We slept in til about 7:30 this morning since we only had a half a mile to ride before the restaurant opened for breakfast. For some reason I was pretty excited to go out for breakfast- one because we almost NEVER go out for breakfast, and two, because it was a special place to go- the same place we went on our NY-FL trip in 2010. Not much had changed, in fact the restaurant looked EXACTLY like I remembered it. Joey and I both got french toast and hot cocoa- yummy!; I'm glad that we were able to go there again. Heck, maybe some day we will ride that same road again, and go there on a future tour, you never know- we definitely didn't expect to ever be back there after the other tour. For the next 15 miles or so, we were riding along the same section of road that we did on the way to Wheeling last time. But on the last tour, because of a little mix up with addresses and phone numbers, we ended up cutting off the road we were riding on today to head in a different direction. There were a few sections of it that we remembered, but other sections were like we had never been on that road before. Weird how that is. For some reason, we weren't even completely positive where we even turned off, but we know that we did at some point. Later down the road, it was pretty neat riding because the railroad tracks and river were on one side of the road and there was a jagged rock wall, left over from where they had blasted out to make the road, on the other. Eventually we made it about 40 miles down the road to the town of Bellaire where we FINALLY had some lunch. Since we were almost to Wheeling and we wanted to use up our milk, we decided too just have cereal and milk for lunch. We found some tables outside of McDonald's and made ourselves at home. While we were sitting there (and I was talking on the phone), a man by the name of Skipp walked over to talk to us. He handed us a $20 dollar bill and said to put it towards anything that would keep our travels going. We couldn't believe it- what a nice guy! We weren't too far from Wheeling when we took our little lunch break so we figured it would be smooth sailing to get there. We headed out to get back on the road we had come into town on but we found a sign that said pedestrians and bicycles were no longer allowed to ride on that road-- it had turned into a freeway. We found our way through town, getting stuck behind an unloading school bus that would send a big puff of black smoke at us whenever it started moving again. Eventually the school bus turned and we could see the bridges to cross over to Wheeling, WV. We were pretty excited at that point. However the excitement soon turned to frustration when we found ourselves at a dead end with the freeway to one side and a hill to the other. There was no way to keep going, so we turned around and tried to find a different route. We found a road parallel to the freeway but on the opposite side from where we were. As we headed down the hill we came to an area that was full of factory like buildings and a Budweiser distribution center. This road was not looking too promising... but it was the only other road. We rode down it for a bit, still with those darn bridges in sight, but yet still no way to get to them. We had found ourselves at another dead end. Where to go then? After looking around a bit more, we headed back a little bit and decided to go to the extra entrance ramp we had passed on this little side road. We looked and looked, but there was no sign this time. Maybe we were allowed back on now. Still, we were very hesitant simply because the last thing we needed right now was a ticket for being on a road bikes weren't allowed on. Joey called John (our host in Wheeling from last trip and again on this trip) to see what he thought. He seemed to think it was OK there, and since we had no other choice at that point, we decided to go with it. Turns out that after a mile or so, we knew we were OK to be on there because there was a stop light which we couldn't see from where we were before. It didn't take too long to figure our way after that. We got off at the first exit, which took us into Bridgeport. It was easy to find our way to the bridge from there. In fact, when we got to the bridge, we both recognized the area from the last tour. At that time, we had been to OH but didn't find any welcome sign. In 2010, we had ridden over here with John to look for one, with no luck. Today though, just before we were about to cross the bridge,we found a WV sign. We took our picture before heading over the bridge to Wheeling Island. We rode through to the other bridge, but when we got there, found out that this bridge was interstate. Since John was in the area, he came and found us in his car. In the meantime, we figured out that there was a walkway on the side of the bridge that we could take. I don't remember which way we went last time to cross the Ohio River, but I don't think we crossed this way. John found us just before we crossed the bridge and said he would wait for us on the other side. It was so nice to see him again, after all it had been two and a half years since we had seen him. John was waiting on the other side of the bridge for us, and directed us where to go from there. He also told us that instead of staying at his house, since he works nights and won't be there most of the time, that we would be staying with friends of his, the Foose's ( who were also themselves hosts on Warm Showers). He lead us to their house, in stages, waiting for us at the top of a big hill and a few other places along the way. Eventually, we made it to the road they live on, with one last little steep hill to go up, and we were there. Although Harry and Karen weren't home, Malory (a girl from Texas who is staying with the Foose's because she is doing a second degree for nursing here in Wheeling) was. Unfortunately, Harry and Karen weren't going to be home til Sunday night since they were out of town. Malory showed us around and we got ourselves settled, our bikes in the garage and a guest room with a comfy bed, it was so nice. The best part is that they have two adorable fluffy kitties, Linus and Lucy. It was going to be a fun couple of days! John has a bunch of things planned for us the next few days, from speaking at a couple schools, to who knows what else. Since I've been wanting to go to a fish fry before Lent was over, I had asked Grandma to look up and see if she could find any. She told me where there was one in Wheeling. I mentioned something about that fish fry to John and he was shocked. Why you ask? Because that very fish fry I was referring to was at one of the schools we were going to talk at this week. How crazy is that!?!? So, we got changed, and headed there for dinner. We met one of the teachers from one of the classes we were going to talk to in a few days. Afterwards, since it was right across the street, we headed over to John's church, and got a little tour of there. Before taking us back to the Foose's house, he showed us around town a bit. When we got back to the house, Malory was watching a movie, so we joined her and all of us watched a movie before turning in for the night. As we were putting on our sheets, one of he kitties decided it was time to help. It was pretty funny. We rode 54.80 miles today.
