Day 15 – Erie,PA to Painesville,OH

Date: 13.05.2018

Altitude: 1643.7 ft (501 m)

Distance: 81.60 mi (131.32 km)

Total Altitude: 31450.1 ft (9586 m)

Total Distance: 855.12 mi (1376.18 km)

Goodbye Pennsylvania and hello Ohio. After a very brief stint in Pennsylvania, I crossed into Ohio, the 6^th state (7^th if you count Ontario), on my trip. I will stay in Ohio for more than a day, not changing the state quite as fast again. Although I switched the state again, my route for today stayed for most of the day at Lake Erie.

Today the route was leading me close to the outskirts of Cleveland. This was going to be a long day, but it started out perfect. In morning I got my GPS working again, after I took out the SD card and dried the SD card slot. I still had to set everything up again, somehow it was reset to factory settings. At least it was working again, the last third of today's route would have been hard without the GPS, there were a lot of turns I had to take. After I fixed the GPS, I was able to start the day with a great breakfast. Afterwards I said my goodbyes to Brenda and her family, when they had to leave for church and I went on my way just after that. Today the weather improved a bit, it wasn't raining during the day and the temperatures went up a bit, so that the ride was a lot more enjoyable. Just like on the previous days, I only saw the lake sporadically. Still the route was beautiful, lots of changes in the scenery during the day. I was manly cycling on less frequented roads through wooded areas, farmland and residential areas. Although the road conditions were sometimes far from perfect, it went really smoothly today. I could keep a high average speed throughout the day, thanks to the wind treating me kindly. It was nice for a change to have a bit of wind from the back. Due to the high speed, independent from the long distance I had to cover I arrived pretty early in Painesville.

For the night I took a motel room. It being a Sunday and there being a wide variety of motels to choose from, the room prices in Painesville were quite low. So I decided to treat myself or rather my muscles to some luxury and take a room with a Jacuzzi in it. The Jacuzzi felt great after all these days cycling.

Conclusion for the day:

A bit of luxury, every once in a while, can't hurt.