Day 15: Dunkirk, NY to Erie, PA

From Buffalo, New York to Huron, Ohio my route takes me along the coast of Lake Erie.  The curious thing is that you rarely actually see the lake itself.  Most of the time the view is shielded by houses, mansions, trailer parks, or apartment buildings and their attending shrubberies.  The few times a day you do get a glimpse of the lake, it’s a real treat.  However, I can’t get used to being so close to a body of water that immense and not have the smell of salt air and rotting seaweed that I enjoy so much about being by the ocean.

The ride had some small ups and downs, but the road was good and the miles went by quickly.  On the way into Erie, I stopped to check out a historic lighthouse.  On the way through Erie, I stumbled upon a car show going on in the middle of town.  On the way out of Erie, I decided it was a cool little city.

I arrived a Presque Island and had no trouble locating my campground, which had something of a carnival atmosphere about it.  Sara’s campground consisted of a chaotic RV park where all the trailers looked like they had been parked there somewhere around 1962 and built onto ever since.  At the center of it all was a burger stand, a diner, an ice cream parlor, a pizza place, and a gift shop.  All of this was done up in garish colors and decorated with vintage kitsch.  And, just to add to the effect, this place was also next to an amusement park (Waldameer’s)!

I was offered two possible areas to pitch my tent:  the beach or the far end of RV city.  I was closest to the beach, so I checked that out first.  Despite the weather forecast not being especially good, the beach was already packed with oversized tents and their oversized occupants.  The view was nice, but I was leery about how the sand might not be the best thing for the bike’s gears.  I ventured off to check out the more remote option. 

The distance from the amusement park was a big plus as the sounds of the rides faded.  But, when I got to the sites, I found that they were located up against a marsh and were crisscrossed with muddy tire tracks.  Looking around, it also became obvious that I was in the white trashiest part of the RV ghetto.  Back to the beach!

There was a 50-foot section at one side of the beach that was designated as a “no fire” zone (I was hoping this meant no campfires rather than no gunfire).  There was only one other tent there, so I went as far as I could up against the stone wall that divided Sara’s from the private beach next door that belonged to a set of multi-million dollar “condos.”  As I was getting unpacked and set up, a guy came out of one of the condos and was headed my way.  I assumed he was coming to yell at me for spreading my gear out all over the top of the rock wall that divided the 1% from the masses.  Stoopid douche.

“Hey, where you riding to?” he called out as he approached.  Turns out he spotted my bike from his million-dollar deck and came over to chat.  Greg was an avid cyclist himself and asked me a bunch of questions about my ride.  He turned out to be a really nice guy and promised to bring me a beer later.  Sweet!

I visited carnival burger and was happy to find that it was suitably cheap and unexpectedly good.  The sun was setting when I returned to my tent, improving the already lovely view.  Greg held true to his word and smuggled a couple Heineken Lights over the wall to me.  I downed one and took the other to a nearby picnic table to enjoy whilst attempting to blog.  I say attempting because an old couple arrived after a few minutes and joined me.  They asked about what sort of silliness I was up to, then filled me in on their lives, their kids’ lives, and the lives of everyone else they happened to know.  How was I supposed to get caught up on my blog with all these damn nice people around?

Even though there appeared to be no “quiet hours” at Sara’s Campground, I still managed to fall asleep with the noise of three competing music systems, a foursome of 20-somethings playing flashlight Can Jam, a trio of kids that apparently didn’t have a bedtime, and a drunk woman in the near distance who found absolutely everything around her to be uproariously funny.

What I Learned: The best part about listening to my iPod while I ride is when one of Calvin or Garrett's songs come on (oops, I mean Contrary or EarthPig and the Piglets).

Distance Today: 56 miles
Total Distance: 694 miles