We both slept straight through the night last night, which was a welcome change from the night before when we froze our tooshies off. Around 8, Tammi and Pastor Rob got to the church. We were both so excited that we would be getting a nice warm breakfast! Joey pointed out something really kind of neat, and a little strange at the same time. One year ago today, the start of Day 4 of the trip, we woke up at the first church that we camped at. That morning we heard a voice saying "good morning." The pastor and his wife had come back to the church that morning to make us breakfast. That was the only time that's happened on the entire trip, until now, exactly one year later!!! We couldn't believe that, but we thought it was really neat! Breakfast was awesome- pancakes with warm mixed berry jelly, scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage, pineapple, bananas, and orange juice. Both of us had a great time talking with the Pastor and were so glad that we had a chance to meet his wife. When it was time to hit the road, we were very happy to see that the wind was in the same direction, so we would have a tailwind or a sidewind most of the day! And to top it off- the sun was shining! A couple miles down the road was the little town of Tuppers Plains. There were signs everywhere throughout the town supporting the girls basketball team that would be going to states tomorrow. So nice to see that kind of thing. We had quite a few rolling hills, but nothing like what we encountered riding through Ohio on the last trip, which I was thankful for! Eventually we were back out riding along the Ohio River. The terrain flattened out a little and we had a beautiful view again. We rode past the town of Belope and continued on straight to city of Marietta. One of the neat things about going along the Ohio river is that the towns are all so old. This one, like many of them, was founded back in the 1700s. We rode through the downtown area and saw the old courthouse building which has been used since 1797. From there, we headed towards the outskirts of town along highway 7. We stopped for a quick break at a Wendys. There, a man asked where we were traveling too and from, etc. When I mentioned Buffalo, he told me that they have family that live on Grand Island and that they still go there to visit quite often. When I mentioned San Diego, they told me that they had just moved from there to this town one week ago! Small world!! We found a McDonalds to use the wifi for a few minutes before heading off to Walmart to get a couple Voila meals and a couple chocolate bars. Since it wasn't freezing outside, we figured we would look for a place just to get out of the wind, since that was the only thing that was really making us feel cold. As we were riding along, we joked about sitting inside one of the little sheds that were on display outside of Lowes. Not too far later, we saw a church steeple and decided to head that direction. It was perfect. There was a great little porch with an overhang that was in the right place to be completely out of the wind. Since we saw a car in the driveway, we figured someone had to be around. The door was open and when we went inside, we found Pastor Steve working in his office. We asked if he minded if we ate our lunch on the porch. He said that he didn't and said that we were welcome to use the kitchen if we wanted to!! Golly, people are just so nice. We just figured it would be better to ask to use the porch since someone was there- but you have to love unexpected little treats like that! Instead of having to cook our meal on the stove, we just cooked it in the microwave. It was nice too, to enjoy the meal in the warmth and even nicer to get to do the dishes in a sink. We had a great time talking with Steve, who we found out had the last name Tebow- just like the football player (we'll probably never forget his name now!). It was a very enjoyable lunch break to say the least. I am glad that we had a chance to converse with Pastor Steve for the time that we did. It is going to be so strange when we are done with our trip because we won't have the same kind of encounters with people. I have really enjoyed meeting people as often as we do and talking to them for a while. The bikes and the trip have really served as a portal for conversation to start, and it has been like that throughout the entire trip. When we are back to being "just like everyone else," going to work and doing regular daily activities, I don't think we will find too many people that just come up and start talking to us. Touring really has been nothing but spectacular in that sense. After lunch, we headed on down the road with a terrific tail wind pushing us along. Before we realized it, we were going through the little town of Newton and then shortly after, under the bridge that went to St. Mary's, WV. Although we aren't completely positive, I am pretty sure that on our last tour we came out of the hills at St. Mary's, where we got our first views of the Ohio river. One thing we remember vividly is taking the ferry over from Sistersville, WV to OH and going to the River Restaurant right next to where the ferry drops off in OH. Both of us had very high hopes that we would make it all the way to that restaurant tonight to go out to dinner-"for old times sake." We rode and rode and kept our fingers crossed. Our hopes were high, but we still had that extra Voila meal that we got today just in case it happened to be closed for the season, we didn't make it there, or if it had closed for the night by the time we did make it there. We got into the town of New Matamoras and stopped at a gas station for a break. Joe asked one of the locals if they had been there before and if they happened to know if it would be open, or what time they usually close at. They told him that they usually close around 7- they think. I asked inside and the girls at the register said the same thing. We knew we had about 4-6 miles to go to get there, and it was already 6:30. Both of us were pretty sure that we wouldn't make it before they closed. With that being said, we decided to go out and look around town for a place to camp. We rode around and didn't find anything that looked like it would work. There was a church that looked like there were a bunch of cars at it, but upon further investigation, we found that every door in the church was locked, so we didn't know what that was about. With no luck, we decided to head out of town. I had seen earlier today on Google maps that there was a rest area not too far from the restaurant we were hoping to go to. That would be our next best bet. After we checked out the rest area, we found that it would work perfectly. The restaurant was less than a mile down the road, so we went to check if it happened to still be open. Bummed that it wasn't we headed back to the rest