Happy July 4th

So I just realized tomorrow is July 4th. People I meet keep telling me to enjoy the holiday and I had no idea what they were talking about. I told you, my days keep melting into one and I can't keep track of the day of the week or the date. But, now that I know, I'll be in Bowling Green, Ohio camping out under the stars, watching some spectacular fireworks show, I'm sure. Tonight I get to sleep in a bed, which is quite luxurious compared to a thermarest and sleeping bag on a church community floor. Tonight we're in Avon Lake, Ohio overlooking the magnificent Lake Erie in home stays. My friend Aviva and I by some luck got the sweetest family of them all. Harry the hugger (who resembles and occasionally dresses up like Santa Clause) and Johanna and their grandson Matt are our host family. They have a honey house, meaning a bunch of bees nested in their ceiling and when it gets real hot honey drips from the ceiling into a bucket on the floor.





Over the last couplle of days we flew through the last bit of New York (after stopping at Niagara Falls-entering from the Canadian side), sped through Pennsylvania in a couple of hours, and landed in Ohio. The unofficial count is a total of 850 miles.



Now let me give you my run down of these states. Our last two days in New York were filled with rain, which is nice as long as it doesn't hail on you (which it did) and as long as you're not biking on a highway (which is illegal) while constuction was going on (which we also did-a cop pulled us over to inform us that pedestrians, bicycles and horse-drawn carriages were not allowed on it). So basically that day sucked. And my friend got a flat and we sat there fixing it on the side of the road in the rain (luckily my raincoat was safely tucked away and dry in the van).



Despite everything in New York, I got to see my friend Beth who lives in Rochester. She cooked falafels for me and fed me wine. It was the most amazing meal of my life. We also worked on a habitat for humanity house there, and it was really great to see how much of the community was involved. I cleared land, cut out a window opening, put siding in and installed insulation. It felt so good to not be sitting on my bike.



As we left New York and headed to Pennsylvania, the headwind made us feel as if we weren't moving forward at all. In fact, sometimes I think we actually went backwards. We were along Lake Erie, which reminded me so much of the ocean (especially because the whitecaps from the wind) but we were fighting every minute. I kept praying that it wouldn't be windy in Ohio (even though I know state borders are a crock), and somehow, a couple of hours late, ithe wind really did die down in Ohio. What a glorious state.



Niagara Falls was beautiful by the way. It was strange how it was surrounded by casinos and big theme-rides that reminded me of disney world and distracted from the falls, but it was fun nonetheless. We got lost walking our 1 mile back to the church and took a 2 hour detour through the ghetto of Niagara on the US side, which was kind of sad. All the stores were closed up and the houses were rundown.



It's almost 10 and my head is nodding. good nite



jess