June 9 - on the road

... again. We're in Erie now. I've had my cereal; Abby's had her breakfast; Sandy has had her shower; I'm having my coffee ... we'll be out of here around 7am, likely.

Back to yesterday ...

We left the cottage around 8:15 and arrived down here before 4pm. That's an early exit from the highway for us, but we'd planned on this stop in Erie rather than driving the entire way. Going all the way to Leesburg would have put us there around 9pm.

It was an easy drive -- we stopped at Stef's for a few minutes, dropping off a couple of herb plants that Sandy had uprooted for her and having a quick visit while Abby and Mya played. I called the border info 800 number and found little to no delay at the Queenston Lewiston bridge -- my preferred crossing -- and sure enough, it was empty. There were aisles with no cars ! I handed over our U.S. Passports -- he asked "what is your citizenship" -- I replied "Can .. American" -- he smiled. We had nothing to declare ... we continued our journey. I read somewhere that they ask your citizenship even though you've handed over paperwork because 1) they get to hear you speak and 2) you are actually making a declaration, which handing over paperwork doesn't constitute.

Once here and in our hotel room, we went out and found the Wal-Mart. I was looking for luggage tags and gigundo ziplocs. The ziplocs are for my bike pack. I'm anticipating heavy rain at times and want to keep things dry. Luggage tags are for my drop bags. I already have tags on them but they don't have the correct address ... oh well ... they'll have to do since all I found was a display of nice leather tags at $4 each -- nope. Oh yes, there were also cute pink tags .... they would have matched my handlebar tape.

My handlebar tape ? Yes, at the start of a ride a couple of weeks ago this girl commented "oh, where did you find the pink handlebar tape?" -- and I realized that my red tape had faded from much time in the sun and some cleaning. My helmet is also gradually turning pink. These are bad signs !

Ok ... today ... we'll leave here shortly and drive to Leesburg -- 5 hours. Hopefully we'll meet up with Vita an Alain for lunch. Sandy will then head for Reading to visit with and stay with Jeffrey. She got that organized yesterday.

Times have changed. I used to travel spending most of my time on the phone. I called the border info number yesterday, nothing else. Stef called me to see if we were still coming.

Sandy talked to Marda, Jeffrey, Mariadela ... she seemed to be constantly on the phone (I'm exaggerating). Oh -- a funny note -- I typed "Mariadela" and automatically included two L's -- then backspaced and removed one. There's only one. I sent her a note once apologizing and spelling it with 4 L's ... I think that her mother simply spelled her name wrong. It should have two L's. My hands do things all by themselves ... more often than not I have to backspace and correct "the" -- it automatically comes out as "teh".

So ... back to today. That's about it. Check in for the ride is late this afternoon. I'll be there. I'll try and get some sleep. I will get some sleep. I need some sleep. I will get some sleep. Then we're on the road at 4am tomorrow.

Don't forget that there will be / may be ... updates on www.shenandoah.com ... you'll see them before I do.

Onward.