My sleep last night was bizarre and sporadic, but the sum of the parts left me rested in the morning. I once again took my time getting checked out of the hotel since I have been planning on doing shorter days in order to arrive in Louisville on the 30th.
Heading out of Columbus, I connected to a road that supposedly had a bike lane, but it turned out not to. Since I had a late start, I stopped for lunch after only 12 or so miles and ate at a Chinese buffet. It had been a long time since I had eaten at that sort of place, and it was pretty decent. One of the journals of an extended bike tourist I had read mentioned that Chinese buffets were the best bang for the buck, but unfortunately since I hadn’t ridden much, I had not worked up much of an appetite. It was still decent and cheap so no complaints.
I took rural roads to connect to a bike path. This path is part of a large network of paths in southwest Ohio that will probably last me 90 miles. Pretty sweet. I took to the trail at a slow pace, I often was just meandering at 9 or 10 mph.
This section of the trail was pretty desolate and it just went on straight as far as the eye can see. I kept my leisurely pace while pondering existence.
At one point I passed a road biker going the opposite direction at high speed. I wondered what I would say if he came back my way and asked why I was going so slowly. I would say “it’s because I’ve got nowhere to be.
I think I struck at the heart of the issue there. That phrase has several meanings. It means I’m on a relaxed journey where there are no deadlines. I means I hadn’t figured out where I was going to stop or stay that night. It means I’ve got 6 days to kill before Louisville. It also means that one of the reasons I am on this trip is that I felt I was out of place with my life in Arlington and that’s why I left.
It was about this time that I was passed by a couple of older cyclists. Except instead of passing me, we struck up a conversation about my trip. We wound up biking together for a few miles before deciding that we would eat dinner together in the next town. The road biker I had seen earlier had turned around and passed us by but didn’t say anything, and I wasn’t worried about it.
We wound up eating dinner together and talked about biking, dogs, and the route I would take from here. They wound up paying for my dinner and left to finish their ride.
The owner of the establishment then came up to me and told me he owned all the property surrounding the restaurant including the next door laundromat and that I could camp out if I wanted. That was pretty awesome. So I took him up on his offer, did my laundry while waiting for it to get dark, and pitched my tent.
I need to take pictures of things other than roads and clouds. I’ll work on that.
Today’s mileage: 54 miles
Total: 865 miles
That was nice of the owner to let you stay for the night. YOU MEET SOME FRIENDLY FOLKS ON YOUR JOURNEY, GALEN.
Also, beautiful scenery. Looks like perfect biking weather. I like the sun’s rays shining through the clouds. :3
But too bad you aren’t headed down south to Georgia 🙁 Though I guess I wouldn’t blame you, I WOULDN’T HEAD DOWN THERE EITHER LOL.
Be safe, Gapelen. <3
Yeah, sorry I didn’t come by Georgia. I wanted to meet up with you guys but it was just too out of the way. You should come up to dc!
Haha, it’s all cool. Georgia’s weather has been hot and humid all summer and I don’t think that would be good at all, since you are biking a long way. And yeah, it is out of the way; I agree.
AND WE SHALL! I think we should have a FIGHTSAUCE get-together in D.C. AND MEET OBAMA YEAH! And party in the Oval Office: Y/N?
Good Going, Galen!! Averaging 54 miles per day is great! Haven’t read the previous days
yet but I will. The clouds are great. So are you new-found friends along the way. Keep making it fun!! I’ll check out your future route and see if I’ve any friends along your way who can offer support.
Keep peddling, Galen! Hope you enjoyed your stay at the Versailles State Park and enjoyed your meal at the Yellow Dog Tavern. Thanks for posting pictures and telling us about your journey. Be Safe!