84 miles 784 feet

My sunglasses steamed when I left the motel into the humid morning air. I regained the ACA route after a few miles and headed east along rivers with little morning traffic. The small towns I passed through were very well cared for and catered to tourists such as myself. Napoleon has a magnificent courthouse and coffeeshop. Pemberville has a general store that has been continuously open for 149 years. A good example is Grand Rapids, along the Wabash Erie Canal, where I had lunch. Another is the highlight of the day: Fremont Ohio. After approaching through thin suburbs, the ACA route takes you through a neighborhood of incredible 19th century homes. I made slow progress because I stopped so often to take pictures. I expected Rutherford B Hayes, whose presidential library is in Fremont, to appear on the porch of one of them. Then the route leads to a rail-to-trail route over the river and safely deposited me near my simple motel. Fremont is beautiful.

Tomorrow I reach Lake Erie and spend the night in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood. I follow the Great Lakes till the east end of Lake Ontario.

I read a little about the Great Lakes. They are all connected and drain very slowly. "A single drop of water finds its way into Lake Superior either by rainfall or runoff. It takes more than two hundred years to make its way through the Great Lakes system and out to the Atlantic Ocean." (source). I know very little about them but my mother grew up near the shore of Lake Ontario. I'll pass through Albion, the town where she grew up.