Blog

Day 1--A Brutal Wind 6/19/17

Our first day was Monday, June 19th. We drove from Ann Arbor and started biking in Sandusky, Ohio. At about 12:30 pm, we set out from the parking lot of the Sandusky YMCA, onto Old Railroad Road, named in a redundant fashion. It was a very windy day, which made the flat terrain more challenging. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Tiffin, OH. The campsite for the night was in an RV park. 46 Miles.

Day 2--High Point of Ohio 6/20/17

On the second day, we got an early start. Luckily, it was less windy. Beth joined the family for seven miles out, then doubled back to the car. We only snacked on granola bars in the early AM, but then had a more significant breakfast at Big Daddy's Diner, around 10:30am in Upper Sandusky. Beth was able to sneak in a little work at the library in Bellefontaine (free wifi!). The men made their way to the Pfifer general store for lunch and ice cream deep in the Amish part of Ohio. People in general have been very nice to us, filling up ten water bottles at a time with a smile.

The boys stopped for a snack at a gas station in Rushylvania, where Beth rejoined for more biking, up the hill to Bellefontaine. Interestingly, Bellefontaine is the highest spot in Ohio. Beth doubled back to make her way to the car, she stopped at tiny hilltop cemetery from the 1800's--a Quaker cemetery.

We had bad Mexican food for dinner, then biked three more miles to campsite outside of Bellefontaine . The campsite had nice warm showers. Teo was amazed at the restorative powers of hot water. Morale holding steady, despite some sunburn and some sore butt muscles. All night we heard many cows making a loud variety of mooing noises. 68 miles.

Day 3--Trail and Error 6/21/17

The day started on the Simon Keating Trail, a protected bike and walk only trail which is a part of a larger bike trail that traverses through much of Southern Ohio. The overall collection of trails claims to be the largest network of paved bike trails in the US. It was gravel at the start. The men were only willing to put up with the gravel for a few miles, as it was too bumpy & hard to steer with skinny wheels. They went about nine miles on roads until Urbana, OH. In Urbana, the paved and silky smooth bike trail started. The paved trail was mostly shady and beautiful, and allowed the miles to fly by. Beth had to go to the Costco tire center, and spent a huge part of day dealing with the car. It was our hottest day, was in the upper 80's. After another quick burrito snack, Gaia then took boys on wrong trail, but eventually got back on the correct one. Beth found shortcut to campsite through a nature area. Everyone swam in pool at campsite, very refreshing. 61 miles.

Day 4--Return to the Little Miami Trail 6/22/17

Beth did 10 miles out and 10 miles back. It was incredibly beautiful and easy riding. We had an excellent vegetarian lunch at Paxton's Grill in Loveland, OH. We made it into Cincinnati with a combination of the Little Miami bike trail and some bike friendly roads and some not so bike friendly Cincinnati roads. We got to John Morris Russell's house around three. He is the conductor of the Cincinnati Pops orchestra. His house is a gorgeous 1920s Tudor revival. He was an incredibly gracious host and fed us delicious pesto. We all slept well that night. 51 miles.

Day 5--Wet on Dry Ridge 6/23/17

We left our hosts in Cincinnati and were out on the road by 8:30am. The men crossed the Ohio River on a pedestrian and bike bridge (see photo). We had breakfast in Kentucky. Using a combination of roads with a bike lane and US 25 the boys had their first rainy day on the bikes. Although we saw some smaller hills up to this point, entering Kentucky was the start of the hilly part of our trip. This was our first significant day that we had to use the smallest gears to climb hills. We saw that there was a storm on the weather report, so we stayed in a hotel that night. This was a good decision, when we saw the sheets of rain from our hotel window, and listened to the televised reports of flooding all over our area of Kentucky. 38 miles.

Day 6--Long Hilly Ride 6/24/17

The morning was cool and was perfect for riding. We left Dry Ridge, KY and luckily all the rain was past. The boys biked very fast in the morning, and we had lunch on the front lawn of the Scott County Fire Department, as the fire fighters washed their engines. We then biked through Lexington, KY, which had many beautiful dedicated bike trails within the city. We spent the night at the lovely Fort Boonesborough state park. We ate our first cookout meal with our tiny backpacking stove. Even though the packaged broccoli and rice wasn't very good, it was still helpful to see that the tiny stove is very efficient and works well. The picture is at the start of our ride, just outside of Dry Ridge, KY. The teepee is made out of metal. 70 miles.

