5 Days 500 Miles!

Well Yahoo maps said it was 420 miles, Fremont to Cincinnati, but I'm sure it was a bit more adding country routes and my detour through Dayton. My fingertips are still numb from 12 hour riding days, nursing my sprained ankle, and yes my ass is very very sore but Dick and I had an absolutely blast of a time for our first big tour of 2008 and I've got the third degree sunburn to prove it *grin* Follows are my notes in journal as they unfolded along the way...

Monday morning June, 16 perfect spring day. Everything is green. Tall grass along the country road is full from the last few weeks of humid summer heat. A stop by the library to check the last weather reports for all points south this week. I don't keep a schedule, been waiting for just whatever moment seems right in my spirit. Weather is perfect. I'm loaded up. The time is right to fly free on this journey.

Sunsetting with a massive low front flushing out the humidity like an ocean sized air conditioner. Dry 70's clouds puffed up against the big blue sky accenting their glowing orange tops. Rolling land. Low traffic. I started from Tiffin with the help of my neighbor and his astrovan. Fremont to Tiffin on route 53 is busy with trucks and not pleasant to bicycle.

Seventy miles covered till now. The red sun is sinking behind an empty shipping building. Dick and I tucked deep in the stacks of pallets behind the loading docks, a fence on the other side. Dusk passing now. If there is no sign from the neighbors across the fence we'll settle in here for the night. A patrol car passes through overnight unable to see the dozens of reflectors on my bike as it is hidden from view behind the pallet stacks.

Another hundred miles tomorrow to Urbana near Springfield and the trail head of the Little Miami Bike Trail. It's a converted abandoned railway. Eight foot paved bike path, no cars, with trees lining both sides and the Miami river alongside all the way to Cincinnati.

50's over night with not much lower dew point. I pack up the map and journal, fix Dick and myself up to be comfortable in the cool night breeze. Tarp over the foot of my bedroll to block the wind. Dick is long passed out. Curled up, a ball in my t-shirt, think I'll have a rest too. Crickets chirping loudly and the sound of water running gently over creek rocks. Good sounds for falling asleep to. Watching dark silhouette of tree branches sway against moonlit starry skies.

Six a.m. Tuesday up with the rising sun. Six miles into Forrest, Ohio. I find a local dinner serving hot breakfast. "Cheese omelet, potatoes, and buttered toast to share with my ferret."

"I used to have a ferret," said the cute twenty something waitress attending to the room full of old timers filling their bellies, "they are so cute!" I studied her shoulder length red hair and brite morning smile. A young Julia Roberts in my book. I flirted with her something fierce. She lost her track and forgot to charge the potatoes. "five dollars, seems a little cheap with coffee." I said, grinning. "Oh, yes." she admitted, grinning back. "Have a nice ride to Cincinnati!"

Dick was pleased they did not have butter substitute. Real butter makes his innards work hard but he loved the stuff and the off chance that he could have a taste. Breakfast and a wash up we were off again. Follow route 53 to Kenton about an hour and a half. Then all points south on 68 to the trail head. Today will be a hard push.

Holey Shitballs! Pushed WAY to hard. Rode Way-Way over a hundred miles through to Xenia. One love full on panic attack from yesterday afternoon at three to three this morning trying to sleep behind a half wall downtown. I could feel my heart was t-totally exhausted, and my body strung tight, only beginning to unwind by breakfast five a.m. as soon as the doors to McDonald's opened.

Just when I thought I could not keep going the universe tossed a wonderful new adventure my way. But I was not yet aware of it's unfolding. A few early morning hours on the trail Dick and I rounded a curve along the trail following a river with a sharp steep rock face on the opposing side. A skyline began rolling out from behind the wall as we made the turn. Hmmm those buildings look like... Dayton, Ohio! Damn that weak ass McDonald's coffee. I had made a serious wrong turn somewhere. Xenia has many other trails that spur off of the Little Miami Trail. Dayton was one. Holey Shitballs is right!

New Plan!!! We check out the Dayton trail system. After all we had never been before and this was a glorious opportunity to do so. I remember in my study of maps that it runs to downtown and then should spur off to the south for at least 25 miles. We were heading south anyway so this should be OK. When it runs out we will just head back east to find the Miami Trail again.

Orange bicycle detour signs darting over surface streets through downtown. Wahoo, fun! Back on the city path now and heading south. We find a nice place to unroll our pack for an afternoon rest. Dick is full of kibble and all comfy in his pile of t-shirts. He ate good throughout last night after poor eating and a stressed day. I know how the poor guys feels. Oops nope now he's up again and crawling down into the bedroll with me. Down to the feet, then up to the top again and poke his head out at me and back down again. I can feel him toss and turn against my bare feet finding just the right spot. Now for some mixed nuts and novel.

Wow this is more like it. Wrapped up in the sleeping bag. Cool air breezing across the river and licking my sun kissed face. Reading 'Lovely Bones' and feeding a constant rhythm of mixed nuts to my lips as I'm carried off into this bizaroo fiction suggested by a beautiful friend. Alice Sebolds writing is like quantum theater. The story lives in multiple dimensions all at once. I felt truly Bipolar, one paragraph laughing out loud, the next welling up with tears. What a rich-dark story. This book is going to be fun!

