Fort Erie Ontario to Cambridge Ohio

At breakfast this morning, we met three young ladies who go to teacher's college in Buffalo. They approached the border about 9:00 PM last night and were told that it was closed. First time I have encountered this since 9/11. I found out later that a power outage had shut the bridge down.

We left near 9:00 AM and found no border lineup at all. The Border Guard was an older gentleman who was very brusque but efficient. He wanted to know how we had friends in the USA so I told him we belonged to the same Internet motorcycle club. That seemed to make him happy and he sent us on our way.

As we headed down I-190, I noticed a billboard change. Years ago, Cellino and Barnes, a local law firm, had advertised. More recently, it was The Barnes Group and I always wondered what had happened to Cellino. I see that he is back and the billboard now says Cellino and Barnes again. I'm sure there's a good story in this somewhere.

We decided to skip the Thru-way and got off at the US 219 exit. Then we cut over to Hamburg and caught US 62 southwest to Jamestown NY and Warren Pa. In Gowanda, we had to detour due to a bridge out and went past a prison and the home of the Gowanda and Buffalo Model Railroad Club. It was apparently started as therapy for psychiatric hospital patients 40 years ago and is now in the basement of a day care centre serving employees of the adjacent prison. This will be something to visit on another trip.

South of Warren, 62 runs along the Allegheny River to Oil City, a route we enjoyed last year and did again this trip. There was little traffic and it was a relaxing ride. After lunch in Oil City, we saw a train come right through the town on Oil Creek and Titusville RR trackage. They have a pretty little station right on the main street.

On 62 in Franklin Pa, I was trying ti figure out where the road went and accidentally blew right through a red light. This is the first time I can remember doing this in decades. Luckily, there was no cop and, luckier still, there was no one going through the other way. Shortly out of town, I lost 62 (Stella had no route) and ended up heading SW on SR 8. Then we caught 108 over to Newcastle, a blend of old steel plants and some new architecture. It doesn't look like a place I'd like to live.

We stopped at a gas station to remove jacket panels due to the heat. I had picked the town of Coshocton Ohio as a destination to get us to US 36 and I told Stella to take us there. After about 20 miles of lanes and small back roads, I checked the settings and found I had told her to take us there by the shortest route. We were going cross country and making no time at all. I changed that and she then took us to roads that looked like people actually traveled on them.

Somewhere in here, I encountered a stretch of one mile or so where something jammed the GPS. She kept flashing maps and recalculating while telling us to return to the route. We were on a straight stretch of road at the time. I was just about to pull over and shut her down for a reboot when all returned to normal and we continued on our way.

When we encountered I-77, I changed plans and we headed south. A coupon book in a rest area said there was a Days Inn in Cambridge Ohio, at the junction of I-77 and I-70, where the rooms were $39.95 and they had WiFi. We went there directly and found it to be just as adverised.

After checking in, we went next door to Bob Evans where I had a chef salad (huge) and Sandy had a pork dish from the senior's menu. Back at the motel, Sandy laid down while I went outside and met two riders, on from Georgia on a 1500 Wing and the other from Pennsylvania on a Harley. They're on a great expedition to the west coast and both were Zumo equipped.

I did notice that Cambridge is on US-40. This is the road where we got hailed on out in Colorado in July.