Day 42: Wooster to Youngstown, OH

When I was riding with Chris today on the 92 mile ride northeast to Youngstown I asked him, "So - what Youngstown about?" He is from Columbus, OH, I figured he should know. He grimaces and looks at me and says, "Corruption. Mafia." OK ... I guess Youngstown has a bad reputation.

So, here we are. If it is the case that there is a corruption and mafia problem here, I'd say it's extremely likely they've been skimming out of the transportation budget. The roads we were riding through Northeast Ohio were collectively the worst I've ever been on. Like almost unridable in many parts except near the center line. Like break a car axle. Like layer upon layer of asphalt filling potholes and then trying again. Like long vertical tire catching ruts that went hundreds of feet near the white line. Like loose gravel over the shoulder. Chris apologized for the condition of his state's roads here ... we told him the first two beautiful days and good roads made up for it.

Today's ride was fine. Very cool today - felt like a fall day. Seemed like a long riding day - in part because the roads really beat you up and required constant attention to keep from crashing and in part because we've been putting in back to back high mileage days for a week. Tomorrow we have another long one - 97 miles into Erie where we get a rest day. (yeah!)

There has been an interesting change in the group dynamic the last couple of days. Lots of folks are talking about going home. They are making plans and talking about being ready for the riding and the trip to end. I hope everyone can stay positive as the trip closes ...

But for me the part of the trip I've been most interested in is still coming - upper state New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. I've never been there, and can't wait.

I am, however starting to get weary of the daily regimented routine and starting to think about home. I am thinking that my deck with a quality glass of Washington wine and some salmon on the grill and friends over is going to be welcome. And my comfy bed. And not packing every day for 52 days. And never, ever going to Bob Evans or Sizzler or Perkins again.

So what is the routine? Someone asked early on and I don't think I ever described what exactly we do everyday - we actually have a pretty regimented in a set schedule. In fact, Chris and I were talking about how hard it would be to think for ourselves when we get back after adhering to a schedule for so long. So here it is:

5:30 ish: Wake up
6:00 ish: Breakfast - often at the hotel, sometimes at a nearby Dennys or Bob Evans type restaurant if the hotel breakfast is too light
7:00 ish: Load the vans. Load the van basically means they open the trailer and everyone hands off their bag and signs in that they've loaded their luggage. (We sign in for everything - their way of herding us and making sure we show up and are accounted for)
7:05: Pump up tires, Riding out. On long days or big climb days we often left earlier - always after it was light.
Between mile 30 and 40 ish: First SAG stop. The SAG van is parked somewhere visible - a park, a convenience store parking lot, a church, a turnout in the road with a cooler of water, Gatorade packets for those who partake in that nasty stuff, food table and basic mechanical support. Everyone has to sign in so they can make sure you aren't dead on the road somewhere, whether or not you take any food or stay for a break. May or may not have bathrooms there. SAG usually has cookies, fruit, salty chips or mix, trail mix, granola bars. They are always low on proteins, which I think is weird since that's pretty key for endurance riding. Some weird reluctance to put out peanut butter ... So I carry my own proteins on the bike. There is a strict sanitation routine at SAG that I think is really smart. Gloves off. Everyone has to use a wipe on their hands and then sanitizer before touching anything on the food table or water cooler. Good idea ... one virus could wipe out half the cyclists and spread quickly. I guess this happened a couple of years ago where van loads of riders were so sick they just were driven from hotel to hotel until they recovered.
Between mile 60 and 70 ish: Second SAG stop. Rides shorter than 70 often only get 1 SAG. Many riders also stop for lunch along the way at a cafe. I usually don't ... I prefer to eat a little constantly than sit down too long and have a big meal in my stomach. But I'm not above a milkshake around mile 70 ... that will get you in for sure.
Anytime after 1:00: Hotel time. The time you get to the hotel in the afternoon depends on how fast you are riding and how much site seeing/lollygagging you do. Afternoon is the easiest time to do laundry, ice bath, shower, blog time, sit by the pool, go to the bar. Sometimes you jump in the shower and go straight to dinner. Often the fastest riders don't have luggage ... the support van with the trailer stays on the road as needed to make sure everyone on the road is safe. This is the right call, but it means that lots of cyclists who dash in quickly sit around in wet bike shorts for a couple of hours ... which begs the question of why rush in ...
4:00 pm ish: Mechanics Hour: Our mechanic has office hours every day and it's first come first served to get your bike worked on. Popular guys, the mechanics.
5:00 pm ish: Route Rap: This is where we get our cue sheets for the next day and review the route for tomorrow. Construction. Stuff to see. Dangerous ride areas. etc. Usually just takes 15 minutes.
5:30 PM ish Dinner: Usually a high volume, modest quality place near the hotel. They try to be done with dinner by 7:00 so some of our more senior riders can make their 7:30 bedtimes.
7:00 pm ish: Post Dinner: Prime blog time. Tour de France if we are lucky is on and we can catch the replay. Many folks sit together in a common area to do their blog where the Wifi is strongest and chat. Others disappear into their rooms till the next morning. This is also when you get all your gear ready for the ride tomorrow. Clean and disinfect water bottles and refill them with electrolytes (for me NUUN) and water. Refill the Bento box (my favorite ride fuel is currently peanut butter filled salted pretzel nuggets and peanut M&Ms ... can go miles on that). Pull out clothes for the next day. Set up your cue sheet. Recharge the Garmin and the Mobile. Pre-pack to enable sleep fogged brain to get you out the door by 6 AM the next day without out forgetting stuff.

