IGotABike

Well it’s 8:15 a.m. This is as early as we can go. It’s a constant paradox between wanting to get an early start and needing to sleep.
Yesterday the weather predictors were talking about heavy storms this afternoon. We have made an unspoken decision not to look at the weather report this morning. There is nothing we can do about it but pedal. The hotels are all sold out and though we are still carrying our camping gear our tent is fair weather only.
We have a reservation at the Massillon Hampton Inn. We will begin on the superb Holmes County Trail, the some serious road riding through Wayne County then the last dash accross the Sippo Valley Trail to Massillon. We are going to enjoy the ride and get there as soon as we can. Perfect blue skies, for now!

Another great day! We left Mt. Vernon kinda taking our time cause we were planning on a rather easy 40 mile-ish day. Our first stop was at the post office to mail home five and a half pounds of crap we no longer need!

After that, we made a few business stops, dropping cards here and there. We stopped at our friends at YNot Cycling and talked with Dave and he was gracious enough to put some of our cards out. As we were leaving, we met Daniel. He told us he bought the IGotABike trail guide. We were thrilled to meet a living, breathing customer!

After we left Mt. Vernon, we made great time along the Kokosing GapTrail into Danville. We of course stopped at the Route 62 Drive-In and had a burger and a shake. In case you don’t know, it’s at the corner of 62 and Tough Street.

After Danville, it was road riding down Route 62.

We passed The Bridge of Dreams…

Then came upon the tunnel construction under Rt. 62…

They’ve made great progress in the weeks since we were there last…

And any day should start filling In the void.

After all of that, we hit County Road 6. It’s much easier and fun riding it South to North. Along the way we met two young men, Bill and Chris, heading south and talked with them for a bit. It was a pretty steamy day.

Carolyn got a flat tire as we were getting into Killbuck. It’s fortunate that it didn’t happen on the downhill run into town, as we easily passed 30mph several times. Whew!
So I stick a new tube into her rear tire and were roll down to the Killbuck Sweet Shoppe for some seriously chocolate chunk ice cream. We sat at the picnic table with some of the local folks and, um, well… We hit it off. Nice folks there!
After ice cream, we hit the Holmes County Trail. A few miles down the trail, Carolyn says she has another rear flat! We are within two miles of our hotel, so of course this drives me off the deep end. We add air a couple of times and ride as far as the air lasted and got another mile. We walked the rest of the way. I was fuming as I was certain that the second flat was because I overlooked something. In the end, it was true, as I found out flat one was bad fortune and flat two was a pinched tube on my hasty install. It’s much easier to repair a flat in the shade with a drink in your hand!

Our bikes our now resting in the courtyard. We are trying to get to sleep early so we can ride to Massillon early to beat the weather.
Stay tuned!

Today will be a fun day as we cross from Knox County to Holmes County. First we are going to the post office to dump some weight before we climb the Big Hill on the Big Road. Rt 62 is closed to big trucks but open for bicycles. Very very good.
We have hotel reservations for the next two nights but will need to hustle to beat the heavy storms predicted for Weds afternoon.
This morning it is cloudy and our ride will be pleasant on the fabulous Kokosing Gap trail. The road route begins in Danville and we are headed to The Hotel Millersburg.

What an absolutely wonderful day! Today was an easy 40 some miles from Columbus to Mt. Vernon. We got a late checkout to wait out the morning/afternoon rains and left at around 1:30. On our way out of Columbus, we stopped at Krogers and bought some fried chicken to keep us going through the day (that’s been our secret- fried chicken and Jim Beam). We also stopped at the Trek store and left some IGotABike promo materials.
For the most part of the day, conditions were bike-perfect. Nice dramatic and puffy clouds and we even had a slight tail wind.

As we approached Centerburg, the clouds started looking a bit more ominous.

We decided that with just 13 miles between us in Centerburg and our hotel room in Mt. Vernon, we would go for it and out run the approaching storm. As we pedal out of Centerburg, we could hear thunder behind us.