area. Although we had gotten there only about 10 minutes after they closed, we knew we would have never made it. We were both looking forward to that for the whole day and a bit excited to eat there again on another tour. Oh well- maybe we will just go out for breakfast in the morning instead- that way we would still get to go there! And after all, we went quite a bit further today after the great breakfast vs. how far we normally go before getting hungry after having our cereal and milk. The rest area was perfect. Bathrooms, a shelter, picnic tables, and a beautiful view of the river right there. We got our tent set up, cooked up some dinner (ate in the tent in hopes to stay a little warmer), washed our dishes as quickly as we could and then bunkered down in our sleeping bags for the night. Today was yet another great day. It is still so weird to think about how things are going to be when we get back. We won't have too much excitement in our day to day activities, I hope that we don't get bored with that after all the days of adventure we've had. It will take some readjusting that's for sure. We made it farther than we thought we would miles wise, but ended in the place that we had hoped to anyways- Fly, OH. Our miles totaled 70.96 today.
We are so lucky to have woken up inside where it was nice and warm. Since I was too tired to do so last night, I took a shower this morning so I had a nice clean, warm start to the day. Not too long after that,we were greeted with the smell of bacon cooking upstairs, what a great way to start the morning!!! To go with the bacon, we enjoyed some awesome scrambled eggs with bacon bits and some toast with butter and honey...it was delicious, and a welcome change to our usual cereal and milk. As we enjoyed our breakfast, we got to have a little time to talk and enjoy John and Pat's company before we headed off to town. They both had a dentist appointment to go to at 9:40 so they dropped us off at the church on the way so that we could pack our bikes and get on the road for the day. It worked out really well leaving our bikes at the church, especially since they were all locked up safe where we wouldn't have to worry about them. Both of us are so glad we had the chance to meet the Hendrix's. We had a great night and enjoyed getting to know them. Even still, I'm amazed that things like this happen -everyone is always in the right place at the right time for these chance encounters. John had given us a set of new lithium batteries for our SPOT since the batteries were running out. When we got back to the bikes, we found out they were the right kind!! It was such a big help because now we didn't have to buy a whole pack that we would never need- thanks John!! Once we were packed we headed out into the cold, very happy to see that the wind was going the same direction as yesterday- we would have a bit of a headwind in the morning as we head southeast along the curve of the river, which would change to a tailwind once we made the turn around the bend to head northeast. This route might be a little longer, but it is a very enjoyable ride, nice scenery, not too bad of traffic, and is relatively flat. What more could we want? On the way out of Portsmouth, we stopped at the Walmart to get a bag of our favorite frozen dinner for lunch today. As we were parking our bikes in the normal spot we park them when its cold (against an empty wall in the entryway near where all the shopping carts usually are), the greeter came out and told us that we couldn't park our bikes there and that they would have to go outside, which would also mean Joey would have to wait outside with them. We've been to Wal-marts all over the country and have always taken our bikes in if it was below 40 degrees outside; not once have we ever had a problem. So, we kindly took our business elsewhere. We weren't in any dire need for stuff for lunch at that moment because we were just starting out on the day's ride, and I didn't want Joey to stand outside freezing while he waited. Still, we were really surprised that happened. As we rode along the mighty Ohio River, we dealt with a tiny bit of light rain (nothing at ALL like yesterday's monsoon), and were passed by a couple trains on the tracks that were sandwiched between the road and the river. By the time we made it to Ironton, where we planned to have some lunch, my toes were frozen, and I'm sure Joey's were just the same! The neat thing about all of the river cities we've gone through the last two days is that they all have huge flood walls around the city and/or levies protecting them. It's kind of strange to ride in and feel like we could become "trapped in the city." On the way in, we passed by one of our new favorite places- Chinese buffet. We rode around town, and after not finding any grocery store or other place that we wanted to eat, we decided to just go for it and have buffet! It really has been the best thing going for us. Although it's not good for us to eat so much at one time, it saves us later on in the day because we don't have to worry about trying to cook or clean outside in the cold or find someplace warm to eat. We can just find a place to camp and get in our sleeping bags. It works out perfectly. We both have agreed that we love Chinese buffet and don't seem to get tired of it, especially since there is such a variety to choose from. After enjoying our lunch, we reluctantly got back on the bikes to fight the cold again. We knew this portion of the trip would be cold, but we still want to be home for Easter, so we have to do what we have to do, even if it isn't always comfortable--- but that's part of the adventure right!?!? For almost the entire day, we were riding on a four lane divided highway, which wasn't bad at all because the shoulder was huge! Eventually we rode by "South Point," which is the most southerly point of Ohio, overlooking three states and two rivers. After that, we had a little hill to go over and then we had the wind at our backs-- finally! We had been waiting for that all day, but after yesterday's ride, I knew we would get it in the afternoon! After that, we found ourselves a McDonald's to check to see if there happened to be any bicycle shops nearby. Joey knew that his chain was stretched out and ready to be changed and that his cassette would need to be changed too. Sure enough, we found a bicycle shop not too far away-- in West Virginia! So we hopped on the bridge, crossed the Ohio, and found the bike shop in Huntington, WV! Joey found what he needed and we were off on our way again. The bike shop was great. That was one of the fastest pit stops we've had- and we had to go to a different state for this one! As we were crossing back into Ohio (because it would be a nicer ride -less traffic), the sky was just beautiful. The sun was peeking through the clouds and coming down in beams right