Wabash Cannonball

Our stealth site along the North Coast Inland trail was pretty noisy. Unknown to us there were several sets of rail road tracks just 50 feet away hidden by trees and dense underbrush. Starting around 10 pm I think at least one train an hour came through. And Ohio has some long trains!

We were up and packed by 6:30 but we didn’t get started until 8 or so. We had lots of coffee and some trail mix bars for breakfast. The roads were beautiful today. Often it would be half an hour between cars. It was hot but not unbearable.

After about 30 miles a headwind started getting pretty strong. 17 mph. Our lack of sleep became apparent about that time. We struggled another couple hours when we passed a cheap motel. The temptation was too much and we wheeled in and got a room for the night. I think they had a special room for hot and tired cyclists. The room they gave us was ice cold, the thermostat was set on 60! It was blissful. I took my shoes off and almost immediately fell asleep. It was a great 40 minute nap. After my nap I walked over to a Miejer’s grocery store to see what I could find for dinner. I really felt like fried chicken. But the hot case and deli were closed because it was Sunday evening. I was hungry and everything looked delicious but I only got a box of day old doughnuts and a half gallon of milk. Back at the room we ordered Domino’s pizza. I had a gift card and points so it didn’t hurt our already badly damaged budget. In the morning we lollygagged and kept putting off packing up. We decided to get the room one more night. I’m really glad we did. Not only were my legs pretty sore, it rained off and on and was pretty windy. It was our first rest day since my mom dropped us off in PawPaw West Virginia. Our diet for the day was atrocious! Hotel breakfast then Doughnuts coffee and leftover pizza.

We left the hotel around 11 today. Rose had ordered a new hammock from Amazon. The repair job I did on her bug netting zipper wasn’t really a permanent fix and Ohio isn’t the place to be without good bug protection! Amazon has Amazon package pick up lockers. The package lockers are usually inside other businesses or even out front on the sidewalk. Rose had chose one about 15 miles from the motel and her hammock was scheduled to arrive around 1 o’clock. This particular one was in a AAA Travel office. Her hammock was there when we arrived. I just learned about this recently. I have to say that for someone like us that this system is amazing.

With our late start and other stops it was not a big mileage day. 27 miles is all. It was mostly road riding until mid afternoon when we got on the Wabash Cannonball rail trail. The shaded trail under the dense tree canopy felt great after being on roads for so long.

The Wabash has many trails tieing into it. Google took us down one side trail that got pretty rough for a loaded touring bike. It was a single-track trail with a lot of roots and rocks. It was fun but we had to go slow so as not to damage our bikes. When we were just about back to the main rail trail a perfect stealth site appeared. Complete with a picnic table! So that’s where we are tonight.

Dinner was angel hair pasta and Alfredo sauce and a few slices of Asiago cheese.