I don’t know why she’s smiling in the picture, because at that point we were completely committed- there was no turning back. Through every break in the trees, we would look back over our left shoulder, the clouds like a big bad bruise in the sky. We pedaled faster than we ever have. We were nose to tail, drafting at a sustained 18mph. It was scary and exhilarating, all at the same time. Then we came to the point where the trail runs out, uncompleted and you have to take route 36, a two lane black top with no shoulder and traffic at 55mph. We didn’t care and hardly used our mirrors. It was getting dark. I remember pedaling down a hill, in traffic. The last I looked at my speedometer, it was over 30mph. Starting to feel rain drops. The last hill, up, over, flying down into the outskirts of town. The wind kicks and the skies open at the exact moment we skid under the awning of the local beer store drive through! It’s a total gulley washer for 15 minutes. We would have been soaked if we had done anything else differently for 20 seconds. It was a real “finger of God” moment.

So, after all that drama, it’s still drizzling, so we don our rain gear and pedal the couple blocks to our hotel (Comfort Inn on Howard Road-best dang shower in the past 800 miles, hands down). A couple of Beam and Cokes later, and it’s all sunshine and lollipops outside.

Tomorrow we aim for Millersburg. Total mileage to date, 832.

We have been sleeping all morning waiting for the weather to improve. We detect brightening skies so we are making a run for it, well really I mean pedal not run.
I called Bill at the Mt Vernon Comfort Inn. He remembers us from last year. He could hardly stop laughing long enough to make the reservation! He thinks we are nuts! Off we go!

Here we are again at Polaris. Today was another 50 mile road ride day. It was fantastic, but the plan for tomorrow is to be back on our beloved Ohio to Erie trail. After lunch at the Eskimo Queen, we headed to Polaris via the route from one of the cyclists we met at The Queen riding a cool Bianchi.

His buddy was riding a nice Cannondale touring bike that I would have given my eye teeth for when I was younger.

The highlight of my day…

So now we are all hunkered down in Polaris with a late check out because it looks like rain tonight through tomorrow morning. We’ll see…..

Quick update at 8:03pm: Carol just walked into the room and said its raining. It’s a good night to be in a hotel drinking Bell’s Two Hearted!

Road riding and making good time. Stopped at The Eskimo Queen in Plain City for lunch.

Met a couple of cyclists that gave us some good directions to Polaris. Looks like it might rain today.

Today we will continue east on Rt 36, then cut south to
Pick up 161 to arrive in Dublin. We are aiming for the Crown Plaza. weather looks perfect but windy. Here we go!

Another full day of road riding. I really enjoy it. You get to go through so many small towns and meet so many people. For some reason though, it really beats the tar out of us. The noise of the traffic or the wind and the sun or the vibration, or all of the above add up to one butt-kicking day. But dang, it was worth it!
So we were moving really slow this morning. I guess cause yesterday was such a long road riding day and we were tired. Anyway, that’s our excuse for leaving the Lazy R campground at NOON!

It was ok really. We talked and talked with what seemed like about half of the people camped there. They were all so nice. We just kept making coffee and kept on yakin’.
Here’s a shot of our Lilliputian tent with our 66″ Big Agnes sleeping pads in it. You can see how we just barely fit.

we hit US 36 and started pedaling East. In Piqua, we picked up, a short section of trail to get us off the hi way. It went a cross this old railroad trestle.

To get up to it, we had to use a bicycle gutter.

We pedaled on. By the time we got to St. Paris, we were played out, so we stopped in Howard’s IGA and got us a chicken dinner and a chocolate shake!

After that, guess what we did? That’s right! We found the town park and took a nap on the picnic benches!
We are now in a tiny private hotel in Urbana. Tomorrow we anticipate riding into Columbus.
Oh, just as we we getting to our hotel on the road, somebody drove by and lobbed a smoke bomb at us. Pretty hilarious.
(actually, most people have been extremely courteous to us on the road. I guess that’s what makes the smoke bomb funny. Or I just have a strange sense of humor.)

Yesterday we met a man who told us they just paved a section of trail that will take us to Piqua. We can see the trail from the back of the campground we are in. nice!
We just made a reservation at the only hotel, in Urbana. We have stayed there before and there is a Krogers and a Frischs across the street! Everyone shout Big Boys!
The hotel is on top of a pretty big hill and they did not have a ground floor room. We are upstairs, no elevator! We have rope!
It’s good that it is not too far because we are moving slow and enjoying lots of coffee. It’s 10:30 and we are only now starting to pack up.
Our friends Marcia and Dave are getting married today. We wish them happiness, joy and tailwinds!