over the river; such a pretty sight. It was a cold day, but we were able to manage without having to wear face masks, which is always a plus! Although they keep us warm, they are a pain because they get soaked from breathing through them, and sometimes that makes you colder in the end. After crossing back into OH, our road was now a regular 2 lane road, and had a lot less traffic on it. We rode past another bridge out of Huntington, which was pretty neat looking, and then headed further north. The route had become a bit hillier, but nothing steep. At one point, I looked up and saw the beautiful blue sky peeking through the clouds, a very welcome sight indeed! After passing through a couple little towns, we made it to Crown City, which was more like a tiny town than a city, and found a nice spot to set up the tent. There was a gas station nearby and we stopped by there to take a little break before heading off to camp under a pavilion near a church. We knew that it was supposed to snow tomorrow, so we just wanted to be sure to have something over us, just in case. Since Joey had his new cassette and chain, he worked on getting that all fixed. It was going to be a very cold night to say the least, although I still don't think we will ever top our 9 degree night in Texas or come close to the 15 degree night there either, or at least I hope not! I have no idea how we didn't freeze to death those nights. We managed to make it 67.30 miles today- that afternoon tailwind sure made a difference!
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.
We had a wonderful nights sleep last night. It's always so nice to be inside. Not only that, but Wayne and Sandra made a great breakfast of eggs, more homemade rolls!!, sausage, toast with jelly, and orange juice- such a great way to start the day! Sandra was off a bit earlier to go to choir rehearsal before church, but we did get to spend more time with Wayne. With the directions they gave us for a more enjoyable ride than going through the city we were off. It sure was beautiful. We went by soooo many horse farms, as Lexington is the horse capital of the world, that made complete sense. It was wonderful, there were so many beautiful horses, amazing farms that were just plain HUGE!!! These farms must be some of the ones owned by the people with horses in the Kentucky Derby-- their land just kept going... for miles. Almost the entire ride was lined with fences on both sides for the horses, and that lasted for at least 15 miles, if not 20+. Some of the horses were running all about playing, but most were just standing there grazing. We saw quite a few babies too! So cute with their "scrawny legs." Although we made a few turns, we had a bit of a tail wind for most of the day. It was a very hilly route, nothing long, nothing outrageously steep, just almost constant ups and downs just to keep it exciting. About 25 miles into the ride, we were going down one of the country roads when I looked to the right and saw something running towards us. It was a squirrel. I yelled out--"Noooo!!" just as Joey saw it running towards him. There was no time to do anything at that point, especially since the squirrel was running full speed- he must have had a death wish. The squirrel managed to almost make it between Joe's front and back wheel, but he got bounced around in his peddles a couple of times before we saw him run free, pass in front of me, and then dart up a tree on the other side of the road. The squirrel was alive, but the poor thing was probably very rattled up. For quite a while after, I was a bit upset because I was worried that the squirrel was damaged internally and wouldn't make it-- as silly as that is, it's just a squirrel right!?! But, being the animal lover that I am, it bothered me. I've seen FAR too many animals- and dogs and cats on the side of the road. The only good thing is that I know that it wasn't our fault that they are there- we're not the ones driving the vehicles. I couldn't bear to think if that little squirrel didn't make it on our account. But, Joey reassured me that the squirrel would probably be fine with a few chuckles at how silly I am. So glad that he understands how I react to things like this.. he knows. We already had 26 miles before getting back out onto hwy 62, which is what we followed yesterday. When we got to the town of Paris, we decided to have some lunch. We stopped at Walmart to get some pasta, sauce, and cheese. Since it was nice outside (a bit windy but temperature wise was nice, especially in the sun) we cooked and ate right there on the benches. As we were eating, we had a little entertainment off in the distance. There was a guy dressed up as Elvis, singing his songs by the main door. Not quite sure why he was there, but it was pretty funny. The little downtown area was very bicycle friendly. The further we rode today, the bigger the hills got. They were much more gradual and drawn out. At one point, an Amish wagon pulled out in front of us. Joey had fun drafting off them for about a quarter of a mile before they turned onto a different road. For some reason, we thought we were never going to make it to the town we wanted to. One sign said 40 miles to the town, then after riding for over 15 miles it still said we had 31 to go.. and a mile later we only had 21... crazy signage. But either way made it to Marysville, despite it feeling like it was forever away. We made a McDonalds stop for a few minutes, and then continued on to the main part of town. There was a nice looooonnngggg descent into the old downtown area in the Ohio River valley; the descent was probably at least a mile long. Marysville was one of the cutest little towns. Although we rode around for quite a while and didn't find any overhangs at churches or any churches that looked like we would be out of the way/ not so obvious at, we did find a pavilion at the rotary club park. It was the perfect place, there were tables and it was dark enough that no one would see us in the shelter, but there were enough street lights that we could see what was going on around us. Since it wasn't quite dark yet and we wanted to see a little more of the downtown area, we rode around for a little while. The downtown was super cute and there was a little park where there was an opening in the flood wall to view the water. The bridge over the river to Ohio was all lit up and looked beautiful, especially with the reflection on the river. We will get to cross that bridge in the morning and be on to our next state. After a beautiful sunny day, it was a very warm night so far-- it was still 65 degrees out at almost 8pm!!!! A perfect night to camp (especially since we'll be under a pavilion to stay out of the rain that is expected)! It was a pretty long day in the saddle, but it was worth it to make it to where we wanted to. Our miles totaled 85.06 today.
