There was talk of rain showers and thunderstorms even for yesterday, and I was concerned I was going to be in for another rough day. But when I woke up it was clear that wasn't happening, a little drizzle before I got set out and that was all. Charese made me a lovely breakfast and even packed me a sandwich for lunch, and then I was off on my way for my final day. She remarked about how excited she always got on the last day of a tour and how I'd probably be flying all the way to Pittsburgh. I told her she was close enough, maybe I'll see her around (an odd feeling, knowing I'd not be leaving that 70 miles away once I got there). The winds weren't fighting me, the cloud cover made the heat tolerable, all conditions as favorable as could be hoped for my last day (if I say it enough will it feel real?).
It was still really hot, made to feel hotter by all the humidity and hill climbing, and the sun conquered the clouds early in the day vanishing any protection from its full fury. But the hills were honestly not so bad as I was expecting. They had ends that you could see, even if they were far up and the climb steep, which is much better than all the winding mountain and cliff sides I've done before. It was easier than a couple days on the North Shore of Superior were, though that seems long ago now, and up until the last two days everything had been fairly flat for some time. Cheese's friend Hope had assured me highway 19 maintained good shoulder and carry me safely as far as Zelianople, about halfway, and that Google was silly to tell me to get off early. ...Well, she was mostly right, save for the part she wasn't, where the shoulder was crumbled or gone and I had a big truck honking at me to get out of the way with only a hand jolting, pannier bouncing, mess to get out of the way onto. Thankfully, the shoulder came back again. ...Right around the time I had to go through one lane at a construction zone. The flagger was really nice and let me get a head start of the cars along the shoulder (or berm as I guess they call it here). I got off onto highway 68 after that, which had a nice wide shoulder, then onto the Mars-Evan City Road which did not. I made my way to Babcock (funny, as it was the same name of the road my host had lived on), with all its climbing, then got off on a nice road with a bike lane, climbed some other steep road without much shoulder, meandered suburbs, got on very winding, crumbling Thompson, back on Babcock... You know, the usual navigational mess that is getting into an unfamiliar metropolitan area.
But it was not as bad as I expected, and earlier than I had expected I was crossing the 40th street bridge into the city. It was such a marvelous view that after biking over it, I went back up the untrafficked pedestrian sidewalk to take pictures (that did not turn out well, my camera being on the fritz all day). If this is to be my city now, I thought, I ought to get a good look at it. I took a little time walking along one street, both to get a glimpse around and because its narrowness worried me. I'll have to get used to how narrow the streets are around here. It's definitely different from out west.
I got to my friend Thomas's, alerted him there was a crazy, bicycle vagrant on his porch, and was soon hanging out just like old times. Within 10 minutes we were in a discussion on the evolution of AI, whether it would be limited or defined by its initial source code in any way, and questions of the Fermi Paradox and why we haven't found other life, particularly artificial, the usual topics. Staying with strangers has been good fun, but it was nice to be back in familar company. Thomas got plenty of food in me, and later in the evening I got to meet a couple of the neighbors out on the porch while we had mojitos. The blog and anything else were well forgotten until this morning.
And now? Well, my panniers and camelbak need cleaned out, I have feedback to write for a bunch of hosts that has been neglected while I've been busy on the road, my bike needs to go in for a tune-up, I need to relearn how to ride without front panniers and not kill myself on these narrow roads, there's Game of Thrones to catch up on...and then, oh yeah, I need to find a job and place to live. It's funny how quickly and unceremoniously a big adventure ends, and suddenly it's back to the grind.
It's been fun, blog. I guess now it's time for you to quietly wait in the corner until it's time for the next tour. East Coast? Maybe. I guess we'll see.
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