Day 15: Mt. Vernon, OH – Columbus, OH

Sleeping in today, I barely made it out to take advantage of the continental breakfast. Apparently the lady at the front desk the night before had told everyone at the motel about my trip and so a couple of the staff came up to me to ask about it. I packed up and got on the road shortly after 11.

It was a cool, overcast day which made the riding pleasant. I headed out of town to rural roads and took those for a while. At one point I was supposed to make a turn onto a road called “lover’s lane” but missed the turn because the road wasn’t marked. It was poetic. After about 30 miles, I arrived at a small town for lunch. Most of the small towns I go through just have a place or two to eat in the middle of town, but this one had big sprawling suburban shopping centers on the outskirts of town – I was approaching Columbus.

After a lunch of average Chinese food, I had to ride on a very busy two lane highway for 3 miles, which was pretty bad. After that, though, I connected to a bike path which would lead me to a network of bike paths throughout the metropolitan area. This area is very bike friendly and I think I rode on my first bike lane of the trip today for a few miles to connect between trails.

As I’ve noticed with most cities, the people on the paths aren’t as friendly and usually don’t reciprocate the nod or wave so I gave up on those for the day. My trail eventually hit a detour which took me right through the middle of the local college, I think it was university of Ohio. Lots of cyclists. I talked to a friendly biker at a red light and got directions downtown where I could find a hotel.

I ate an average dinner and drank a lot. A pretty decent day but crappy birthday.

It’s only 217 miles to Louisville, which probably means more like 270 on a bike. I have 6 days to get there so I’ll be taking lots of short days for the next week.

Today’s mileage: 57 miles
Total: 811 miles