Speaking of, I need to go get my bike ready for tomorrow ...

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.

Day 40: Richmond IN to Marysville, OH

Today started out with beautiful light that streaked through the haze and the trees in long stripes of white to soft yellow. It was a beautiful start to a perfect riding day.

We were only 2 miles from the Ohio border when we left the hotel this morning. I figured it was going to be a beautiful day when - after the obligatory state sign photo-op I looked to my right and saw a hummingbird having breakfast and ahead and saw the light falling in streaks through the mist and trees into a clearing. I let the folks I normally ride with ride on ahead and spent the next hour just enjoying the early morning.

The next 65 miles of our 106 mile ride was a relatively easy meander. Lots of navigating and searching for road signs through country roads as we worked our way north, then east in the square pattern that so many rural roads are laid out to accommodate the fields.

Green fields. Corn. Ponds. Pasture.

Queen Anne's Lace and Chicory were out and covering the road side and fields.

Ohio is not flat - surprisingly, but was a series of gentle hills with a promise of many more and steeper tomorrow.

Golden eagles - tons of them - were circling overhead and hunting in nearby fields. Huge birds - never seen so many.

We road through communities of German Baptists (also called Dunkers because of their tradition of baptism by immersion) driving horse and buggies, building a barn, a woman in her modest dress and cap mowing the lawn on a riding lawnmower, a boy driving a tractor who could hardly reach the clutch with a dog happily running along in front of him. They always waived and smiled and clearly accepted modern tools more readily than the Amish communities we visited earlier in Missouri.

I missed a turn and accidentally found an old grist mill I was hoping to find and would have missed for sure had I not been lost. It ground meal using an old water mill ... Unfortunately it was closed but it was a beautiful spot on the outside.

And had fun watching 4 kids chasing their pet pigs around and playing in the mud.

By the time I got to the small town of St. Paris I'd worked up an appetite. Luckily the mayor of the town also operated a cafe and he was ready for us. He hosted previous tours for 2 years before us. He even had the Tour de France on the big screen.

A smoothie and half a sandwich later (courtesy of Marilyn who offered to share) I decided to get on with it. I'd been riding really easy for a few days, and we had a nice brisk tailwind and I decided to make the most of it. So the last 35 miles I hauled in at well over 20 mph. It's one thing to take your time and see the sites, and another thing to just get lazy.

I hope tomorrow is more of the same. Maybe a little less corn.

Day 39: Indianapolis to Richmond, IN

I was grumpy this morning.

Alarm went off way too early at 5:20. It was supposed to rain. Whine, Whine.

By the first 30 miles it was pouring rain. I was covered in road grunge from the knees down and wet. I resolved to put my head down and finish the ride as soon as possible. I was debating today's ride ranking ... Was it worse or not as bad as the current #2 worse day of riding - the Kansas headwind day.

