Tuesday, July 29, 2008 – Day 37

Start: Kendallville, Indiana
End: Napoleon, Ohio
Miles: 71.37 Total Miles: 2,810.14 BRAA Total Miles: 2,652.20
Time: 4 hours 34 minutes (avg 15.6 MPH)
Flat tire count today: 0 Total flat tires for the ride: 10

Last night after dinner, we checked my back wheel that was a little out of true due to the rough Indiana roads. I thought I had hit a pot hole causing the rim to get a little goofy. Well, when we were checking the spokes to see where the trouble was, we found it right away. One of my spokes was broken. It snapped at the hub. So, since it was late, we decided to put it off until the ride for today was complete. I had already ridden 50 miles on it yesterday and today’s ride was only 70 miles, so I thought I would just wait. As I am writing this, it is being fixed and will be ready to go for tomorrow’s ride.

Before leaving this morning, we chuckled a bit when we said today’s ride was only 70 miles. The key word is “only”. Under any other circumstances, a 70 mile ride would be considered a long ride for most of us. But when the average daily ride is 83 miles, a 70 mile ride is a blessing.

About 25 miles into the ride, we reached the state of Ohio. State number 10! Since we are riding on side roads and very rural country streets, there was no pretty sign welcoming us to Ohio. There was a yellow line painted in the street by one of the support crew and an old faded paint job that said “Welcome to Ohio” that was probably from a prior ride. So, I took a picture of the street sign showing that we indeed crossed into Ohio.

I wanted to sneak this picture in since I took it as we were leaving Ohio. I turned around at the Pennsylvania state line and got it for the record.

Once we headed into Ohio, I thought we might see some different scenery. Well, I was wrong. Corn to the right of me and soy beans to the left. Just like the last two states.

We are staying the night at the county fairgrounds in Napoleon, Ohio. There is a large empty warehouse that we have to hang out in and most will be camping outside. There are a lot of bugs again. This time – at least so far – it is flies. They are driving us nuts. That is the main reason for sleeping in a tent tonight – to keep the flies away.

Tomorrow will be an early start since our destination is Sandusky, Ohio and some of the riders want to head over to Cedar Point Amusement Park. The ride will be a few more miles and getting an early start will be good to attempt to beat the afternoon heat.