oatmeal of course) and then we then went to stewart’s shops. This was very nostalgic from my college days when one of the only establishments in the small upstate new york town was a stewart’s shops. We filled up our waters and went to the bathroom- kayla and I also got food that we were going to need for the rest of the trip. We got right back on the canal trail and headed east. Thankfully most of the trail was paved. We were all feeling a bit sluggish today… not sure if it was the string of long days we just accomplished or if it was the dreary weather but neither were helping that’s for su...

August 2nd: Fayetteville to St Johnsville  This morning we woke up at my grandparents house, after a wonderful relaxing day spent hanging out with them. My grandpa made us all a breakfast of eggs and bagels to get us well fueled for the day. They also made sure to give us lots of snacks for the road, then we were off. My Grandpa escorted us, by minivan,  to get back on the Erie Canal trail. He drove slowly in front or behind us with his hazards on while we biked and it was fun feeling like we were important people with a support car. At the trail we parted ways and then biked for a little l while along the bike path. Before long we saw grandpa again! He had dropped off my grandma and come back along the trail to wave us on. We took the opportunity to stop for a snack break. As I was biking away I biked straight into a Boulder! It turns out no amount of days can make me less clumsy! But I managed to stay upright and we biked a little while longer. Then there was grandpa again u...