Ohio
In order to ensure I had a place to stay each night, I had planned my route for the next 650 miles from Sandusky, OH to St. Louis, MO.
The route would take me 11 days (~60mi/day), 9 of which I had a Warm Showers host and the other 2 would be at campgrounds. Although I did a great job with logistic planning, I failed to schedule a rest day and I would later regret this.
The one thing I like about riding in the eastern part of the United States is the sheer number of roads. With all those quiet country roads and tools like Google Maps, I was able to plan out some pretty sweet rides on roads that nobody seemed to know about.
On my way to Marion, OH on one of the rural backgrounds, I ended up finding a house with a medieval knight in full armor standing outside the front door. Sometimes you see the most bizarre things in the middle of nowhere.
Although I enjoy maps and navigation, I usually prefer not to worry about them during a ride. By creating custom routes on Google Maps the night before my ride and loading them up on my Garmin, I was able to ride through the peaceful farmland without worrying about directions. Some of these roads couldn’t be more pleasant, and it was great to be guided by a computer the whole way.
As I entered the city of West Liberty, OH I found a sign with my name on it. It turns out Adriel is also the name of a social services agency that provides foster care for children. Since I almost never see my name anywhere, I had to go in to the place and talk to someone there. As I entered the building, an administrative woman approached and introduced herself. I replied back, “Hi, I’m Adriel.” The woman’s eyes lit up and I could tell she wasn’t quite expecting that curveball. Anyways, the people there were very nice and even talked to me a bit about the work they do.
One of my favorite discoveries of Ohio was the bike paths. To my delight, I learned that Ohio has the largest network of paved bike paths in the country.
Although I only got to ride on a small portion of all the paved bike paths Ohio had to offer, I really enjoyed them. Also, I hope to do some more touring in Ohio to get to more of the paths.
Indiana
Of my entire trip, Indiana was the state I spent the least amount of time in. I only spent three nights in the Hoosier State, one of which was my first night at a campground.
It was in Indiana when the first signs of fatigue had begun. When it started hitting me, I was a bit surprised. I knew I was in good shape but for some reason my muscles were getting achy and the riding started feeling like a chore instead of a pleasure. Although a rest day would have been nice, I already had my hosts all planned. If I took a rest day, I would have to reschedule with all my hosts and I figured the least I could for my hosts was to be accurate about my date of arrival.
The fatigue definitely started getting bad as I hit Bloomington because of its relentless hills.
Bloomington would have been a nice place to take a rest day because it seemed like a nice town, however my schedule dictated I push onward. I was so sore, that I resorted to getting a ride for part of my ride the next day to get over some of the hills. I was normally opposed to hitch-hiking because I was afraid of abduction or something, but I was desperate at this point so I flagged down a car for help. As it turns out, the man who pulls over happened to be an Uber driver. He told me I should request a ride from him with my phone so he could work while bringing me along my journey. For whatever reason the app wasn’t working on my phone so I suggested we just cut the middle man out. I offered him a $20 for the ride, he accepted, and we were on our way.
The next town I rode to was Farmersburg, where I got the pleasure of staying with the kindest hosts. It was also at this host where I was fed some of the most delicious food of the trip. I believe it was homemade fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and roasted green beans. What a meal!
Illinois
As I entered the Land of Lincoln, my fatigue was starting to take over. I remember every morning I woke up my body would ache and I would wish to just go back to bed. My main goal was to make it to St. Louis, where I would spend a rest day before my next leg. I had found a Warm Showers host in St. Louis, so I just needed to get there.
Luckily there were some interesting experiences along the way to distract me from my soreness. One town in Illinois held a bunch of world records for largest things in the world.
The theme of these oversized items was “Big Things in a Small Town” which I thought was pretty clever.
Further into Illinois, I found another Warm Showers treasure in a rural farm town. The farmer had offered me the entire guest house and cooked up a delicious meal. If there’s anything I have learned about farmers, it’s that they know how to eat!
After finishing the amazing meal, the farmer asked me “What’s the smallest plane you’ve ever flown in?”.
“Uh, just a regular commercial airline”, I replied.
“How’d you like to go up in a two person plane?”, he asked.
I was beyond excited about his amazing offer. Apparently the farmer was also a pilot and uses the plane on a regular basis to attend farming conferences and other business related activities.
The sun had already set by the time we were about to take off, but we were about to see it set again from the sky.
After trudging through the final day of the brutal stretch I had made it to the Mississipi, and admired the mighty river from a pedestrian/bike only bridge.
For so many years I’ve heard people say things like highest peak east of the Mississippi, or largest blank west of Mississipi. After standing at this point I finally understood why. The great river is absolutely collosal and biking over it definitely gives you a feeling of crossing into a new land, “The American West”.
Shortly after arriving to The Gateway City, I headed over to a bike shop to repair my dysfunctional bike. Two days prior, my gear-shifting cable had snapped and I couldn’t shift on my rear cassette. To make matters worse, at zero tension the chain positions itself on the smallest cog of the cassette which puts the bike in the hardest gear. Given my limited resources and dire need for an easier gear, I had built a makeshift solution to get the chain on a larger cog.
I had created tension by pulling the gear cable with my hand and then wrapped it around the water bottle cage to keep it in position. Although this method had been successful for the past 70 miles or so, I was ready to be able to shift normally again and the guy at the bike shop fixed it for me. The bike mechanic owned the shop and also builds custom frames. I took a picture of his personal bike, a true work of art.
My hosts in St. Louis were beekeepers (among other things) and let me try their honey. It tasted really different than regular honey, but still good. I think it may have been a bit more of an acquired taste.
St. Louis was hot and the daily high temperature was usually in the upper 90’s. Normally I would be concerned about riding in this heat but I was about to ride on the Katy Trail, a mostly-shaded bike path. With the combination of shade and a gentle breeze, the next part of my journey would be some good quality riding.