We woke up nice and warm in the youth building. Brother Johnny stopped by to make sure everything was good before he headed out for the day. After leaving the church, we took the old back road that the church was on, which was the old main highway. There was a beautiful view from the pull out on the way down. We could see the town of Stanford (which we already knew was pretty close because we could see the lights from the town a few miles away from the hill the church was on last night). It was a nice long descent- the fun kind where it weaves and curves along the hill side. We ended up doing about 5 or 6 miles before getting into town. As I was riding along, I found a rose face down in the gutter on side of the road. It looked like someone just chucked it out of their car. Since no one was enjoying it like that, I picked it up- figured I might as well enjoy it before it dies. Not too long after getting into town, we found a McDonalds to look up where the grocery store was. Looking up where things are in town sure saves us time and a lot of riding around in circles trying to find things. I bought some cereal and some more milk at the Walmart nearby, and we ate at tables outside of Sonic, which is something that we've done on a few occasions throughout the past year. Usually they aren't open yet, so it is not a problem. It was already around 10 by the time we got there this time, so they were open. After asking, they didn't mind at all if we used one of their tables-- it is just so nice to use a table for breakfast instead of sitting on the ground somewhere. We had a tail/ side wind today, so we were pretty happy about that. While the sun was nice and warm, the wind was not. Joey and I had a very laid back morning because we knew it would be a bit shorter of a day because we had a warm shower's host set up in Lexington! Although part of the adventure is to not know where we will be sleeping that night, sometimes the opposite is very nice. It makes everything so carefree as you ride knowing that you will be inside where it is warm! The scenery today was just beautiful. We rode through the country side with rolling hills, and farm land surrounding us. There were a few bigger hills when we got to the Kentucky River. After that bit of climbing, we made it to Nicholasville, one of the "suburbs" (more like a small town though) of Lexington. We ate our favorite "Voila" lunch at the picnic table outside library, before going inside to do some computer work for an hour. I felt very productive for once, we don't always find library computers like that! Usually they are very slow, but not these ones! After our library break, we only had about 10 more miles to get to Wayne's house. That ten miles was the best part of the whole day---we had a great tailwind pushing us right along!! Although we missed the first turn we planned on taking to get there, we could easily find our way to his house by taking another road. On that new road, which was a 4 lane divided road, with NO shoulder at all, we encountered an individual who had a big problem with ROAD RAGE. And the worst part is that it was by an adult. He came up behind us in the lane we were in--and there was NO vehicles in the other lane or anywhere nearby. The man started beeping like crazy like we were "in his way- and we were supposed to get off the road" and then came only inches from hitting both of us as he buzzed by. This was absolutely unnecessary. I could have MAYBE understood a little if there was a whole bunch of traffic- but there wasn't. Not only was the man acting in a completely ignorant way, but he was doing it with his whole family in the car-- kids included. What a great example to set for your kids. If only we could have gotten the license plate number or a picture of him almost hitting us, we would been able to do something about it. Joey and I were both infuriated that someone would do something like that. What is this world coming to- that was such a ridiculous thing. Joey almost caught back up to the guy at the lights, but just missed him by a tenth of a mile because the light changed. For the rest of the ride, we were very upset- there was no reason for that---that man was WAY out of line. It's even more sad that it was a full grown adult acting that way- in front of his kids! So sad. Well anyways, enough venting. Knowing that we had a Warm Shower's host to go to made us feel much better as we always get excited to meet new people. Thank goodness for that because it helped us get over the incident pretty quickly. When we got to Wayne and Sandra's house, we gave them a call- telling them that we were here, or at least at the house we thought was theirs. We had found the right place and were greeted with two smiling faces. It is always so much fun meeting our host because there is always so much to talk about-- even though we are all complete strangers. There are always stories to share and easy conversation-- nothing else like it! The four of us (well 5 if you include their cute little Jack Russel- Darla!!) chatted for a while, snacked on some tortilla chips, veggies and hummus, before Joey and I each took a shower. I had so much fun playing with Darla-she was just so cute, energetic, and a lap dog, too! We got to enjoy an amazing home cooked dinner of meat, mushrooms, quinoa salad, potatoes, homemade rolls (my favorite), and wine. Such a fun evening with Wayne and Sandra. For dessert they asked if we liked ice cream-- of course!!! They were going to share some of the ice cream they had in the fridge, but instead decided to do something even better!! Wayne and Sandra took us to a frozen yogurt bar that one of their friends owns. Nothing to say but amazingness!!! The first one we ever went to was in FL with the family- since then I've been dying to go to another one-- and there we were enjoying frozen yogurt!! These places are just so neat-I don't know how they are just popping up everywhere now, I would have thought that this would have come about long ago, what a great idea! I can't wait to go to another one! When we got back to the house, we took a look at the maps (luckily they had an Ohio map, since we somehow didn't have one). They even printed out a map of an enjoyable route to go through the Lexington area! We went to be happy to be sleeping in a nice comfy bed. A fantastic day, yet again! It was a shorter day today of 47.44. miles
