Day 41-July 11, 2011- Lake Erie-Irving NY

Dearest Readers,

Meet the joking Salzman family from Buffalo, my camp neighbors. From left to right, Joyce+Howard, granddaughter Lulu+her mother Randi (who is their daughter), and second daughter Rhonda. Rhonda’s husband Tim did not want to be in the picture.
They are having a great time lovingly poking fun at each others foibles. Howard, the patriarch of the little clan helped me set up my tent in a hurry. The wind was whipping, the sky dark. I thought rain was imminent, but for the moment we’ve dodged the bullet.



Etta and I have camped at Evangola State Park right on Lake Erie in Irving NY, about 25 miles south of Buffalo. Our tent is next to a wooded area and immediately behind that is the lake, so wide it is impossible to see across.



Etta chased a seagull and dodged the waves. It’s hard to believe that in the 70s I think Lake Erie was declared a dead lake. What a change anti-pollution laws can make!







We started the day in Michigan heading south and east alongside miles of corn again, and several small railroad towns like Tecumseh, founded in 1824. I snapped a picture of a historic columned home on Chicago Street (the main drag), and one of the former train depot conveniently situated across from The Daily Grind, Tecumseh’s local coffee shop. Yay!



Did you catch that sign in the soggy picture, readers?..the smudge of writing in the upper right through my windshield in a driving rain? It says, “Welcome to Ohio”. The Great Lakers got some of their needed downpour today.
Most of my trip hugged Lake Erie, and was a who’s who of rust belt cities, as I continued south-east, then east and then northeast along the shoreline. I whizzed by Toledo, Sandusky, and Cleveland in the rain.



I grabbed this shot of Cleveland under a roiling sky. I’m getting pretty good at snap and go driving.





The next bad shot is the Welcome to Pennsylvania sign. I’m on unforgiving i-90 under construction, in a single line of trucks and speed-happy automobiles. I zipped past Erie PA, and finally crossed New York State in another blur of shutter speed signage, continuing northeast now along the Lake Erie coast.



I stood inside the rows of a New York State vinyard near lake Erie–much humbler digs here than the high tech supports and rolling miles of grapes in California. Maybe I can sample some of their wines tomorrow.

I saw my first Vermont license plate in Michigan this morning, and another on an 18-wheeler in Pennsylvania. I’m closing in on the end of Phase 1 of this journey. Phase 2 will be going down the east coast delivering Hand to Hand art in August, after a five week stopover in Vermont. Such an Odyssey! :)