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Sunday, July 1, 2012

Ithaca to Toledo



Finally our epic vacation is underway and everything is great! There's nothing like waking up at 4:30, completely restless  and eager to go. I was loading the bikes on the roof before sunrise, and the boys were patiently waiting in the car while we tied up all of our loose ends and headed out by 7 am.

The ride was very uneventful, but travelling past Allegheny State Park brought back a flood of wonderful memories of cross-country skiing adventures with Leslie in the '80s and '90s. I think I have the boys convinced that we need to rent a cabin there this winter. It's about time that they learned about the joys of nordic skiing.

It was hard to imagine many feet of snow on the ground on a day like today, with temperatures close to the 90s. It's a dry heat...yeah, right! Actually, it felt a little odd to be so insulated from the heat. I don't think I've ever travelled  cross-country before with a car that had completely reliable AC, and between that and the very comfortable seats, today reassured me that it will be pretty painless to drive 1600 miles in four days. We all enjoyed the audiobook Boom! by Mark Haddon today, though we missed a critical bit at the very end, due to a CD data transfer problem. Now we have to find the book at a bookstore somewhere and read the last few pages. Definitely a recommended read.

Somewhere in Ohio a blue van passed us and a friendly looking guy was beaming at us and waving. It took a couple seconds to register that it was our friends Tom and Bridgid from Ithaca. Tom must have recognized my bike!

It sure was nice to see some giant wind farms in southwestern NY and at some brown fields in Cleveland. I was reminded of Steel Winds in Buffalo. Hopefully the Ithaca area will really get its much-anticipated wind farm as well in the near future.

We're all looking forward to some swimming tonight, and it's off to Iowa City tomorrow.


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