Coast2Coast Days 67.5 and 68:  Rest Day and Westlake to Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio; massage with Endia, meeting Pat & Owen, party at Bill Stanton Community Park, and bachelorette parties galore!

(I think I may have the day-count back in sync, but am not sure!)

On our rest day, had a wonderful massage (and conversation with) from Endia (A Touch of Relief by Endia), which I followed with a next door visit to the Goodwill Bookstore in Westlake.  The night before, we were treated to Parma’s best pierogi and stuffed cabbage dinner, that was only topped by the company of my sisters and brother-in-law.  The stop at the ‘new’ Mitchell’s Ice Cream shop in Westlake was only icing!

We also were given a tour of my mother and father’s house that was sold to the neighbor’s brother.  They (mostly Kurt?) have done much work on what they have recognized as a solid house.  Kurt and his brother ‘only’ hauled three dumpsters worth of some of what my father had collected over 63 years of residency.  Much though has remained as very useful!  Kurt commented that my father likely used two screws where one nail might have done the job.  Driving to the house and later dinner, we passed by my childhood parishes and schools.  MUCH nostalgia and reminiscing!!

After dinner again with sisters and brother-in-law, and a great night in a real bed, I rode away full to skirt the South Shores of Lake Erie.

Traveling North and East along the Lake, there was much that is familiar, and many things that we had passed too quickly in cars to have earlier noticed their beauty.  The Lake, Lakefront and some of Cleveland’s industrial history have been preserved or positively changed!  (The stadium for the Browns is no longer the ‘mistake on the Lake.’  The Flats have been resurrected as ‘hip.’  Edgewater Park has been transformed and is beautiful.  …)  North of Lakeshore, the old homes are still such, and are well-maintained.

While riding, I came across a couple that are also crossing the US, Pat and Owen.  They are from the Oxford-area in England, and work for a travel company.  They are on a five-month sabbatical that their company provided, with some three or so moths being spent biking, and the balance vacationing in the States.  We discussed their experiences, of which intersection protocols remained a bit challenging.  They also wonder why American drivers tend to speed up when passing bicyclists, whereas their experience in the UK is that drivers will slow down when passing (so as not to create a bow-wave impact on the riders!

We arrived a bit early for check-in, so spent some time in the shade at the park, where there was a car show, with awards as to the farthest some had driven their restored cars!

We spent the night at a motel in Geneva-on-the-Lake, and were joined for dinner by Carm and Steve (who made the trip from Westlake to join Cathy and me).  The count was at ten, as I recall, of bachelorette parties dining and barhopping along Lake Road, the Main Street there.  Some of the bachelorettes, as the evening progressed, looked to be a ‘little worse’ from the festivities.

After some goodbyes-for-now, they returned home and Cathy and I retired for the evening.