We had yet another great night's sleep inside where it's warm. It worked out really well because we already had our cereal and milk from yesterday, so we had breakfast right there sitting at the table and chairs in the lobby where we stayed. It was very enjoyable, it almost felt like a routine you would do at home- wake up, get out your cereal bowls and spoons and eat breakfast at the table. I can't help but think what it's going to be like when we are back home in a "normal" routine, that time is so quickly approaching. While we were enjoying our breakfast, a car pulled up- we had a visitor! It was Skip! He was just stopping by to make sure we were ok and didn't need anything. We talked with him for quite a while and he said a prayer for safe travels for us. It was so nice that we got to see him again, even if it was just for a few minutes. After breakfast, I got our bowls all washed out in the sink, and we packed up. Somehow we didn't get on the road until almost 8:30, but that's ok. We were so happy to see that the sun was shining today! Yesterday the weather report said that the sun would be shining both yesterday and today, but it didn't even peek out once yesterday, so I was really counting on today. It also warmed up quite a bit today. After riding up and down a couple of the long rolling hills (nothing at all like yesterday morning's ride), we were warm enough to take our big gloves off and about an hour or so later were warm enough to take our face masks off. And the best part--tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer!! We had a pretty enjoyable ride this morning because the road conditions were great and the shoulder we had to ride on was as wide as a lane, if not wider! It was amazing. We made it to Somerset in about 2 and a half hours and were on the lookout for the McDonalds. The ladies told us that there was a nice bicycle shop in Somerset and gave us the general location of it. We stopped to double check where it was. While there, since I was somehow feeling really hungry, I got a chicken sandwich off the dollar menu. We didn't have any trouble finding the bike shop, so that was our next stop. My bike was the one in need of some work. When we left Orlando, I noticed that my crank was getting loose and wiggled a bit as I pedaled. We stopped at a bike shop in FL and they said that all it needed was to be tightened, which I was glad for at the time. Less than a week later, it started to get loose again. Something was definitely broken. Joey and I figured out that it was the bottom bracket, and sure enough it was- it was toasted. The spindle had quite a bit of rust on it and the bottom bracket itself was just covered in rust too. Our bikes are going to need some serious attention when we are done with the trip. The guy at the shop suggested stripping them down right to the frame and spraying "Framesave" in there to help treat the rust that has built up and prevent further rust from coming on. That is something we definitely need to do because there is no reason that our bike frames can't last us for many many more years to come. I would hate to see them rust out from the inside out. After the amount of miles and the amount of time they have spent outdoors in the elements, some TLC will help a lot. The guys at the shop were nice enough to clean my chain and give my rear derailer a nice bath in some kind of "gunk removal solution". It has been working a bit funny and is starting to wear out, but that helped a lot and will make it so that it will at least make it home. My bike also got a new rear derailer cable, too. While my bike was being worked on, Joey was able to fix his brakes, since his cable broke sometime during the day yesterday. In doing so, there was some grinding inside the cable housing. Since he needed to take off his handlebar tape to do that, he ended up replacing the tape too (which was of course due to be changed anyways). It was about an hour or two to get everything all fixed, but the bikes are running a lot better now. I really enjoyed the time while we waited because there was the cutest little doggie named Winston there to play with. He was so friendly! I also attempted to do a little typing in between things, but wasn't too productive with that. Once we took off down the road again, I was really enjoying how much smoother my chain was feeling, how the gears were shifting, how the crank didn't wiggle, and most of all that the lower gears didn't skip around whenever they felt like it. Our next mission was lunch. Since we've been talking about going to KFC when we got to Kentucky, we figured that today would be a prime opportunity to go. Way back when we were in Nevada, we first heard that there were such things as KFC buffets, and had seen a few here and there since then, so that's what we were really hoping for. The KFC in Somerset happened to be one of those buffets! It was