Day 41: Marysville to Wooster, OH

If Mrs. Stafford of Mifflin OH had tempted us with hot chocolate in addition to the cookies, Chuck and I might still be sitting in her living room.

We had taken shelter under a tree in her front yard as a storm blew in and it became clear we were not going to escape without a drenching. As the wind picked up and the rain started to blow in sideways, we eyed the front porch of the house, debated, and then headed up. The door was open and someone was clearly home but it was quiet ... we were afraid if we shouted we might disturb someone.

Soon enough a cheerful little old lady popped out the door "Well Hello". She was delightful - she told us a bit about the area and that her house was built 150 years ago. And did we notice the lovely farm at the bottom of the hill with the white house and red barn? That was her husbands family farm. I had to smile at that ... there must be some Ohio ordinance that requires a white house/red barn combo (the same color red, no less) and we had passed hundreds in our miles in the state. But of course we nodded and smiled.

Her husband came out (she had told us he had indeed been napping but he denied it). I believe her. She invited us in and offered cookies. So nice. We knew if we went in we would be there for a while ... they were elderly and we were entertainment. Normally that would be fine but we had 30 miles to go on a 106 mile hilly ride and the weather was throwing some curveballs. The last thing I want is to end up having to get in the van and be SAGged in after all these miles biking every inch cross country, and bad weather, water on the road, low visibility all make it more important to go slow and take the time to get in safely. So we politely declined and rode on when the weather cleared a bit.

If a soggy stranger showed up on my front porch, would I invite them in and offer them cookies? I hope I would, but then I don't know. While I live my life as fearlessly as I can there are definitely boundaries to how much I open my world to others. But I think one of the lessons of this trip for me how much simple openness and acts of generosity can mean to others.

The rest of the day was beautiful riding, cloudy enough to keep the high humidity from feeling like a sauna and hilly. Steep hills - lots at 14% grade (which is steep enough to have me wishing for another couple of gears after I'm in the easiest ring possible.) Wildflowers, very cool birds - blue herons and a huge hawk. Farm after farm of white house and red barn.

Wooster is a cute town. I walked around main street after dinner. Nice little restaurants and craft/art stores. Went into one that had pottery and asked if it was local and she said no, a lot of their pots come from Seabeck, NC. Which is interesting Seabeck is exporting up here ...

They seem to like their edifices here in Wooster ... in a couple of blocks there were 6 churches with huge footprints all competing for real estate. The Masons and the Elks also had their own huge buildings.

Tomorrow is another long one - 92 miles to Youngstown.