Cleveland, OH to Niles OH

We woke up, packed our bags and got ready for another day on the bikes. Breakfast was a crew chief breakfast. Half a bagel, half a banana, and cup full of cereal. It’s been a while since we had a crew chief breakfast, so I suppose it was nice. I was originally suppose to ride with some of the same guys I rode with into Cleveland, but at the last minute, I chose against it, and joined another group. My legs appreciated that decision.
Today, I rode with Tucker (Iowa State), Matt (Colorado), Brian (Colorado), and Rudy (TCU). We started off the day making pretty good time. Then we hit a few rolling hills and we realized out we’ve been taken the lack of elevation change for granted, and also how out of shape for hills we were. The first couple hills were definitely a struggle but we pushed through it. We had some interesting scenery though. We passed through an Amish village, and passed a few horse and carriages. I would have taken a few pictures, but I felt it would have been a little disrespectful, with the whole, electronics thing. Before we knew it, we made rack point, which was 45 miles by 10:30. Not easy but pretty realistic.Literally a mile later, we hit this patch of bad roads, and Rudy got a flat. We were currently the second pace line, and after wasting 20 minutes with the flat, we were the third. Right when we were getting ready to head out, Brian found out that he had a flat as well, the worst of timing. Since we were crunched on time, Brian had to rack and the four of us headed out to lodging. It sucks that it happened that way, but our options were limited. After some long stretches of riding 25 mph, we finally made our destination at Fairhaven School for Children with Special Needs.
Right when we got there, we met our sponsors and they gave us lunch at the cafeteria. Lunch today was a take-out box which had fried chicken and French fries. I don’t know where they were from, but it was pretty good. I wish they gave us some kool-air or some juice to down it, but I guess you can’t always get what you want. After lunch, we cleaned up and had a friendship visit at the gym. At around 2, a bunch of people with intellectual disabilities rolled up. One of the sponsors paid for a musical “DJ,” for lack of a better word, and we started dancing. It was a little more of the awkward dances based on the music. The “DJ” was a chubby 40 year old with a toupee who sang songs only out of the 60’s…kind of different of the music we usually can relate to. Regardless, we made it work, and it turned out to be alright. I danced with this African-American lady who appeared to have autism. All was fine until she used some “not camp appropriate” words and I just awkwardly smiled and tried to avoid here as best as I can. Unfortunately, due to my dark nature, I sort of stand out from everyone else on my team. Regardless, it turned out to be fine.
After the friendship visit, we headed to dinner. We were sponsored by the management of Olive Garden. It was a wrong day to roll out the unlimited breadsticks and salad. 27 hungry cyclists, you do the math…it adds up. After the pasta dinner, we headed back to lodging where we had the rest of the night off. It was pleasant to be done so early, as this was the first time we had so much free time since, it seems like, Chicago.
A few of us ended up going to mall, where a splurged on a cheap pair of sunglasses. I was a little surprised to see such a nice and big mall at Niles, considering that the population mustn’t be too great here. I was also interested to see that everyone there were Pittsburg Steelers fans rather than Cleveland fans. I guess Niles is a little fair-weather, but what city in Ohio isn’t? I also saw someone wear a Michigan football jersey, which was just…strange to say the least.