My toes are a toasty ferret temp 104 degrees. Dicks tiny paws wrap ed around the palm of my foot. Cat naps of the 30 minute variety. There is a huge clock tower at our skyline park. It's 5 story's tall if its an inch, and you bet it rings out like a five story clock as well. Not many riders going by since we pulled off the trail under some shade trees. I look out over Dayton's sunny skyline, beyond the river, and doze off. Set the snooze for 30 minutes. *chuckle*

I could sit here the rest of the day. Who would move with tiny arms wrapped around your feet, but even as I write I know I'm about to have a sun lotion bath and hit the trail. Hoping it dumps us off somewhere half as lovely as this.

Nice ride south from Dayton. The trail dumped us out at Franklin near Middletown, Ohio. I wish I had Carla's number just three miles away from her town, a shame not to stop in for a visit. I had emailed her my number initiating an exchange but did not get hers back in reply before leaving. Perhaps I'll return to my inbox and find it there waiting for me. Maybe next time.

At the end of Dayton's southerly spur I was now a truly lost white dude. I had no earthly idea how I would find my way back on the Little Miami Trail east of here after our little Dayton diversion, but I knew east should do the trick. I'll follow route 123 it seems to run southeast thought it is a hilly back road full of traffic escaping from the main interstate. Wandering all over these hills this afternoon stumbling occasionally on the odd bike trial. My general direction seemed to be on course. Flagged down a biker who said, "Oh, yeah this trail runs directly into the Little Miami Trail." "Best news all day," I exclaimed "Thanks brother!"

Smiling ear to ear Dick and I were back on course now with the sixetynine mile detour behind us. Riding south along the Little Miami River I began to recognize it from our last trip down. My wheels spun and spun with a new energy knowing our trek was back in order.

End of the line. Thursday morning after a good sleep in Milford, Ohio. I finished out the Little Miami Bike Trail into a town, I think, named Fairfax. "Good morning girls." I chirped to three Kroger employees having a smoke before going in to start their workday. I dawned my most cute, inquisitive face and asked, "Do y'all know if I'm near to a laundry or bike shop?" My rear wheel had become rather squirrely after all that street riding throughout downtown Dayton and it needed attention.

"Yeah," said the cute blond leader of the pack. Her hair done and more polished up than the other two. She carried herself as perhaps a manager of one type or another. "there's a coin laundry about a mile and a half up the road and a bike repair shop just past there."

"Beautiful!" I replied, "Thank you ladies." Riding away with a content grin. Fresh clothes, breakfast, and maybe put a wrench to this bothersome wheel. The shop opens at eleven I'll have an hour to spend with Susie Salmon in my book.

Smitty patched me up with a fresh spoke and the rear wheel runs true again. Eight whole bucks. A deal for curing a case of "squirrely wheel." Now I'll ride faster going it on a strait line.

Made a good rest there, clean and fresh. Stompin hard for the north it's the Giant and his sidekick at full sails speed. Xenia by dark and spinning wheels again with the dawn. Full days ride today stopping briefly to snap scenic photos along the path and finish off the trail and all points due north on 68. A nice four shoulder along route 68. Clean most of the way past Bellefontaine, Ohio.

Interesting part about riding away from the Ohio city named highest elevation is the coasting for a mile at a time passing down the highway hills. T-totally beat, exhausted, in Forrest Ohio just south of Upper Sandusky I was a little crispy around the edges and starved. Cleaned out a little roadside dairy bar, just across from were I had had my first breakfast and flirted with the ferret loving waitress, I ordered diner and gave a call to my neighbor, Tony, for a chopper out of here. 53 North through Tiffin is no fun with high truck traffic. I will gladly avoid this next section of dangerous road.

I think the boy working the counter did not know what to make of this sunburned traveler who when asked what size ice cream replied, "Just give me the whole bucket." Finishing my dessert I explained my traveling to some folks passing through on their way to Mid Ohio for the races, a car engineer with six that would be in the race. Hey if you happen by and read this blog... How many places did your cars take? I told him I'd have to look it up in detail but that Yahoo maps listed Fremont to Cincinnati as a 420 mile trip and that from my level of cooked I thought it must have been a bit more than that. All paved bike path from Urbana to Fairfax. The Ohio Department of Transportation bike ways are great throughout the state. Most importantly, I added, Guess what I spent on gas all week? ZERO!!!

Home now, clean, unpacked, rested. The films developed-everything ready to put up on my many blogs. Dicks been crashed out cold a full day now. Poor Guy. You know he does most the work out riding the trails. He developed quite an addiction to Gatorade over the week. Still a half a bottle in the fridge, I'll set him up a round if he decides to poke out from his sleep later and inspect that all the gear has been stowed and everything in it's place. He's a trip! The garden is watered with a nice warm thunderstorm rolling in. Perfect timing and great weather to fall asleep by.

Peace, luv, and ferret kisses,
Rick and Dick