Day 7--Rested a Bit 6/25/17

We had a bit of a rest day, and only rode about 40 miles (!). We ended up in a hotel in Berea, KY. A theme of this trip has been bad Tex-Mex style food. Zev and Teo are hungry frequently--using up thousands of calories a day on a bike can do that! Here are Zev and Gaia after eating an appetizer of two baskets of chips, two orders of beans and two orders of rice. They are waiting for the rest of the meal to arrive!

Day 8--Two Flats and Many Hills 6/26/17

We left Berea, KY and said goodbye to Beth who was headed back to Ann Arbor to put in a few days of work before rejoining us. The day was very scenic, with lots of green and even more hills. It was the first day of biking with fully loaded panniers and no support vehicle. We got two flat tires today, but changed them quickly. 50 miles.

Day 9--Some Knee Pain 6/27/17

Zev started to have some right knee pain today, and by the end of the evening, had a swollen knee. We aggressively iced the knee, used ibuprofen and elevated it. Dr. John Severin, telemedicine angel, gave us a facetime (?kneetime?) consult from afar. Beth stopped fabulous pediatric PT Leah Hagamen as she was biking home down Miller Avenue, and she also gave support and helpful advice. Thanks so much for the thoughts and energy from all of you as we figure out next steps for Zev's knee. 43 Miles.

Days 10 & 11 --Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation 6/28 & 6/29/17

Two days of rest and recovery for a sore right knee! On day 11, Beth and friends Max and Marcia came down in a car to Jellico, TN where the kids and Gaia were resting. On the evening of June 29th (Day 11), Beth and Gaia took Zev to a small, freestanding Children's hospital, the East Tennessee Children's Hospital. We got excellent care in their ER. The xray was pretty much normal, so they left it up to us what to do next. At that point, Zev had considerable improvement in his swelling and pain. That night, there was a short rainstorm, followed by a rainbow. Zero miles.

Day 12--Back in the Saddle 6/30/17

Zev felt well enough to try to ride today. It was a tough day of mountain climbing riding, but was only 30 miles long. Because Marcia took over the "sag wagon" duties of driving the car to the next campsite, Beth could ride for her first entire day. There was a LOT of uphill, the downhill was nice. It rained for some of the ride. We camped in Cove Lake State park in Careyville, TN. It was a lovely State park, with a huge Olympic sized pool, all the kids and Beth swam. Max went fishing. It rained as we went to dinner. There was live bluegrass music in the restaurant, they did a nice rendition of "Rocky Top". The picture below shows the view from the restaurant. In the campground, we met a sad faced hound dog named Banjo. Banjo had his own "drool door", where he could stick his head out of his RV to let loose some dog saliva. 32 miles.

Day 13--Out Early 7/1/17

Zev's knee had a bit more pain after the short but intense day prior, so he decided to take another day of rest. Gaia and Teo took this as an opportunity to get a really early start, and were out on the road by 6:45am.

Marcia and Max split off to visit some relatives in Atlanta. Beth and Zev took them to Knoxville, TN to get a rental car. Apparently it is some kind of Southern sin to have a non-Ford vehicle--there was profuse apologies given by the car rental staff, but Marcia was provided with a cute little Nissan pickup truck. Marcia and Max left for Atlanta. It was three hours drive time to Atlanta, but then they sat in traffic for an additional hour just outside the city on the 285 ring road. They had a good time with their cousins, swimming at the JCC, eating Mexican food and visiting the Atlanta aquarium.

Beth and Zev explored Knoxville a little. We saw the Southern hipsters (shipsters?) and ate falafel, and saw the Knoxville farmers market. We stayed the night in a little hotel by a lakeside in Kingston, TN. There was a copy of the Bhagavad Gita alongside the Gideon Bible in the hotel room. The picture is from an old-fashioned general store in Knoxville, which had beautiful woodwork and mostly sold tchotchkes. However, female co-operative activists generally prefer the term "women". 43 miles.