perfect. I hadn't had KFC since I was a kid, so it was a nice little treat- everything from chicken to mashed potatoes, veggies and those yummy biscuits! All the comfort foods! Once we were full we hit the road again. It was probably around 2:30 or 3 by that time. We didn't have a TON of time left to ride, but we still made a goal to make it to the town of Stanford, which was about 35 miles away at that point. The hills "stretched out" a little and weren't as steep, and for about half of this afternoon's ride, we had that beautiful shoulder. Then all of a sudden, the road turned back into a 2 lane road and there was no shoulder at all, and those pain in the toosh rumble strips that we've grown to dislike so much. There is nothing more annoying than trying to ride and hitting that strip every once in a while. At one point, we were riding along and herd a little "blurp" of a cop car. We turned around and he motioned for us to pull over. Puzzled, we pulled into a nearby driveway. When he got out of the car, he asked the general questions of where we were heading, where we were coming from, etc. He told us that someone had called in saying that some guy on a bike with a brown coat on and a red basket on his bike "tried to pick a fight" with a driver in their car. After he said that, he said that we were the only bikes he saw, so he decided to pull us over, even though we didn't match the description at all. Joey said something to the affect of "that doesn't make any sense, the cars are always going too fast to do that." The cop chuckled at that a little, apologized for bothering us and wished us a safe trip. For the next few miles Joey and I joked around about the idea of doing that and said things like "there was that one incident in Utah with that crazy lady... boy did it take them a long time to find us.." It's still pretty funny that he pulled us over. As darkness drew closer, we were pretty sure that we weren't going to make it all the way to Stanford like we hoped to, but that was ok because by the end of our ride today, we still managed to go 52.93 miles, which we thought was pretty good for getting our bikes fixed and taking such a long lunch break. We rode for as long as we thought it was safe, which wasn't as late as usual simply because the traffic had picked up and there wasn't much of a shoulder anymore. We took a little detour off the main road for about a quarter of a mile and found a nice church that had some cars at it. As we were pulling in, there was a dog running about who ran towards us and then got scared and ran the other direction. When we pulled up we heard some drums playing inside, but didn't find any unlocked doors to peak our heads into. The parsonage was right next to the church and the inside door was wide open. We decided that was a good bet. The same dog that had "greeted us" when we came in was sitting there in the doorway. We met the Pastor, Bro. Johnny, and he said that it wouldn't be any problem at all to camp, so off we were to set up our tent. A little while later Bro. Johnny came over to see where we were from and where we had visited on our trip. He also asked if we were hungry and if we would like to join him and his son for some steak dinner. We weren't super hungry, but always enjoy a nice home cooked meal and great conversation. When the pastor came out to tell us that dinner would be ready in about 5 minutes, he also asked if we would rather sleep inside the youth building where it would be warm! We have been SO spoiled the last few nights, but are so thankful none the less. This kind of thing has really helped us SO much on this last part of the trip because it is still winter and the nights are the worst part. Not to mention that because of that, we have had a chance to talk with and meet what seems like a lot more people. When dinner was ready, we enjoyed some steak, mashed potatoes (the instant kind as Johnny joked, since his wife wasn't home), and green beans. It was delicious. Afterwards, we played with their dog, Zane, and talked quite a bit about the mission work that Bro. Johnny does down in Haiti. I think Joey and I have another thing to add to our list of things we need to experience- now that trip would definitely give us a different perspective on life. I was surprised to hear that it was only an hour plane ride from Miami and that in that short time it is, as Bro. Johnny described it, an incredible culture shock. He goes down for a week a couple times a year and has done various work there including helping build an orphanage. After going there, he said that it just kills him to see how so many Americans are: throwing away food, complaining about how bad things are, when people in places like Haiti are the ones who really have it bad. After a very enjoyable evening talking with Bro. Johnny and his son Nick, we headed off to the youth building. We carried over what we could, moved our bikes, and then just carried the tent over still put together so that Joey could put it away inside where it was warm. Another wonderful day on the trip. I cannot believe that we only have 22 more days until we are home!!! I thought about that a lot today and about how fast that time is going to go. Touring has become our life for this year and we have gotten very comfortable with it. But like every stage in life- once you get comfortable with something, a major change happens and your pushed to the limits again until you get comfortable in that next stage, a never ending cycle. That's just the way life goes, so guess we have to get used to that and just enjoy the last little bit of our trip before we have to start the next stage.
