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Day thirty-seven – so hard to believe! 10 riding days left including today. How have we come this far?
Today was a return to the hills and climbs, but nothing terrible – mostly shorter bursts and none too steep. The scenery was beautiful as we rolled out of the more traditional farmland of corn – we grow a LOT of corn in this country – and into rolling hills and beautiful trees starting to change color.
The highlight of the day for me was riding through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It was a short, but beautiful run through the park. To be honest, I hadn’t known it was a National Park and only knew it from the song ‘Cuyahoga’ by REM, a song I’d listened to for thirty-plus years. I hadn’t ever known the meaning of the lyrics, but as I rode through the park and learned about it from our guides, it was a wonderful experience to ride through an area that I had unknowingly heard about for most of my life.
Cuyahoga – REM
Let’s put our heads together and start a new country up
Our father’s father’s father tried, erased the parts he didn’t like
Let’s try to fill it in, bank the quarry river, swim
We knee-skinned it you and me, we knee-skinned that river red
This is where we walked
This is where we swam
Take a picture here
Take a souvenir
This land is the land of ours, this river runs red over it
We knee-skinned it you and me, we knee-skinned that river red
And we gathered up our friends, bank the quarry river, swim
We knee-skinned it you and me, underneath the river bed
This is where we walked
This is where we swam
Take a picture here
Take a souvenir
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga, gone
Let’s put our heads together and start a new country up
Up underneath the river bed we’ll burn the river down
This is where they walked, swam
Hunted, danced and sang
Take a picture here
Take a souvenir
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga, gone
Rewrite the book and rule the pages
Saving face, secured in faith
Bury, burn the waste behind you
This land is the land of ours, this river runs red over it
We are not your allies, we cannot defend
This is where they walked
This is where they swam
Take a picture here
Take a souvenir
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga, gone
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga, gone
It’s very sad to listen to the lyrics and ride through the area to which they are referring.
The rest of the day was lovely – the weather was perfect and Maggie made a fantastic chili lunch for us. We arrived at Punderson Manor, where we would spend the night, sometime in the mid-afternoon. Our rooms, which were actually cabins, were not yet ready so we spent the afternoon laying out in the sun on the grass on the front lawn of the property which was, in fact, a large manor house. It was a welcome opportunity to kick back and relax and socialize while we waited. Once ready, cabins were assigned mostly to pairs as we would be sharing a cabin with another person. Each would have their own room but share a bathroom. Because of the earlier mix-up with rooms and my having to stay in the little cabin in the RV park at Lolo Pass, I was given my own cabin. I would have gladly shared with someone as the cabin was a decent size and would have afforded us a sizable amount of common space as well private space.
I took the opportunity to make some calls in the late afternoon before dinner, as well as after dinner. It is always odd to have significant time after we ride. Tomorrow’s ride will be sixty miles – a short day for us, and will take us into Pennsylvania, our eleventh state.