I'm sitting in a McDonald's in Wooster,OH reflecting on the last two days of my awesome adventure feeling like I should be on the road continuing my journey. Yesterday(Sunday) was a good day of rest. We had a good time with Jan's family. Her sister Kandace and her husband Jerry were at her parent's place and then her brother Ed and his wife Julie and their two youngest Tyler and Courtney came up for the afternoon/evening. It was good to be with family and catch up. We watched the Italy vs. Spain Euro Cup game together and agreed that Spain, even though it was P.K's was the rightful winner. Apologies to all the Italian fans out there.
This morning I awoke and began to organize some of my clothes and gear and just had the itch to get back out on the road and keep going. I know that I could, if I really wanted to. Jan has been so supportive and has said that if I feel I need to complete this trip she is behind me. I've got the energy. We do have the resources if we wanted to use them for continuing this trip. Part of me wants to keep going. To complete what I set out to complete. To go for it. Part of me feels like I'm giving up.
The other part of me sees my family. The resources (financial, time, energy) that have gone into this trip already and says I've had an amazing experience, my family has been extremely gracious to allow me this indulgence, I've gone far enough. We've got projects we want to complete at home. The girls and I have some things we want to do at home.
Let me just go back and say that Friday I rode from Archbold,OH to Norwalk,OH and logged 101 miles. While not as exciting as the previous days ride of 90 miles averaging 17 plus mph there was a good sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. I carried a bit more weight in my backpack because I was on my own. Jan and the girls drove to Kidron.
I had a bit of excitement on the trip at two different points. The first bit of excitement was coming into the Toledo area. The directions I was following listed several roads that I could not locate(No road signs). I didn't have a map along with me and so I went a bit out of my way trying to get on the right road. When I finally did get on SR 20 I found myself riding on about 10 to 12 inches of pavement between a rumble strip and the gravel edge of the road. One benefit was that it kept my focus off of the steady stream of semis wizzing by my left shoulder.
The second bit of excitement came during the final 3 to 4 miles of this journey. As I rode along on this US 20 I began to look around and notice that I was riding on what looked an awful lot like a freeway. A four lane, divided highway, with off and on ramps and fence lined. I began to prepare my speech for the Highway Patrol man/woman who would pull me over and explain that bicycles were prohibited on this portion of this highway. I hadn't seen any signs, granted I was looking. I was on mile 97 and just wanted to get to Norwalk. I'm sorry. But thankfully the Highway Patrol never came. When I finally got to the Norwalk exit I found that the Highway Patrol office was located right next to the exit. I also saw the sign at the on-ramp "Prohibited.....bicycles" Oooops! Believe it or not it was actually some of the best riding I had, had all day. There was a big wide berm for me to ride on a safe distance from the swiftly moving traffic.
Well I found my way into town and stayed at the closest hotel I could find. The Norwalk Hotel. $45 got me a bed, air conditioning, and a decent nights stay. Oh yea, and a shower.
The next day I set out for Kidron about 68 miles away. It was about straight south with the winds out of the south/southwest. The terrain changed from flat to rolling and the road (250) was probably the tightest, busiest I'd been on during my whole trip. The strip I rode on narrowed to about 8 inches for the first 20 to 25 miles. I was relieved to get onto 302 and meet up with Jan and her father for the final 4o plus miles. We flirted with the rain for most of the trip. If we took to long of a break we'd start feeling the rain drops and would get back on our bikes and get ahead of it again. We had the best down hill of the trip coming down into Wooster,OH it was probably 3 to 4 miles of steep to gradual grade. And we never had to deal with the equal and opposite grade. Yes we did have some good uphills on this route but nothing to equal the downhill we enjoyed.
Emily, Kate, and Anya were waiting for us at the intersection of Kidron road and Western road and rode with us the final mile to Jan's parents home. They promptly ran into the house and returned with water balloons and had fun getting dad wet. There was a big sign to encourage us inside that they had made with their aunt Kandace. What a wonderful welcome. It was good to see the girls again and hear they had enjoyed their time with Kandace and Jerry.
250 miles in 3 days. 700 miles for the complete trip. My rear end faired relatively well, the final three days were better than the previous 7. My legs were a bit sore. My right knee was probably hurting the worst. But overall I'm feeling pretty good. My family laughs at the white strip on the side of my face where the chin strap to my helmet shaded the sun. They laugh at the distinct tan line on my legs where my biking shorts ended. I've got a distinct "Farmer's tan" on my arms. But I'm feeling good.
I have learned that I enjoy biking a whole lot more when I have a destination in mind and I feel as though I am going somewhere vs. simply a riding a loop and ending up where I started. Traveling 45, 60, or 100 miles towards something, being able to look back and see that I have traveled some distance is so much more satisfying to me than traveling in a 62 or 100 mile loop and simply saying I traveled the distance. 700 miles in a big circle just wouldn't be the same. I've now ridden from the U.P. of Michigan to Kidron,OH. Maybe some day Jan and I will take the time to make the journey from Kidron to Harrisonburg. What would be even more awesome is to have our daughters join us on that journey. Now that would be a thrill.
For now we look forward to getting home to Harrisonburg and working together to build fence and several pens for the calves the girls are planning to buy with their "economic stimulus funds". I'm looking forward to a day-long seminar the girls and I plan to attend at Joel Salatin's farm in Swope,VA. I'm hoping that will provide some good inspiration for some projects around our place. Some ways that we can get the girls more involved in the projects. They expressed much more interest in recent months to help out and try some new things. I'm excited about that. I'm looking forward to the next two months of working with them on some things. They are getting to an age that they've really been helpful.
Enough for now.
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