Day 14--Condiments 7/2/17

We woke up early, got on road by 8:30 ish. Beth got to ride a bit with the family. Beth rode over a bag of fast food garbage at high speed and squirted ketchup packet contents all over Gaia's helmet, face, and shirt. Some times the stars align, sometimes they don't.

Zev rode with the family, his knee seemed ok.

The night was spent at very friendly Etowah, TN Red Roof Inn motel. We made dinner on a campstove behind the motel in their gazebo. We conversed with the owner of hotel as we cooked. We appreciated that instead of asking us "Are you trying to burn my livelihood down?", he was sweet and chatted us up about our trip and his philosophy of life. Here is an image of the bikers in the gazebo. 47 miles.

Day 15--Hello Georgia! 7/3/17

Part of our pre-ride morning ritual is slathering everyone with a very thick zinc-based sunscreen that Beth gets samples of from her office. As we were applying the sunscreen to the kids, Beth heard Gaia say "Why is this sunscreen clear?!". He was applying shampoo to Teo's neck. The small sample vials of hypoallergenic sunscreen and shampoo are nearly identical. It gave us a good laugh. Marcia and Max rejoined us with their non-Ford truck that AM. They awoke at 5:30am to beat Atlanta traffic. It was a cool misty AM that developed into a sweltering sunny PM , by time we got to Georgia border. We did a roadside sandwich lunch in the Cisco, GA in the post office parking lot.

Here is a picture of Max, Marcia and Teo together in the parking lot in Etowah, TN. Marcia got an amazing action shot of Gaia from the window of our car, also below.

In Chatsworth, GA, we had a snack of ice cream in a lovely restored faux Texaco station. Teo is looking tired and hot amidst the old-timey wall posters. Beth and Marcia and Max headed back to Michigan after handing over panniers in 90 degree heat. That night, the men "stealth" camped in an empty lot for sale near Carter's Lake, GA. 66 miles.

Day 16--We Biked to Grandma and Grandpa's House 7/4/17

The men woke up early from their stealth camping site, and eventually joined a dedicated bike trail after a morning of riding on the roads. They liked riding on a trail so much, that they kept going even after it ended. While Teo and Zev saw signs that the trail ended, Gaia didn't and said "Let's just keep going!" and proceeded to climb over a fallen tree with his bike. Before long, the closed path was covered with orange mud from the iron-rich Georgia soils. They climbed up a hill to a road, named "Ronald Reagan Road" and proceeded to reconnect with the planned road route into Norcross. However, the weather started to turn and they got caught in a downpour close to Norcross. They arrived into Grandma and Grandpas wet and tired. Luckily the rain washed much of the orange mud off the bikes. 65 miles.

Day 17 and 18--More Rest at Grandma and Grandpa's 7/5/17 & 7/6/17

Beth arrived again to join the adventure on July sixth. Biking can be dangerous, but so can furniture. Gaia broke his little toe that night on a bed frame. Fortunately, it hurt more to walk on it than to pedal. The bikes got tuned up at a local bike shop, which was great, as one of the tires itself (not the inner tube) had a slash in it. 0 miles.

Day 19--Leaving Norcross is Easier than Anticipated 7/7/17

The men left Norcross on a route that Gaia and Grandma Betsey had scoped out the day before. Traversing Norcross proved easier than they thought because of roads with wide shoulders on the way in, and the many asphalt sidewalk paths on the way out.

They rolled into Madison, GA on a very hot day, and we stayed in a hotel with a pool. Unfortunately, the pool was also hot. We realized we forgot Teo's one pair of long pants in Norcross, so we purchased more pants at a thrift store. 64 miles.

