Day 102-Fremont to Norwalk (32 Miles)

I didn't eat much in the way of breakfast before checking out of the Old Orchard and walking to the start of the North Coast Inland Trail. The trail avoided the main drags of town but passed through some amazing old Catholic and Lutheran churches. I started the run hungry, but on a very nice paved bike path.

I arrived into the town of Clyde and popped off the bike path for lunch. I walked the half mile or so north to Highway 20 past the Whirlpool plant for yet another healthy McDonald's lunch. I'm bound to win something big in the Monopoly promotion going on. Walking back to the path the rains really started to pick up where they didn't let up for the rest of the day. The only positive about the situation was that I wasn't running on the side of the highway where I'd get the spray.

The trail had a little discontinuity in the town of Bellevue where I had to use country roads. When the trail resumed it was no longer paved and the crushed gravel/dirt surface led to some pretty tough pushing in the wet weather. This slowed my progress to Norwalk, but I eventually made it to the outskirts of town. I then was able to run on sidewalks to the Wal-Mart where I would meet Carolyn and Don, my generous hosts for the evening.

My phone died while waiting for them outside of the Wal-Mart, but I was able to stand out enough for them to pick me out of the lineup of Wal-Mart characters. We loaded up the cart into their dry mini-van and drove to the other side of the parking lot where we enjoyed dinner at a Chinese buffet.

Following dinner Carolyn and Don gave a little driving tour of the area on the way to their home in the town of Huron on Lake Erie. The highlight of the tour was in Milan where I saw the home where Thomas Edison was born. We got into Huron and made another stop at a beach on Lake Erie. There was a large storm over the lake that looked pretty amazing with the light of the sunset on it. Too bad my phone (camera) was dead for the show.

We arrived at their home where we relaxed for the remainder of the evening. Don was an aerospace engineer for NASA before retiring and had quite the collection of rc airplanes including a pretty large gas powered one in their other mini-van. Both Don and Carolyn offered great company and hospitality and I was glad to be spending the night in their home during a pretty severe storm.

Start of the North Coast Inland Trail