Then, about 53 miles into a 75 miles ride I noticed something interesting. Towns started coming quickly along highway 40 - and I noticed a sign designating it as the country's first National Road commissioned by the federal government in the early 1800s and completed in Indiana in 1834. So that means we started seeing a lot of very old houses and buildings in towns that had popped up along the road as one of the first highways extending west. Then in the town of Cambridge City I saw several historical designation signs.

One historical designation sign stirred me out of my grumpiness enough to prompt a turn off to the right ... to the home and pottery of the Overbeck Sisters. As a former obsessive Antiques Roadshow watcher I'd heard of them ... their pottery helped set the standard for American pottery in the arts and crafts period of American decorative arts. So as I rode over to the house I saw a pretty old house and a lady working in the front garden. I stopped and said hello and we chatted a bit. And she beckoned her husband over.

Meet Phyllis and Jerry Mattheis. They made my day, and I have no doubt meeting them will be a highlight of this trip. They were so generous with their time and knowledge and spent at least 2 hours with me showing me the sisters home they had bought in ruins 35 years ago from an owner who planned to turn it into a parking lot and restored themselves. We chatted about family, they educated me about the history of the sisters, the area and the pottery and about bicycling. Turns out Jerry rode from Indiana to Miami with a friend in 1951 and they stayed in fire stations and police stations along the way. Sounded like a great trip.

Phyllis and Jerry are very modest about their accomplishments but it's clear they are movers and shakers in that community. Just the act of buying and restoring the home and pottery and getting it on the National Register is a huge service to anyone who cares about art and history and a gift to everyone. And Phyllis also helped set up the local museum, sees to restoration of other buildings and is involved in the Overbeck pottery museum at the local library.

She offered to take me to the library and show me the collection and I jumped on it. So we hopped on our bikes and road on the newly built sidewalks (Phyllis likes to ride on the sidewalk) and went to the library. They opened the museum which was housed in the basement. She showed me the pieces and we watched a video that she and Jerry were featured in as preservers of the home. The library was buzzing with activity above. There were numerous nice and very valuable pieces donated to the local museum, which is great to have them here rather all in private collections.

Their pottery ranged from vases in all kinds of glazes and shapes and decor to figurines and grotesques that were funny and showed the sisters humor.

It was a wonderful experience. For more info and to see some of their pottery go to http://www.waynet.org/nonprofit/overbeck.htm

Another thing Phyllis did was help get some important women's history recognized in the town of Dublin just up the road from Cambridge City. She worked with a state women's organization to get a plaque erected recognizing the first women's rights convention, held in 1853 that demanded equality in political, social and financial rights for women. Of course this was instigated by the Quakers, who have a very strong presence in Indiana.

In fact, Quaker founded Earlham College, sister college to Guilford College where I went to school is on the route. It was founded about 10 years after Guilford, and many of the Quakers came from North Carolina. So I cruised through the college with Brian and it looks pretty similar to Guilford. Similar old buildings. Classes that emphasize how to be a good liberal. They even have an equestrian center on campus.

Jerry and Phyllis have a granddaughter going to Earlham. I assured them it was possible to graduate from a Quaker college with a liberal arts degree and actually earn a living later. They looked a little skeptical.

So a great day. Reminds me that a trip and a day - and a life - is what you make of it. And the best things on a trip are not the sites but the amazing people you meet along the way.

Day 37 and 38: Crawfordsville to Indianapolis and Rest Day

First off, I can't believe I forgot to write about the Fountain County 4-H Animal Fair for Day 36.

Not sure how many of you know about my 4-H days. In rural North Carolina where I grew up I had a horse there were a lot of activities based in 4-H, including tons of horse stuff - shows, horse judging contests, horse knowledge bowl, and tons of other projects. I was on county teams that were actually pretty good - we won state level competitions and went to nationals. So between the time I was 11 and 17 I spent all my free time either riding the horse, caring for him or cleaning up after him - no doubt smelling like a barn.

So when I saw the sign at for the 4-H show in I went. And sure enough, there they were - mop-headed horse crazy little girls riding horses ranging from high quality and well trained to the backyard swaybacked pet.

It was a hoot to watch a few classes. I'm quite sure I looked just like those bouncing little girls out there -- very serious, nervous, and barely in control (or outright no control at all in many cases as their horses shied and balked). I saw Bryan, Meiri and Norbert in there and as usual we made quite a site in our spandex and helmets.