Day 20--How to Ford a Stream 7/8/17

The boys left Madison, GA pretty early in relatively cool weather. Of course the humidity was 95%, but that's life in the American South. Google maps have served us reasonably well through most of the trip. However, this day it didn't work out so well. Google had marked a road that had been purchased by a private land owner as a public road. It started out fine, with gravel, and the men thought to themselves "OK, we can handle a bit of gravel, it's got to be paved again soon". Then it went from a gravel road to a two track road, getting more overgrown with weeds. They came to a guard rail blocking the path they were traveling. Beyond the guard rail was a creek. They could tell there had once been a bridge over the creek, as they saw the concrete remains. At this point they were so many miles into this road that they felt it would take too long to backtrack. They knew they had to cross the creek. This was similar thinking to the Donner Party. Luckily, the men are all vegetarians. Zev was ready to commit to the way forward. Zev threw his shoes across the creek. Zev tested the water to see how deep it was, and it was about 3 feet deep. Zev jumped over to the other side, going from bank to bank. Zev then climbed down to the middle of the creek, and everyone handed the bikes down to Zev who was waiting in the water. Where Zev was wading to get the bikes it was only about a foot deep. Everyone jumped across, except Gaia who took a giant step across because of his broken toe. The path continued on in an overgrown fashion, and they arrived at the next road which was a muddy mess of orange clay. However, the rode on further on to better quality roads, but it was uphill traveling. Finally they reached back to paved surfaces. There was one final hill into Irwinton, GA, to the lovely "Blue Goose Bike Hostel".

The Blue Goose is a sweet house that can sleep 12 people right in the middle of Georgia. The town itself, Irwinton, is tiny, with about 500 residents. See the cute pix of the Blue Goose! Here is a link to their web presence and some pictures. We were lucky enough to have the whole house to ourselves. 70 miles.

http://www.looseatthegoose.com/home.html

Day 21--Calories, Calories 7/9/17

Beth had to leave us once again, to give Grandma's and Grandpa's car back and to catch a flight back to Michigan. The men left the Blue Goose, rode for about two hours, and met up for a goodbye at a diner. They boys each ate two breakfasts each, and then split a third breakfast between them again. They rode to Vidalia, GA, home of the onion festival. 66 miles.

Day 22--Jesup, GA 7/10/17

It was hot and humid riding. Nothing more to report.

61 miles

Day 23--Just a Quick Ride to Florida, Folkston, GA 7/11/17

We are now following the Adventure Cycling Association map, which provides a vetted bike route from Maine to the tip of Key West. Gaia went grocery shopping at the end of a long day of riding. While he was shopping, a massive downpour started and Gaia had to wait a half hour to return to the hotel.

55 miles

Day 24--We Arrive in Florida 7/12/17

We mostly followed the Adventure Cycling Association bike map into Florida. The first part of Florida was dotted by a couple of Confederate flags and a sign or two in favor of Trump. I think one yard had a Confederate flag, a sign for trump, and a sign for the Gators, a sports team. But it was a short stretch, and soon we were heading east towards Jacksonville. That night we stayed in a hotel near the airport. After the boys got the dinner they wanted across the street, Gaia went wandering looking for food that might meet his fancy, in the malls nearby. In a little pond amidst the malls was a sign that warned against feeding or aggravating the alligators. Apparently difficult to find water in Florida without alligators living in it.

45 Miles

Day 25--7/13/17 Really Nice People from Iceland 54 Miles

Warmshowers.org is a site for touring bikers to find hospitality. It ranges from a tent site in the backyard and use of the shower to a spare bedroom in someone's house. The only place we found warmshowers.org that matched up with our travel plans was in Florida. We stayed at three places and each were phenomenal hosts. The first site was about 10 miles outside of St. Augustine, a lovely couple from Iceland, Helmut and Maria. Helmut had biked across the southern part of the United States in four weeks, averaging 90+ miles a day! He had also circum-cycled Iceland. There hospitality was exquisite, not only did they provide us with two rooms with beds, they made a nice vegetarian meal, served me a glass of beer before, and a glass of wine after dinner. Also a dessert of chocolate and cherries. They wouldn’t even let us help to clear the table. Their backyard came up against the pond, we got to see two alligators swimming around in it. Later, Helmut drove us into St. Augustine and gave us a tour, including a little bit about the early history, and then the history of oil money in the town during the Rockefeller era, and the recent history of the town’s emerging nightlife and dining scene.

A picture of Helmut and Maria, incredible hosts!

Biker Boys under the Banyan Trees!

