Spoiled in Erie and the Runaway Horse Pennsylvania Day 11 - Thursday - June 13, 2002  Back   |   Next

The Lung's bid me farewell Today I awake refreshed. Amy made me blueberry and banana pancakes. Nathan showed me his John Deere tractor. They allow me to use their computer so I can update my notes and get this posted so that everybody can see what I have seen. Today I will ride through Ohio and towards Cleveland. I hope that everyone is having an awesome summer. I would like to thank those of you who have emailed me. These little snippets of greetings bolster my spirit. It is amazing what a single line can do to reinforce confidence or bolster moral. So please email me. Who knows? I might stumble into a one horse town's library, check my email, and stride right back out because your email made me think of you. The Runaway Horse Along the forested lakeshore between Ashtabula and Conneaut, a brown unbridled horse gallops across the street. Traffic stops and then rolls slowly by as the owner chases the horse. Their neighbor's little dog barks with a loud yap and prances around the horse's hooves. I ride up near the horse cutting off his path from the yard and into the street, but he turns away and rides back east, whinnying and galloping away. For a minute he looks like he is about to head back west and cut across the road so I ride into the center's yellow median as a road guard to slow traffic. Luckily no cars were fast moving through and everything seemed to be under control so I moved on. Welcome to Ohio Once again stuck in suburbia, I am forced to ask someone permission to camp in their yard. After a brief interrogation Diane Teed allows me to set up camp behind their house. Around 9:30 PM, somebody on an ATV races figure-eights in their neighbor's dirtlawn and occasionally shines his high beam headlight at my tent.