Can't believe that it was one year ago today that we left on our big adventure. How fast the time has gone. At this time last year we had a whole year's worth of memories to look forward to, now we have all those memories to look back on-- it really is crazy to us. Just like the next points on the map, the further we rode, the more real the trip became. It was always a dream; it became reality, and will soon just be a memory. It's almost impossible to explain our feelings at this point in the game. Almost every time we explain our trip to people, we feel that there isn't a way to explain it for them to understand fully. Everyone thinks that it is really cool (and that we are "braver than they are"), but unless you've done something like this, it's almost impossible to relate. Joey and I both agree that we feel COMPLETELY different about touring after this trip than we felt after our 2 month FL trip or the 3 week New England trip. Touring has become a lifestyle this past year, full of everyday excitement and adventure, seeing new things every day, and meeting a wealth of kind hearted people. There really is just nothing like it. After such a wonderful trip, I fear that we will become bored after a few months of being home, but that is all part of the game-- there are always more adventures to be had and things to look forward to. Until then, we will just savor the last couple weeks of doing what we love so much before we get home where we will get to see and give the long awaited hugs to our family and friends. The train woke us up a few times last night. Even though we lived with a train right behind our apartment in Buffalo, it is so much worse when you are in your tent nearby! It was raining when we woke up this morning, good thing we were under that pavilion-- everything was nice and dry! We ate our cereal and milk at the picnic tables there- it was so convenient. It was not super cold, but the rain obviously made it unpleasant. We got to see a little of the super cute downtown area in the light as we headed towards the bridge to crossed into Aberdeen, OH!! The seams of the bridge had things over the cracks that were not at all like the normal kind that are put together like a zipper. This one had big holes between the bars. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that in time. My wheel hit it, fell in one of the holes, and both me and my bike went down. I landed on my knee on the little cement wall along the edge of the bridge. That was going to be a bruise for sure! With a "gimpy knee" I rode into Ohio. The rain didn't make things any better and I felt bad because I held up a few cars a little while trying to get back on my bike with the injured knee. Although that is not what I had in mind for entering into our next state, things were made better by seeing a welcome to OH sign once we got across!! Both of us were just SOOO glad to have that there, especially since we missed it on the last trip, which is one of the reasons we had to come back to OH! While dodging the raindrops, we took our usual state sign picture. We thought about finding a library in that town right there so that we could get out of the rain for a bit, but found out it was a mile or two in the wrong direction and decided it wasn't worth it. Since we were already soaked, we figured that we might as well keep going until we get cold. After riding about 12 miles along the "Ohio River Scenic Byway," which we will follow for most of the way to Wheeling, we made it to the town of Manchester. We saw a sign for a library, so that's where we were headed. We were ready for a break from the rain at that point and wanted to warm up anyways. The computers were fast, just like the last library we went to-- but this library was better. There was NO time limit for using the computer (unless there happened to be people needing to use it and there were none open- which wasn't a problem because there weren't that many people there). Since I always have a lot that I need to do, and the rain just didn't let up, we end up being there for about 2-3 hours. I got almost everything on my list done- it was SOOO nice to feel THAT productive! We left around 1:30 and headed back out into the raindrops. Since we didn't feel like going through the hassle of cooking and cleaning up outside, and finding a place out of the rain to eat, we decided to just find a little restaurant or something to go out- after all, why not celebrate the 1 year mark of the trip!? After a bit of searching, and finding a place that had already closed for the day, we found a little pizza shop and decided on that since it was the only thing in town open. It was delicious!!!! I'm so glad that we decided on that-- pizza hit the spot! I don't know if we are getting lazy or being wimps because of the weather in the tail end of our trip, but it doesn't really matter. More so, since we budgeted so well and were way under our budget every month, going out to eat a few times more than usual at the end of the trip isn't a big deal. Even after a couple hours at the library, somehow we managed to still take a long lunch break. It was a little after 3 by the time we got back on the road. After our yummy lunch, we were back on the road getting soaked again (after almost completely drying out while at the library, with the exception of our shoes of course). We struggled for the next 15-20 miles against the wind, through the pouring rain that never seemed to stop. It didn't take long for everything to get soaked. Our feet were cold, but other than that, we were both in good spirits this afternoon. Once we made a turn around one of the bends, we had a great tailwind pushing us along-- that probably helped with our mood. At one point, we stumbled upon a gas station and decided to stop for break. When we were ready to head back out into the rain, I had a hard time getting gloves back on-- like putting on skinny jeans after a shower. My hands were SOOO pruny. Not too long after leaving, the heaving rain changed to the monsoon kind of rain where it was just