Move your mouse over the map above - you should see an open hand. Place the hand anywhere on the map and double click the left mouse button. You will zoom in and center on that point. You can do this again and again. An alternative is to use the "plus", "minus", and "arrows" in the upper left of the map.
Day 15: {now west of "T" and south of "U"}
JUNE 16: Bellville, Ohio to Lima, Ohio. 90 miles, via State Routes 288 and 309. Average speed today 11.3 mph. Total mileage 886.
Yes, you read the above right. Ben and I, coming off a day-long mechanical problem layoff, did indeed cover 90 miles today. That’s about 15 miles farther than our previous daily record for this trip and there’s one simple reason for it. The hills gave out.
After 12 days struggling over steep grades in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio, the terrain turned flat after fewer than two hours of riding this morning. Suddenly Ohio turned into Big Sky Country. You could see grain elevators miles before you passed them and our speed consequently increased from about 8 mph to better than 11 mph.
We covered 62 miles before eating lunch in Kenton Ohio, about 20 more than we usually rode before noon and more than we posted all day in some of our steeper regions.
A couple of drawbacks:
1. The pancake-flat roads are scenically monotonous. I’m sure by the time the hills resume (Colorado?) we will have seen our share of grain elevators.
2. The prevailing winds blow west-to-east, and without slopes to shield us, we ride into them head-on, costing us several miles per hour.
I have been asked more than once why I chose to ride east to west rather than toward the East Coast and with the prevailing winds. “For psychological reasons,” I have answered. “I’d rather be getting closer to home than further away each day.”
Takes on the wind issue vary. Some riders tell horror stories about fighting gale-forced gusts for hundreds of miles across Kansas. Others say the wind argument is – pardon the expression – overblown, and that winds can blow in any direction in any state, depending on luck.
But this morning we ran into 3,000 cyclists pedaling the opposite direction. They were all part of GOBA, the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure, a week-long 600-mile ride around
Later in the day, I asked Jackie, behind the bar at the Colony Golfers Club near Lima.
“They blow west to east every day and right now they’re really picking up,” she said after filling our riding bottles with ice water.
Bad news? Maybe, but if we managed to cover 90 miles today bucking the winds, how terrible can they be?
Tomorrow, winds allowing, we’ll cross the Indiana line. More hot air on the wind issue in the days to come.
