8/1/05 A great day for Bob! He averaged about 15 miles an hour. Nice weather, although it was 90 degrees by the end of the day. Towns are getting closer together and services more frequent. Bobs seat broke and he had to wait for the support van to come and fix it for him before he could continue. But he still made it to the end of the ride with the majority of the pack.

8/2/05 Bob rode with Estelle, a 67 year old cajan from New Orleans. They did 84 miles in 7 hours including rest stops! Bob says Estelle wouldn't let him stop too much, though. They averaged 15 miles- per-hour. A few of the more competive people average 20 miles-per-hour.

Bob says the weather is getting hot. The schools tend not to have air conditioning, so he prefers to sleep in his tent outside.

8/3/05 Bob had another good day riding 90 miles. He and New-York-Debbie started out a little after 5:00 a.m. to avoid some of the days heat. It got up into the lower 90's. Tomorrows forecast is for cooling and thunderstorms. Bob is carrying rain gear if there is a steady rain, but he will try to find shelter if there is a short storm that goes through. Tomorrow they pass into Canada and Bob may not be able to call me as often.

Tonights dinner was provided by Richmond Middle School for the riders. Bob says it was the best meal they bave been served to date. They had hamburgers, hotdogs, salads, fruit, and desserts. ? Bob says there are 70 riders right now, who are all very hungry after a 90 mile day.

8/4/05 & 8/5/05 Bob is now in Canada. It costs a small fortune to call the US from Canada on the phone card, so I today (8/5) is the only day I will hear from him.

On Thursday, 8/4, the weather was very hot. Cycle America has done another good job routing them, and although the roads in Canada have no shoulders for bikers, traffic was very light. They took a ferry into Canada from Michigan for $1.

Today, the weather was much cooler for the bikers. They had a nice trip along the Northern coast of Lake Erie.

Estelle and Bob have been riding along together for the past few weeks. On Fridays, Cycle America has their weekly award ceremony. Estelle and Bob received the award tonight for the "Best Road-Find." They were up against tough competition with a truck plackard that someone else had found. Estelle spotted a ceramic doll and picked it up during the days ride. Bob presented it for the two of them. The doll was OK, but Bob thinks it was his story about how Estelle saw the doll, but he, Bob, had to knock the little kid down and wrestle it away from her. Thats my Bob.

8/6/05 Bob is in Niagra Falls, Ontario. He will spend the day there tomorrow, doing laundry and getting ready for his last week of riding with the group from Cycle America.

Bob was quite pleased today. He got to lead a pace line into Niagra Falls. Although he has ridden in pace lines before, he never lead one. He also received one of the Ace Hardware riders uniforms. The Ace Hardware team has been riding across the country with Cycle America, but different members join for each week. It is customary for the leaving members to give their Ace Hardware uniform to someone continuing the ride, usually staff members. Bob got one today!

Bob and Estelle rode together again today and got lost. They couldn't figure out why they weren't where they were supposed to be on the ride. They then found out that there are two Route 3s and they were one the wrong one! Luckily, they were heading in the right direction and finally merged with the planned route after rding for about 30 miles.