One nice thing in Crawfordsville is we went to a nice local cafe for dinner and breakfast. This cafe served healthy balanced meals in proportions that would feed normal people. For us though, used to chowing on all you can eat buffets of marginal to outright crummy food, it didn't seem like enough. Some just went to McDonalds after dinner for a second dinner. I didn't but was interested in how hungry I was on the bike all day - maybe I am burning all that food off I'm stuffing in. I do feel like I'm eating so much food I'm getting sick of bothering to eat and in some ways it will be a relief to just eat when you are hungry and not eat out of fear of bonking and passing out on the side of the road.

Our ride into Indianapolis was short - 65 miles but we had lots of great stops and fun coming in.

Roark titanium bicycle factory was on the route and some of us went in and got a tour and met their frame maker. That was pretty interesting. He only makes about 100 frames a year - all custom. It was fun to ask him how he would build a bike differently to support a heavy rider verses a light rider (thicker tubes for the down tube and head tube) and how he might build a race bike different from a touring bike (race bike needs more reinforcement around the bottom bracket where the cranks come in to give the racer as stiff a possible platform when she pushes peddles for max speed and reinforced around the fork for strength). The factory also does work for the defense department on nuclear subs and he was very excited to show me this fusion drill that is an engineers dream toy but honestly I had not clue what he was talking about for most of it.

They are beautiful bikes. For non-bike folks, when you decide to buy a new bike and you are ready to advance above what's available at Target you have a ton of complicated decisions to make about what bike is right for you. Because it is a gear intensive sport, nothing can be simple or straightforward. One of the basic decisions is what do you want your bike frame made of. Steel (my first bike a Bianchi - heavy but solid and a comfortable ride), Aluminum (like riding a tin can and will jar your teeth out - hate the feel of aluminum), carbon (what my Orbea is made of - light and comfortable - what Boeing is making its Dreamliner out providing one ever actually gets built. Bad thing is carbon is basically fabric wrapped in plastic and its fragile and can crack and isn't repairable. Expensive but prices are coming down) And Titanium which is light, strong, will last forever ... and really expensive. One of the custom Roark frames will run around $3000 - that's just the frame, no wheels, saddle, handle bars or the expensive components in the gears and the breaks. So a custom Roark with good quality components and pieces is probably a $7000 bike.

After drooling over the bikes, we rode on through Eagle Creek Park and saw the first evergreen trees since California if you don't count the half dead cedar tree in someone yard in Missouri. It looked like home.

And of course you can't go to Indianapolis without going to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We got pretty lost getting there and once we found it were greeted by a cranky old lady at the guard house who gave our bikes a nasty look and said we couldn't ride across the parking lot to to the bike racks we had to walk the bikes and we couldn't take all the bikes in because the bike rack wasn't big enough. Clearly we are in CARland - bikes not that welcome.

Again, I'm not a car person. So once in the museum I enlisted Lois, a very nice woman in a red jacket who spent 20 minutes answering all my dumb questions. The short version: there are only 3 races a year there. Indie cars, NASCAR and motorcycles. Indie cars are different than NASCAR and Formula 1 Cars, but look more like Formula 1. NASCAR goes slower and gets in more wrecks, which explains North Carolina's obsession with it. Formula 1 raced there for a few years and then won't come back because of some dispute about the track, but she thinks the track has made changes and F1 may come back. They must make a slug of money to operate a facility that size on only 3 races a year. It's unbelievably huge and got to cost a ton to operate. Even though they charge $8 for a brat and a soda for all the visitors that still can't do it.

So after the car racing we headed back to our own kind and went to the Major Taylor Velodrome. If you don't know, Major Taylor was an elite black athlete and cyclist at the turn of the century and competed and won in Europe since he couldn't compete here. Pretty amazing history - here's more info: http://www.majortaylorassociation.org/who.htm

A velodrome is a track for bike racing. It's oval and has steep banked ends. Races on there are single speed and have no brakes. I like my brakes so I think track racing isn't for me. But even though we have a Velodrome in Seattle and I've been to some races there I've never ridden on it. We had a good time flying around the track, and then got the competition on and started timing laps. I got a lap in 29 seconds. Not fast by racing standards but I beat a lot of our guys which is what I cared about :) That's a lot of fun and a good workout ... heart pounding and gasping for breath. You go up those steeply banked turns and it's unnerving to feel like your wheels will slip right out from under you down the bank ... but they don't. I could see doing this again ...

