Today was a great day of varied riding. From freeway at both ends of the day to back roads, secondary highways and parkways in the middle. Lots of little towns and villages (somewhat depressed - lots of boarded up commercial and retail buildings and the now common place empty Chevy dealerships). We accomplished 375 miles (600 km) and arrived at Hubbard, Ohio (half way between Pittsburgh and Cleveland), having traversed northern Pennsylvania. We have now ridden a total of 16,422 km (10,204 miles), just a little less than last year's cross-Canada trip. Feeling good and still excited to ride each morning and see what the day brings.
The ride today took us through Troy PA, where we stopped to supplement the meagre breakfast and take on additional coffee at "Moose's Munchies" which was staffed by perhaps the chattiest server ever (we discovered a lot about very little). It is amazing how little people know about their own towns/areas. Moving at a relatively slow pace (max 55 mph on open roads and 30 mph in towns, of which there are lots) we stopped at lunch at the "Route 6 Diner" (in Smethport, PA - "famous" for being the home of magnetic toys such as Woolly Willy - you know, where you use a magnetic wand to place metal filing on a face covered by a plastic bubble) pictured above. It did not live up to the "Diner" label and should have read cafeteria (although it did have deep fried pickles we did not try them). Although at least it spelled Diner right (as opposed to the sign for the place up the road called "Route 66 Dinor".
After a very pleasant and windy cruise through the Allegheny National Forest we arrived at the Ohio border, slipped over and settled at a nice Best Western in Hubbard. After the obligatory showers we took a short ride up the Interstate 80 for supper at "Station Square". It could have been disastrous as a chair (actually several) fell off a trailer a short distance ahead of me and I hit it. Well, I exaggerate a little as the chairs were the wooden fold up kind and each resembled a couple of small boards being decimated by each set of wheels that hit them. No damage done and had less of an impact than some of the potholes I have bounced through. This was less threatening than the old vinyl records that were flying off the bundled load of a old pick up we were following, which resembled lethal Frisbees whizzing by and smashing on the pavement. Lesson: don't follow anyone hauling anything!
Despite the hazards of the road, we celebrated the first day of no rain at all since leaving PEI (although the day started gloomy and ended with the sky filled with large vertical clouds with very white puffy tops and leaden bottoms that we knew housed serious business). We are hoping that our steady progress westward will continue to provide sunnier days.