London Ohio

I had camped along the Olentangy River Trail and I had about 8 miles until I reached the OTET. The Olentangy was very popular and had so many different routes that I started using Google to keep me on the right trail. Somehow I still managed to get on the wrong one and ride 1.8 miles before I caught it.

I cooked lunch right after I got on the correct trail. Ramen noodles with peanut butter instead of the spice pack. It was getting hot and I was moving slowly but thoroughly enjoying myself. I picked up my pace a little after being passed by a jogger.

I stopped at a Taco Bell for a break. More for the a.c. then for the food. I drank 2 big dr. Peppers and 4 cups of water. After filling both my water bottles I headed back out. My bike computer read 100.7 in partial shade. With cycling it never usually feels too bad because the breeze from moveing helps cool you down.

Cumulonimbus clouds started building up when I was still acouple hours from where I had hoped to camp. I wanted to make it as far as London, Ohio. There is a free campground right along the trail that is highly talked about. Several cyclist told me it was a great place to stop so I had set that for my goal.Thunder started rumbling when I thought I was 13 miles away. This would make the 4th day that it stormed at 5 o’clock. I was determined to get into camp before the storm this time. I rode as fast as I could. The terrain was in my favor but the wind was against me, still I maintained about 15 miles an hour. A little past the 44 miles for the day that should of marked where the campsite was there was still no sign of it. Then I remembered that I had got lost this morning so with those extra miles, my odometer was off by 3.6 miles. The storm was close now and really sounded bad. I gathered up what little energy I had left and pedaled on. I made it but just barely! I parked my bike under the pavilion, took off my helmet and grabbed my empty water bottles to fill them at the spigot. It started raining before they were full.

Right on time at 5 pm the sky really opened up. I was really happy to be under roof this time. The storm kept getting worse. It got so dark that dusk to dawn lights came on. I had hung my hammock under the pavilion and was laying in it relaxing before dinner. All of a sudden there was a huge prolonged gust of wind that brought in a wall of water soaking me and my sleeping gear.

Had I known it would get so windy i would not of hung up under the pavilion. I had no good way to use my rain fly. It has six guy lines that get staked out but the concrete floor made that impossible. I packed my sleeping bag back up so it didn’t get any more wet and put on my rain coat. I flipped one table on its side and used that as a wind break. The wind would come from all different directions blowing in huge amounts of rain. I laughed a little to think of all the effort I put in to get here before the storm and now I was under roof and getting pored on. I guess mother nature had the last laugh. All I really wanted was to cook dinner, blog and read my book a little. It was now 8pm and the storm had raged for 3 hours without letting up. I was very hungry now. I ran to the bathroom where I could use my phone and looked some stuff up. Pizza Hut would deliver! In my opinion the Hut has the best pizza in the world or at least the one in Greencastle, Pa does. Excitedly I placed my order online – one large hand tossed meat lovers. One minute later my phone rang and it was Pizza Hut saying they would not deliver in a storm this severe. I then tried two more places and was told the same thing. I left the bathroom and went back to the pavilion. I was shocked to see what was a dry drainage ditch when I got here was now a rageing creek.

The lightning was unbelievable. It was one of the worst lightning storms I’ve ever seen. And it had now been going on for over 3 hours. At one point my phone kept going off with warnings about dangerous lightning.

Around 9:30 a guy from Vancouver biked in. He was on day 54 of a 90 day tour. The storm hit him after he set up camp for the night. It was so bad he packed up and was heading for a motel bringing his total mileage for the day to 113 miles. He kept saying he was terrified and had never seen a storm like this. 2 people had told him there would be tornadoes. He was visibly shaking from fear. I think probably exhaustion too. With every flash of lightning or crack of thunder he jumped and looked startled. We talked for 15 minutes. He was so wound up he couldn’t sit and paced back and forth the whole time. After he left I ran to the bathroom. It was a concrete cubicle and I was going to stay the night in it. Opening the door not only was it flooded there was somebody else inside sitting on the back of the toilet with his feet on the seat to keep out of the water.