We followed a great bike trail into Indianapolis that went right through the river and came into the city in front of the capital downtown. Indianapolis is a great city - they've done a nice job developing their downtown. Store fronts are full - no vacancies. Lots of green space. Bike and pedestrian friendly. They've done a lot of things right here. I was impressed. And had we not been biking through I might never have thought to come here. Went and explored the city a bit today including the NCAA Hall of Fame which features all the NCAA sports and a lot of audiovisual and experiential exhibits (shoot hoops, kick the ball in a goal ... good place to take kids.)

Tonight we go over to Jay's house - he lives here and rode with us on the first leg to Salt Lake. He's hosting us for a BBQ- very sweet of him. I'm looking forward to lounging in his back yard with a beer.

Day 36: Champaign IL to Crawfordsille, IN

Today was a light-hearted ride. Perfect weather. Short by recent standards - only 82 miles.

It was pretty funny listening to people talk about our "short" day ... We'll have so much time ... Piece of cake ... such a nice break ...

When did 82 mile rides start to seem easy?

Anyway - that perception of an easy day combined with a day off after a short ride tomorrow (63 miles) made us more willing to play and less concerned about getting in and getting ready for tomorrow. A bunch of us rode together the first 30 miles to the sag stop. The group I usually ride with spent a lot of time with some of the folks who pace a little slower and we had a blast. After our 20th mile of corn we decided to practice our CORNOGRAPHY. Many staged goofy corn photos and probably a few damaged corn plants later we headed on east.

But the goofing off didn't end there. Photo stops at the Indiana photo that required a bit of slogging through weeds and thistles. Then a retro photo stop at the Illinois border since we didn't have a good sign coming in where there was a convenient corn field and prison framed in the background.

The ride was made even better by a string of small towns that were all interesting and felt like thy had a nice balance of being local and lived and having their own flavor. One thing I've noticed in the countless small towns we've been through is how many towns have succumbed to the fast food chain strips and homogenization that has stripped the character from towns that were once unique.

We had broken up into loosely formed strings of riders by the time we hit Covington, Indiana, a pretty little town with lovely old houses and a main street that looks like it has stores catering to visitors who come in for antiquing. I was navigating through the town trying to follow directions when I noticed a woman hollering out - "where are you going" at other passing cyclists. I had ridden past her, too, before it registered she was talking to us and getting a little discouraged at flagging one of us down. So I turned around and went to say hello and met Murph (a gal) who was helping move a family members antique store to smaller space. She's got the blog address, so Murph if you tune in tell us a little more about Covington cause it looks like a nice town.

Riding on we went through the town of Veedersburg that sported a mighty fine cafe with homemade cakes and pies. I had the black raspberry/lemon cake. Delicious.

Next up was Hillsboro, which had my favorite welcome sign of all time: "Welcome to Hillsboro, home of 600 happy people and a few old soreheads."

Waynetown boasted a pioneer cemetery with graves from mid 1800s, including for William Bratton, a Lewis and Clark Expedition member who successfully completed the journey to the Pacific Northwest and then came back to settle in Waynetown. Several War of 1812, Mexican War and Civil War veterans were buried there. Lots of graves of young people in their 20s and infants ... folks died young back then.

And finally I lollygagged into Crawfordsville, Indiana. I'd heard about an old jail there and set out to check it out. So instead of turning to the hotel I headed into town. And sure enough - it was at the top of the hill and miraculously still open on Sunday afternoon. I walked in during the last tour of the day from the local historical society.

This jail, like the one we saw earlier in Linn County MO, was also the home of the sheriff and his family. But ... this was a jail that was built with an ingenious system that had a rotating cell block. The jail is shaped like a double decker pie chart, with each cell being a piece of the pie. There were originally no doors on the cell, the only door was a the entrance and the entire structure rotates around to rotate the cell in front of the door. The guards could rotate the entire structure with less pounds of force than it took to open a patio door. It was pretty interesting. Here's more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_jail

A fun day and tomorrow there will be lots of side trips and interesting stuff to see. I'm looking forward to my day off.

Any suggestions for Indianapolis for food, drink and/or fun?