June 21 Erie, PA Rest Day

What a welcome rest day...our last one. This time next week we'll be pulling into Boston!

Erie, PA, is an interesting city. We are staying in an old hotel down town and today I got to do some exploring and research it's history. Erie was quite an industrial town in the late 1800's. It was the world's largest fresh water fishing port, the largest builder of rail road steam locomotives, one of the nation's largest electrical generation plants, and a ship builder. Today, this is all gone and many of the down town buildings are vacant and for sale. The population has gone from 140,000 to less than 100,000. This seems to be a standard story for these old rust belt industrial cities. The city does have lots of stately old homes, schools, and churches.

I included a picture of the bike Michael has been riding around the world. I picked it up and it must weigh 80+ pounds with all his gear. By comparison, my bike and gear is about 20 pounds.

We had a great tour of the rebuilt naval ship Niagara, that Admiral Perry use to win the 1812 battle of Lake Erie. It was amazing how technical the construction and rigging was. Fran, our woman biker from Salt Lake City, toured it with us and I learned she was a US Navy Captain and commanded a sub supply ship.

Tomorrow we are off to Hamburg, NY, and our 11th state line crossing.