We woke up in Bob and Colleen's beautiful set up and had some breakfast. We departed a little before 10 but not before making some last minute changes to our route. We were originally going to follow route 6 most of the day but Bob advised we follow another route that goes just about the same way only a few miles longer and not on the busy interstate. We listened to his advice. The first half of our day was spent riding on a path that followed the Maumee River and the second part followed a county road parallel to route 6.
We made one mistake during part of the first half of our route. We accidentally got on what was called "The Towpath Trail." Although it was gorgeous, running through the woods right along side the Maumee River, our bikes were not build to handle its off-road gravel path. Bob warned us about this which is why he emphasized not to take the Towpath and instead to take the road beside it. But it was so beautiful, we couldn't resist and wanted to give it a shot even if only for a few miles.
Unfortunately we paid the price as Owen ended up catching two flats. We pulled to the side, fixed them, and kept moving. Then again, and a third time once we got off the trail. Once we arrived at Napoleon, OH we had our lunch break. After that, we made our way to the county road that runs parallel to route 6. We'd traveled nearly 38 miles already. From Napoleon, it was a 40 mile treck to Butler, Indiana- our end goal for the day.
From then on it was smooth riding through the cornfields of Ohio. Well I shouldn't say smooth because the wind was nuts. We've finally escaped the hilly roads of Pennsylvania and gotten what we'd all been wishing for- flat roads and rolling hills. But what we didn't think about, or what I didn't think about at least, was what comes with flat land. Headwinds and crosswinds. Strong ones too. So strong that when you're pedaling on a flat road it feels just like going up a giant hill anyway. I found myself laughing at one point at around mile 65 or so. Not sure if I was starting to go crazy from fatigue or if it was actually funny but I was thinking about how this is some kind of sick joke. Giant hills or giant winds. At the end of the day it's really just pick your poison. However I found solace in that I would prefer the flat roads and winds anyway because at least the winds die down here and there.
Most of the day was spent riding through the cornfields of Ohio.
We didn't finish our ride until after 8 PM. We started 10 AM. A 10 hour ride. It took us longer than expected because of the change of route and the tire problems we encountered along the way. We covered 78 miles. Crushing our previous record of 60 from the day before.
Towards the end of the trip, around mile 70 we crossed into Indiana from Ohio. But since we were on a county road and not on a major interstate there wasn't any sign at the state border. We've now crossed 3 state borders and have 0 pictures of doing so. We gotta step our state-border-sign-picture-game up. Hopefully we'll get Illinois when we get closer to Chicago.
Kevin, our warmshowers host for the night had 3 half chickens ready for each of us when we arrived. He had potatoes, fruit bowls, and salad prepared as well. It was everything we needed and more.
Kevin was a very interesting man and had many fascinating stories. He's traveled to nearly 100 countries and has been hosting people through warmshowers and various other services for many years now. His house was filled with hundreds of pictures and pieces of memorabilia from his travels. He had multiple giant world maps on his living room ceiling, with flags around the largest map representing every country he's visited in order from first to most recent. One corner of his living room had enough pictures and memorabilia for two to have a conversation about for an entire evening. Now imagine how much there was to talk about when looking at the rest of his house. His only famous rule in the house is "make yourself at home." He had a few funny stories of how guests interpreted that in the past. Although he made a point to say he's never once regretted that being his only rule. We had dinner and chatted with Kevin until nearly midnight. Despite how tired we all were, his stories were fascinating enough to keep us up for a while.
It is worth mentioning that Kevin is a nudist. It is a good portion of who he is after hearing all his stories and I feel as though I can't leave it out. At first, we were a little unsure about what to expect before arriving. I think this is mostly because none of us have ever really known a nudist or participated in nudist activities before. But once we met Kevin and got to know him, he quickly came off as a very genuine and hilarious person so any doubts were washed away fairly quickly. We were all clothed around each other- for the most part. He saw we were clothed so he respected that. But he also gave us plenty of friendly chances to explore our own nudist personas, which if I wasn't already falling asleep on the couch I would've given a shot. This is where the only other rule in his household comes into play. It doesn't even really apply to the house because it's only for the hot tub. And yup, you guessed it, it's no clothing allowed in the hot tub. Classic nudist rule. If we weren't all beat from the day I'm sure that would've made for some A+ bonding and some muscle relief but we were already practically falling asleep after dinner given the crazy day we had.
When going through Kevin's photo albums of guests he's hosted, some dating back 10 and even 15 years ago, there was one signed note and picture in particular that caught our eye. He told us the story behind it, just one of his many awesome stories during the night. They were these four french cyclists who were biking through America. I read their signed note and they spoke about how free they felt in the hot tub together and how grateful they were to come from France and meet such an amazing person as Kevin in America. They signed off saying thank you. Below was a picture of the four of them. Each french cyclist holding his helmet in front of his crotch area. And no one wearing anything else but the helmet. When Kevin was telling us about these cyclists, he made note that they too were riding for a cause. And they posted that picture on their website, offering to reveal more if a certain threshold of a donation amount was met. It made us all laugh. But honesty what a great strategy. It's like the fireman's yearly calendar but cyclist charity edition.
Worth noting, below the picture of the cyclists there was a note Kevin wrote saying "the french cyclists have a second picture stored on their camera with all four actually wearing the helmets." We had a good laugh over that as well. But all this talk about group nude cyclist pictures got us thinking. Someone suggested we remake the photo and we kind of all ran with it. Before we left the morning after we made sure to recreate the french cyclist photo. Whether or not we post it is yet to be determined. We're not quite sure that's what our audience is looking for by following our journey through the blogs and instagram. But hey, if there's enough demand for the photo to come out we just might have to give the people what they want.
Crazy stats for the day:
6 hours spent moving. 78 miles covered. Longest day yet. Proud of ourselves. Much more to conquer yet.
Kevin posted and shouted us out on his Facebook the morning after.
Big thanks to Kevin for hosting us and sharing his many stories with us.
Till the next blog
-mike
P.S. My apologies by the way, I'm a day or two behind and have to catch up on these. I've been posting them kind of sporadically but I appreciate everyone who's been reading regardless. I try my best to be candid and thorough in these but at the same time try to highlight the important and interesting stuff so they're not just boring reads. Thanks again everyone.
give the people what they want
Alright, what’s it gonna take to get to see that photo??