Day 26 7/14/17 Warm Showers and Cool Pools 50 miles

Before sending us on our way the following morning Helmut and Maria served us a lovely breakfast. The boys were of the opinion that their father spent too much time socializing at breakfast, and we should have just hits the road sooner, perhaps they were right. We seemed to go slow, some of that was the heat, but it was also just one of those days. We were able to make it to the beach at one point and the boys swam. We had originally thought we would arrive at our new hosts house between three and five, but it was after six by the time we got there. Again we were met by graciousness. Our hosts were Howard and Joy, a couple with a passion for biking. They had a wonderful pool in their backyard, complete with a diving board! And a shower next to it. In no time we were relaxing in the pool. As a pre-dinner snack they served us pizza and lemonade, and a delicious vegan spread for dinner. Howard and Joy were serious riders, starting every day with an early morning 30 mile ride. They were more into the racing bikes scene. But with Joy having recently retired as a school principal they were hoping to do more touring, and they were excited to have bikers come through who could share stories. This meant they had their own stories, but also the stories of other guests to share. Our favorite story was the world champion Japanese unicyclist who was crossing the country, and planned to unicycle across Latin America.

Day 27 7/15/17--A Day of Rest, Shabbat Shalom Bikers! 0 Miles

Our hosts offered us the possibility of staying two nights, since the day before was so strenuous, and perhaps because the pool was inviting we decided to stay. Out of gratitude, we took them out to dinner the following night. But not before they lent us kayaks, and a little pickup truck to carry them, and pointed us in the direction of the river.

Day 28 7/16/17 CENTENNIAL RIDE!

Well rested, we got up early, before our hosts were even awake, and got going by about 6:15. This was our earliest morning. It also was our longest day. We didn’t have a specific location and it looked like there were a good number of opportunities for hotels, so we would just go until we were ready to stop. We had talked about doing a centennial ride (100 miles) at some point but we had not explicitly decided to bike 100 miles on this day. Around 85 miles as we judged our energy it became clear to me that we would make it to 100. We made it in spite of a flat tire for the second day in a row on Teo’s back wheel. I eventually detected a place in the tire that had a hole. Later in the day we stopped for a change of tire in a bike store we happened to pass. Here is a trick that I had just learned from our warmshowers.org hosts: if you have a hole in your tire and no replacement, use a folded dollar inside the tire to protect the tube. Including breaks, we biked about 12 hours that day. While resting in a little hotel later that evening I mapped out our route in detail and it came to 100 miles exactly. Among bikers, centennial rides are a sort of badge of honor--we were all proud to have earned it.

Day 29 7/17/17 Burritos and Swimmer's Ear

The next day our recovery was good, not an early start but we had a reasonable ride. Most of the ride was on one of the barrier island that sits along the edge of Florida’s east coast. These islands are elite real estate, and in spite of the hurricane risk, almost all of the homes are trophy mansions. We might have found a place to go swimming, but Teo had developed swimmer's ear, so we were trying to keep his ear dry. Our hotel for the night was in Fort Pierce, which looked like a working class town. When I checked the per capita income it is less than the federal Medicaid eligibility. Tomorrow we would officially hit the Gold Coast. After settling in (Zev watching perpetual CNN, and Teo on his computer) I biked down the road a bit to get ear drops and some carry-out burritos. The burritos were the first good burritos we had on the whole trip. We like a burrito packed with rice and beans and lettuce, cheese for the boys, and may be a little salsa with folded edges to hold it all in. Up to now most of what we were served as burritos was a little bit of liquefied refried beans rolled in to a thin tube and covered in red sauce. These were so much better! Yum!

Day 30 7/18/17 Hunker Down for Some Birthday

We talked about getting another order of burritos to take with us on the road. But we got going before the burrito place was open. We had a free “breakfast” at the hotel, I think that was instant oats for me and danishes for the boys. Zev is a coffee drinker but Teo and I are not. This morning, the breakfast room had powdered cocoa and Zev mixed it with coffee, Teo had a half a cup and then seemed to want to go faster than usual, he asked me “so Dad, do you think I actually have more energy because of the coffee , or is it just placebo?” I think it was the coffee. Later in the day, Teo got yet another flat. Zev and I were quite tired by the end of the day. I know this because of how grumpy we got when trying to pick a hotel. In the end, calling back to Ann Arbor, Beth helped us find a place to stay, using a real computer rather than a phone to find a hotel. After dinner Zev apologized for his grumpiness, and following his lead, I apologized for mine.

