What a strange day

Don't let your kids see this picture. Unless you want them to have nightmares. This is what riding 100 miles looks like in Midwest humidity, with goat hills and bad asphalt.


What a strange day I had today. Strong cycling, pretty scenery, barking dogs running loose, angry semi drivers, bizarre grumpy locals, blazing heat and humidity, and the steepest hills of the trip so far. It was an action packed day.

I've made a habit of chatting up the local folks I meet along the way. It's typically the highlight of my day. Apparently the folks in Central Ohio didn't get the memo. Normally all it takes is a glance or a "hello" to start a conversation. Not out here. I got a lot of icy stares. The message was pretty clear: " You're not from around here, are you boy? We don't take kindly to STRANGERS". Especially strangers wearing spandex pants and purty colored shirts. Yesterday I had several delightful encounters. I was 85 miles into the ride today before I found my first friendly person.

I did however have some encounters with the local canines. I got barked at and chased by more dogs today than in the entire trip combined to this point. A good solid NO, followed by some choice profanities seems to be all it takes to change their mind, but it still gets the adrenaline flowing.

This sign probably explains a lot of the issues today. The core of appleseed country indeed. I didn't hear any banjos, and nobody asked me to squeal like a pig, but then again I didn't actually talk to many people today.


At one point during the day I heard hound dogs howling, then a guy yelling at the top of his lungs. 50 yards up the road I saw "bikers go home" spray painted on the street. I'll give the guy bonus points for having spelled everything correctly. I thought about circling back to take a picture, but I was afraid I'd get a fanny full of buckshot.

I rode pretty hard all day today. I finished the 100 miles by 2:20 p.m., because there wasn't a lot of reason to dawdle. The last 25 miles was the tough section of the day. Big up-and-down rollers, not the fun kind you can muscle up, more the long exhausting kind, with 10-12% grades. We had fresh chip seal and a lot of loose gravel for awhile, so I took the descents really slowly. Once we got to the end of the chip seal I thought "OK, now I can let the wheels fly". Well, no. It was like riding on the surface of the moon. Craters in the road. Hidden seams. Bumps everywhere. A really inexcusably bad road. By the end I was sore from absorbing all the shocks.

I had one final adventure for the day. The main bridge through town has been demolished. This little metal plank is what the workers use to cross from one side to the other. I had to carry my bike across this thing while wearing bike cleats. Hey, whatever it takes to get to Boston.



Today's Google Earth file: http://tomerceg.googlepages.com/WoosterOH.kml