a blanket of water coming down (with a few clashes of thunder to go with it); we could barely see down the road. Oh how I hate hearing thunder while on the bike! There have been a couple times-- one on a morning ride just outside of my hometown, and the other on our NY-FL trip, where I've been in a bad storm. It is SOOO scary! Luckily, this storm was mainly just rain, and a lot of it. The good thing was that there wern't many cars on the road so we didn't have much to worry about. The couple cars that did pass during that really heavy rain gave us plenty of room. Those bright orange and red coats help quite a bit. Even still, Joey said "be prepared to get off the road if I yell to," since he was watching behind us to make sure the cars saw us through the rain. Even during the monsoonish rain, we were surprisingly still in good spirits. It was weird. Riding in the rain is usually not much fun, but somehow we were both still laughing and joking around. Maybe because I had gotten so much done at the library, there was an OH sign, we had a great lunch, and we were still going to make it to the town that Joey wanted to because of the tailwind. Eventually the rain lightened up. Sure enough, we made it to Portsmouth. For the first time in a really long time we had a really hard time finding an overhang to set up under, and of all nights-we really really needed it tonight as we were already totally soaked, and the rain was going to continue. We rode around looking at all the churches to see if they had overhangs, didn't find any parks, or anyplace. We just had no luck- all the churches we found were beautiful, but very old, meaning many had no overhangs. There was a Holiday Inn Express, so we thought maybe we would just do that. But we soon nixed that idea since it was way too expensive. The lady at the desk told us that there was a Super 8 and a Comfort Inn 4 miles out of town that would have cheaper rooms. It was nice that she was being helpful, but at that point we were too cold and tired to want to ride way out of town, in the wrong direction, in the dark. We managed to find a grocery store with wifi. We looked up where there was a laundry mat since it would be very important that our stuff be dry for tomorrow because it was going to be cold. Google maps didn't show any laundry mat at all, and this town was DEFINITELY big enough to have at least one. Thinking we had no choices left since we couldn't find a laundry mat to dry things, or a church with an overhang, we thought we would have to go to the hotel way out of town anyways. As we were siting there deciding what we should do, a nice man by the name of JR walked over and talked to us. He asked if there was any way he could help, and we asked if there was a laundry mat and/or any place he knew where there was an overhang to get out of the rain. It was SO helpful because, like we thought, there was a laundry mat in town. JR told us where that was and also where there were a lot of overhangs at a church not too far away (on the other side of town where we hadn't looked. Again- just when we weren't sure what to do- we were sent an angel. I love how that works out like that! I ran into the store to get some cereal and milk for tomorrow morning, since we were there. We headed over to the laundry mat, but since they would be closing in less than the time it would take to wash and dry a load, we weren't allowed to come in, even just to try to get our stuff a little dryer. So, a little disappointed, we headed over to the church with the overhangs. Sure enough, there were a lot of overhangs! Not only that, but the parking lot was packed with cars! It was perfect- we could find someone to get permission to be there and be out of the rain under one of the overhangs there! Even though there were tons of cars, all the doors were locked. We could see some people way off in the distance having a meeting, but I don't think they could see us. After a few minutes, someone came out. We talked with him and found out he was the custodian. He went inside to ask one of the trustees. The trustee that came out to talk to us, John, said it would be fine to set up under one of their overhangs. Then he told us that there were showers inside if we wanted to use them. Everyone was going to be there for at least 45 more minutes, so there was plenty of time if we wanted to! We decided it would be really nice to get warm, so we took them up on that offer. I didn't get my hair wet because I didn't want to freeze when we went in the tent, but just standing under the hot water and getting the rest of me clean was wonderful. Not too long after we were done with our showers, John and his wife, Pat, came back to the church and asked if we wanted to come to their house instead!! So, we grabbed what we needed off our bikes, put them in the gym in the church, and got ready to go. When we opened the WATERPROOF bags that our sleeping bags were in, we found our sleeping bags soaked. I guess they really did save us-- we would have froze. Anything that we found that was wet, we laid out to dry- so much for the waterproof bags. At least the one that the tablet is in only gets a little damp and not really wet. The bags used to work pretty good, but I guess like everything else- they are wearing out. John and Pat took us home and gave us the grand tour. We had a great spot to stay in the "lower level"- fit with a bed, laundry and a bathroom with shower!!! Joey and I ate our left over pizza for dinner, snacked on veggies and dip, had some ginger ale, and even had an original recipe "crispie Creme" not KK donut each. I also now have a new favorite snack- vanilla yogurt with mini chocolate chips in it! We had such a great time talking with John and Pat and were SOO happy to be dry and warm- we are so lucky to have been "rescued". There are so many people who are looking out for us and have come to our rescue when we needed it most- it would have been a night without much sleep I'm sure. We managed 58.09 miles today.
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