Today's the day Joey turns 25!!! Happy Birthday Joey! What a great way to wake up on his birthday- WARM! When Joey left the gym this morning, I got his little tiny birthday cake that I had gotten yesterday and sang happy birthday to him when he got back in the gym. Even though I didn't get to not make a cake for him and decorate it all pretty, I had to do something little for him. I also hid a bag of Skittles in his helmet, which he found a little later this morning- Skittles seem to be a birthday tradition for him and I. After enjoying our cereal, we packed and ventured out into the cold. The wind was not as strong as yesterday, but it was still in our face. Almost right away after leaving town, we had a great downhill for a couple miles. The morning's ride was very hilly. Up and down and up and down. Some steep, others more gradual. Either way, it made me really cold. Yesterday was about the same temperature, but since it wasn't as hilly, our body heat stayed about the same. Today since we would sweat up the hills and freeze down them, it was constantly changing. My toes, legs, fingers and nose were pretty chilly. We passed through a lot of little tiny towns, a few of which we didn't even realize that we had gone through. There were a couple little gas stations along the way that we took little breaks in to warm up a bit. That helped quite a bit because my toes could warm up and I would be able to get a few more miles in before they started getting cold again. For some reason, Joey didn't feel as cold as I did. We had planned to stop for lunch about 30 miles into the ride in the town of Huntsville, but since we found out there weren't really any little diners or restaurants nearby, we decided to keep going a little further. The girl in the grocery store told us that the next town, Onieda, had everything. The way she explained it was that it was really far away, but it turned out when we looked at the map that it was less than 7 miles to get there. So, we had a quick snack since I was starting to "get shaky" and we were off. We knew that we could find someplace so that Joey could have a special birthday lunch. Sure enough, there were good signs (Long John Silvers, Arby's and a couple other places) right when we got close to Onieda. We continued on and rode through the downtown area and then across to the other side of town. There we found everything from Pizza hut to Chinese buffet. We knew it only made sense for us to go to a buffet, so we tried the Pizza Hut buffet, just by the chance they would still have buffet. It turns out that we missed it by about 10 minutes. It was then that Joey said, I wouldn't mind Chinese again! I was thinking the same thing. It was SO yummy yesterday that we didn't have to think twice about going there instead. So, Joey had Chinese buffet for his birthday lunch. It sure was nice! They had all of our favorites, right down to the little sugar donut rolls. Thanks to Grammy for the "tink" buffet! When our bellies were stuffed, we made a quick internet stop at McDonald's and then headed out of town. Joey made a comment when we left that it "really is cold out here- for some reason I didn't notice it as much earlier today." I still don't know how he wasn't super chilly for most of the day like I was. When we started this afternoon's ride, we were both pretty excited because we knew we were getting really close to the Kentucky border. It turned out to only be about 8 miles away from where we had lunch. Joey got a call from a friend at home and talked to him for a bit before we took our usual state border picture. Now we only have 1 state border left for the trip that we HAVE to get- Ohio. We will of course take pictures at the WV, PA and NY borders, but they will be duplicates from the last trip. I can't believe we are already to this part of the trip. I say this ALL the time, but I just go crazy thinking about all the places we've been to and remembering back to talking about those places before we left on the trip and "next destinations" while we were on the trip. We don't have too many destination's left, that's for sure!! So, before we knew it we were a few miles into Kentucky. After riding through Whitney City, we found 3 different, really nice Kentucky plates within a couple hundred yards of each other. It was so strange that we found them like that, after all, we didn't find any Tennessee plates. We rode a ways further and up and down a couple more hills- which were much less steep and more rolling at this point; nothing at all like this morning's hilly, curvy ride through the hills. It was getting to be about quarter after 6, so we knew we would be stopping for the night soon. We passed by a church on a hill that had a few cars at it. We saw their nice little picnic shelter and figured we might as well ask if we could find someone there. After riding up the little hill to the church, we found 6 ladies. They were in the recreation building- that had a beautiful gym and second level "track" around it. What an amazing facility! The ladies all come there to exercise together. I just thought that was so cool that their church had this. The first ladies that we met were Judy and Lois. They said yes to us setting our tent up right away and asked if we were hungry or thirsty. We said that we were ok, but by the time they were getting ready to leave, they brought over a bunch of super yummy food just to make sure that we wouldn't be hungry. We also met Della, Loretta Carmen, and another lady that I never caught the name of. They told us that there were also showers there in the rec center and that we were welcome to use them as they were going to be there for at least 45 minutes more, if not longer. I, of course can NEVER turn down a shower! That is the best thing at the end of a day on the bike- especially on a day like today when I was actually really feeling cold most of the day. When t Lois and Della went to get the food from the church, they had also called the pastor to let him know that we would be setting our tent up there. When they came back, we found out that instead of sleeping in our tent, we were going to stay inside the lobby of the rec. center! We just can't be more thankful. Even though it's sometimes tough riding in the cold, it's SO much worse when we stop to camp for the day. We are so blessed to have this kind of opportunity two nights in a row. Being that this last portion of the trip involves so much cold weather, this is the time that we need the help the most- and it has been provided. Thanks so much to the ladies and the Flat Rock Baptist Church. Joey and I appreciated being inside so much. Getting an opportunity to get a good nights sleep and be warm for the night can never be taken for granted. After the ladies left, I went down and took a shower. When I came back upstairs, I heard voices! We had company! Lois and Della had come back and we had a chance to meet Lois's son and Della's husband Skip! Not only did they just come to visit, but they brought us some cake and a couple bags of candy so we would have fuel for the road tomorrow! We have been showered with kindness yet again. It's day's like this that have made our trip so special. I am so glad that we had a chance to meet "Judy and her friends;" they really are a great group of gals. Joey and I peddled 59.51 miles today. I think that despite the cold, Joey had a pretty great birthday... And a little note of remembrance for my dearly missed kitty, Munchkin, who passed away one year ago today- I'll never forget my Munchie!
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