Day 31 7/19/17 Happy 15th Birthday Teo!!!! 0 Miles, +1 Wonder Woman

This day was Teo’s 15th birthday. We took the day off. We only biked 2 miles to get to a theater where Teo and I watched "Wonder Woman", and Zev watched "All Eyez On Me". It seemed exceedingly hot as we biked out. After the movies, we grabbed some food to take back with us, then it looked like it was going to start to rain, and the food was in a paper bag. Half way back to the hotel, the rain started. I found a shelter to stand under for a half an hour till the rain stopped, and meanwhile the boys biked home. Zev and I found ways to keep ourselves busy for about 2 hours in the afternoon, giving Teo the gift any introvert would love: Some alone time.

Day 32 7/20/17 Fancy Hotel Land

This day's biking got us to Fort Lauderdale. Our first night, we stayed in the fanciest hotel that we stayed in the whole trip. Not only did it have a balcony that would hold our bikes, the balcony had a corner to tuck them away in, so we could still have the balcony to hang out on.

Day 33 7/21/17 Packing up the Bikes

The next day all we had left was to get the car rental place, ship our bikes back , and get to our last warm showers home. Like everything this took a bit longer than we thought. We originally thought we would ship it from one bike store but in the end we shipped it from another bike store, but we got there only a half hour before they closed.

Teo hanging out over the bike store that we considered using to pack up the bikes.

Day 34 7/22/17 Visit to the Everglades

Again we spent 2 days with gracious warmshowers.org hosts, a younger couple. Nik and Heather were our host, and they had moved in to their house just 2 months earlier. Nik had once done a ride from Arkansas to Nebraska if I remember correctly. He had taken advantage of some warmshowers.org along the way, and he wanted to reciprocate. Nick offered us some snorkel equipment and directed us to places we might go snorkeling, but in the end we decided to take our one free day and visit the Everglades. We took an airboat tour, saw some alligators, and got a feel for the Everglades. It was interesting, but I think we might have enjoyed the snorkeling better as Teo’s ear was doing better at this point.

Day 35 7/23/17 Hola Cuba!!

The final chapter of our journey was a trip to Cuba. We returned the rental car at the airport, and I started practicing my Spanish.

Day 36

Day 37

Day 38

Day 39--Beth Arrives in Cuba

Beth's notes: The travel to Cuba was pretty seamless. Getting a travel visa in Florida was easy, just went to the Cuba help desk near the Jetblue gate for Cuba flights.

It was a pretty empty one hour flight to Cuba. Cuba was gorgeous from the air, so green! Could see Havana's landmarks, with it's big sea channel that marks the city's enormous port easily from the air.

Got thru customs in Havana in minutes. Changed money quickly.

Cuba has two currencies, one for citizens, one for the tourists. The tourist currency is called "CUC" or a convertible peso.

First impressions of Cuba from the cab ride was how beautiful everything was.

Got a cab ride to Lady Martha's--people who coordinate the cabs speak significant English. Gaia met me at the door with a hug. Lady Martha met me with a crazy delicious mango juice.

I wanted to see my Mijos! Nice to see them, they were like little brown toasted marshmallows, I have never seen them that tan.

I was crazy tired, but I wanted to walk around. Going to Cuba had been a dream of mine for several years, and I wanted to see a little bit of it. First impressions: So few cars in the streets! Pedestrians rule! Reminded me of the streets of Costa Rica...lots of people and mango pits in street. Cute kids. Lots of people hanging out in their doorways.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant that had Beatles pictures and Freddy mercury pictures on the wall. Had good veggie stir fry. Went back to blissfully air conditioned room at Martha's. Played a board comic game that the boys had bought, that mostly consisted of tushie jokes. Teo was annoyed that I feel asleep playing the game. I slept for 10 hours straight.

The following pic is of our walk around the neighborhood.

Revolutionary Square

Revolutionary square in Havana is a large, hot, cement expanse. Historically, it is where people gathered to hear speeches after the first days of the revolution.

It is really hot in Cuba in the summer. The sun is very intense. We pretty much started sweating profusely the moment we walked out of the house. On the very clear days, I was glad I had an umbrella to augment my sunscreen.