My Vancouver friend had planted a seed of fear and I no longer felt secure under the pavilion. I guess to be truthful he didn’t plant the seed. It was already a small healthy plant by the time he showed up. He merely watered and fertilized it. His fear rubbed off a little and suddenly I wanted a motel badly too. The drainage ditch was now a river and the parking lot a lake. At 10pm I had had enough and decided to get a room.

The the motels were all way out by the interstate 6 miles away. Not a bad ride if it wasn’t a horrible storm. I decided to pack up and hitch a ride to the nearest available lodging. I pushed my bike through the parking lot lake and onto the street. Stopping under a street lamp so I was clearly visible I stood on the sidewalk with my thumb out. I have always had great luck thumbing rides. I have hitched rides on pretty much everything you see on the road including a moped and a hay wagon. I have also hitched rides in boats a few times. But my crowning achievement as far as hitchhiking is the time I thumbed a ride in a airplane. Anyway I only said all that to explain I felt my odds of a truck stopping for me were pretty good. The very first vehicle to go by stopped. A blue f250, it only had a six foot bed and it also had a tool box limiting the space even further. I loaded my bike with all the bags on it. I only took the handlebar bag into the cab with me. I explained i wanted a motel to get out of the weather and we were off. . Im glad he was driving, due to so much flooding there was detours every where. It made the drive a lot longer then 6 miles. He had just put new tires on his truck that day but was unhappy with the sound they made. They sounded like school bus tires to him and so we would listen intently at various speeds to try to determine if it was all the time or only at a certain mile per hour. Finally by 10:45 I was at the motel but only to be turned away. The storm had ruined there computers. Even if paying in cash they could not make a key card. As I was leaving and heading to the more expensive hotel I saw my Vancouver friend wheeling his bike through the glass doors. I felt so bad for him. It had taken him nearly 2 hours to go what should of been 6 miles. With all the detours I wonder how many miles he actually had to ride. I went in to pay for a room and was told there was none available.

The lady behind the desk was so kind and helpful. I explained I was on a bicycle and I didn’t need much, a little corner in a broom closet or under a table would be fine. Any where that was under roof. So we searched the whole building upstairs downstairs everywhere. There was not one place big enough for me to sleep. I thanked her profusely. She had taken a half hour of her time to look. Behind the building was a wood lot and I asked if I could pitch my tent there. At this point it was now midnight and I still hadn’t ate dinner. She said she could not allow me to do that. I said I understood but I would be gone by first light. She said no I just can’t allow you to camp there. There is critters in the woods and maybe even snakes! We need to think about your safety. I asked what kind of critters and she said who knows what all is back there,one time I saw a raccoon. How about right here? She pointed to the grass in front of the parking area. At this point I regretted leaving the pavillion and I just wanted to eat and lay down. So I told her it was perfect. She said if there were any tornadoes she would come out and get me. She was so kind.

Finally around 1:00 am I crawled in my tent. I reached in my food bag grabbed the first two items on top for my dinner. Tuna fish and a cliff bar.Despite being exhausted I could not sleep. It was still raining but it was finally letting up. When vehicles left the parking area there headlights lit up my tent startling me. Momentarily causing me to think a car was headed towards me. It was so hot and humid I never even unpacked my damp sleeping bag. I dozed off a few times. But by 2:30 I packed up started riding back to the campground. At least there it would be quiet. I stopped at Speedway Convenience store and bought a couple cans of cold coffee. I have front and rear lights and lots of reflective spots on my packs. I knew from the ride in the truck that the road has a great sholder. All the detours were gone and I rode straight to the campsite. Water was over the road in many places but only a few inches deep. The ride was awesome, almost surreal. Lightning was continuously lighting up the sky on my left thin tendrils of steam were rising up to meet the beam of my head light and the only sound was the hiss of my tires over the wet road.

I got back to the pavilion around 3:15 hung my hammock once more and fell into a sound sleep. Another thunderstorm came through with out wind around day light. It hardly disturbed me and I slept until 8 am