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Across Ohio Bicycle Adventure |
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XOBA 2008 by Dan Sheridan |
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Tuesday, 78 miles, Wilberforce to Delaware
Tuesday was a delightful day of riding. We started the ride in a misty rain, but the skies soon cleared. We traversed rolling farm roads for about 16 miles into South Charleston, before taking a bicycle trail into London. My cycling shoes were a bit muddy, so I rode along the edge of the quiet roads and held my feet out to the sides, so that the wet weeds beside the road would brush my shoes clean.
I cycled away from South Charleston with Matt Zirger, who lived a few miles off of the day's route. Matt told me of a new trail on the other side of London that closely followed our route, so we rode about six miles on that trail, stopping a few miles short of West Jefferson. We needed to ride cautiously on this beautiful new trail because many small limbs had fallen on the trail during a storm the night before.
Stepping into a porta-potty as we exited the trail, I was startled when a young bird flew up from the floor, searching for an exit. A few minutes of holding the door open sufficed to free the bird.
After stopping for snacks at a convenience store in West Jefferson, I rode with Mary Ann Bontley for the rest of the day's journey. We arrived in Delaware at about 1:45 p.m., where the "gym floor sleepers" slept in the large field house at Ohio Wesleyan University. I walked around downtown Delaware, stopping at a local bike shop to buy new water bottles. My wife (Shelly) and Lucy's husband (Steve) drove to Delaware to join us for dinner, so we car-pooled to Beuhler's to eat at the restaurant and buy some food for the next day. Our friends Reuben and Rosa Rall, from Upper Sandusky, and Tom Purkey from Dayton accompanied us.
After dinner, many of the riders enjoyed a question and answer session with Ellen Seward, a librarian from Mechanicsburg, Ohio, and Charlotte Walker, the granddaughter of former slave Addison White. We learned much about the Underground Railroad during the conversation. |
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A rain garden along the bike trail near London, Ohio. |
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A farm field near South Charleston, Ohio. |
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Contact Dan through the Heart of Ohio Tailwinds web site. |