2015-06-17 - IN - Day 21 - Bowling Green to Monroeville
I awoke to the discovery of delicious donuts the host had for us, freshly made a mere four hours before without preservatives. They were amazing. Libby and I rode together to the first rest stop. Along the way, we tried to shortcut through a landfill to get back on route. As we stood there, surrounded by impossibly flat fields, discussing which way to go, a tinny voice suddenly echoed from nowhere:
- "This is the mighty voice of Oz! How may I help you?"
- "Um, is there a way to get through to the other side of this street?" I asked, pointing and thinking he could not see my hand.
- "No, you have to go around the whole block."
- "Thanks."
After we left the landfill, Libby could not believe how fast she was cycling as we crossed the flat landscape without bad headwinds, averaging about seventeen miles per hour. She has grown into a very strong rider and will continue to improve. After passing the Campbell Soup Factory, which smelled like delicious tomato soup before the scent morphed into that of manure, we arrived at the rest stop. We used the restroom, ate snacks, and stretched until the van and trailer arrived ten minutes later. When it arrived, we chased it -- she on a bike, I on foot -- around the entire gas station until it backed to a stop. Soon everyone else got there too.
- "This is the mighty voice of Oz! How may I help you?"
- "Um, is there a way to get through to the other side of this street?" I asked, pointing and thinking he could not see my hand.
- "No, you have to go around the whole block."
- "Thanks."
After we left the landfill, Libby could not believe how fast she was cycling as we crossed the flat landscape without bad headwinds, averaging about seventeen miles per hour. She has grown into a very strong rider and will continue to improve. After passing the Campbell Soup Factory, which smelled like delicious tomato soup before the scent morphed into that of manure, we arrived at the rest stop. We used the restroom, ate snacks, and stretched until the van and trailer arrived ten minutes later. When it arrived, we chased it -- she on a bike, I on foot -- around the entire gas station until it backed to a stop. Soon everyone else got there too.
We rode onward, Nils, Alex, Libby and me. We could not believe how high the river was. We learned later that people would call this a ten or hundred year flood. We stopped so Nils could snack and Alex could apply some cream to his butt. The second stop was in Defiance, Ohio, where we stopped at a coffee shop. Almost everyone was there already. Svetlana asked Bridget about dreads which sounded quite difficult to take care of. We also heard about something embarrassing Bridget had to do to Mike as part of a silly lost bet.
On the way to rest stop three was a stretch along which neatly planted trees lined the grass to our right as the road led us straight forward. It filled me with homesickness because it was so similar to a section of the Liberty State Park near where I am from. There was a period of my life during which I woke up early every morning and cycled there before going to work. When the road curved though, the illusion was broken and we soon arrived at our stop in the town of Paulding. It had a beautiful city hall with barely anyone inside and plenty of empty space. I bought postcards and stamps while we riders shared food with each other.
Libby and I rode together most of the way from that last rest stop to the end. We cycled through places where the road was flooded; at the worst it came up to our ankles and splashed my entire leg, adding weight to my long pants. This whole stretch was just endless fields going on for miles and straight roads that never ended.
Lush greenery filled the water ditches on our right. I thought that perhaps the water runoff helped transport their seeds.
Towards the end of the ride while I was in a zen reminiscence of happy memories with my best friend, the unchanging landscape was getting to Libby: "I just wish it would end!" I later found out that Libby had been avoiding drinking water out of fear of pathogens from the questionable pools of water we had cycled through and which had splashed onto our bottles.
Lush greenery filled the water ditches on our right. I thought that perhaps the water runoff helped transport their seeds.
Towards the end of the ride while I was in a zen reminiscence of happy memories with my best friend, the unchanging landscape was getting to Libby: "I just wish it would end!" I later found out that Libby had been avoiding drinking water out of fear of pathogens from the questionable pools of water we had cycled through and which had splashed onto our bottles.
We finally finished the day in Monroeville after a total of ninety miles of cycling. Eric, the touring cyclist we met earlier, was there. The Monroeville Bike Hostel was great, free for bike tourers with a shower, bathrooms, kitchen, washers, dryers, and outlets. A large single room housed all of us and our bikes. We were so glad to be inside. We had only experienced light drizzles all day, but a few hours after we arrived, it started to pour outside.