The Bicycle Monologs

Bill Schuette

2009-11-10T19:00:00.000-08:00

As mentioned before in this blog Bill Schuette is a long time friend from Versailles and has always been an inspiration to a lot of folks who have met him. He has had more than a little bit to do with me taking a shot at riding the length of the Mississippi River and cross country. Bill ,you are the definition of a good man, and again I thank you for what you have done for me.

But as I write this post I still have tears in my eyes after watching a segment shown on ABC Nightly News featuring Bill. If you want to feel good about something you will enjoy this--check it out
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/cancer-patients-find-hope-experimental-drug-trials/story?id=9044249

Bill has been fighting lung cancer for a long time (even though he has never smoked) and had pretty much run out of options until he saw a segment this past June on ABC about a revolutionary treatment for certain types of lung cancer. Bill made contact , started the treatment and immediately started feeling better. He is doing a whole bunch better and seeing him discuss his journey was huge. Kick some ass and take some names Bill--you are the good guy that good things happen to.

I was having a pretty good day today but that was nothing compared to how great I felt when I saw Bill on TV. Monica aka Miss Sassy and I hugged each other afterwards. We were so happy for Bill and Connie.

Wedding 4

2009-11-10T18:36:00.000-08:00

Russ's 2 new brothers in law. These are good men from a tremendous family. Zach on left and Alex . Alex played a wonderful violin during the ceremony and reception. Very entertaining , especially when he teamed up with his dad Bob Marcus to provide the music for that awesome first dance for the bride and groom. It was a sexy tango that had everyone's attention, particularly when Russ and Elissa did all those swivels, dips, quicksteps or whatever all those cool moves are called. Judgeing from the standing ovation they got this dance was the highlight of the evening for many.

As the reception headed towards midnight on Halloween night the masks and costumes appeared. This is son Jeff doing his "evil villian" thing--which is redundant and me semi disguised as the Phantom of the Opera--actually the mask just covered up crash scars and made me feel better . Of course severl family members wondered why there was only half a mask in play when a full one would have been a lot more popular. Also many comments about if I did get a full mask how I should seriously consider attaching it to face permanently.
btw--I am on the left

This is the evil villian (redundant) with cape posing with his lady friend the lovely Lindsay who's "disguised" as Pearl Pure Heart the object of the evil villian's attentions. Note wig and rope used to tie her to railroad track. The rope's color/texture matched Pearl's dress beautifully --a nice useful tasteful accesory for the wardrobe of any maiden in distress.

Also, if you enlarge pic check out Jeff's eyes. His intentions are definitely not honorable in any way.

This is one of the few scenes fit to make public from our motel room at the Double Tree, which is where everyone who was anyone showed up after reception. Among many other things there were several heated euchre games , like this one involving 2 Hemmelgarns, a Kleinhenz, and an unidentified Gumbi who just showed up, grabbed a seat at the table , ate all the Doritos , drank a bunch of beers, and plugged up the toilet (so much green slime)--twice(. Then as mysteriously as he came, he left , his hands full of Micholobe Lite.

And yes, money did change hands during most of these card games. It is fortunate that the Ohio gaming Commission did not show up and haul the whole lot away for illegal activities. Actually as I think about it , I should have made the call to the OGC, a lot more sleep would have been had.

Looking on are Leslie Hemmelgarn Hobbs ace euchre player and taunter/jawer extraordinaire and Katherine Baltes budding euchre superstar who traveled all the way from Doylestown Pa. It is unclear what Miss Katherine's relationship was/is with the mysterious Gumbi. She seemed to always be near him and in this pic there is her arm around Gumbi from which readers can draw their own conclusions. Personally I think it had something to do with how icky sticky Gumbi's outer covering was.

Also note the bunch of soap bubbles floating in the air. These were everywhere all night and I honestly can not tell you where they were coming from. Whoever was blowing them around managed to do so in secret, but in the morning I found several empty bubble bottles with the finger prints wiped off.

Things were going strong when I could not keep my eyes open after 3 a.m. Our bed was up that stairs and the sounds were just as loud there than in the room below. The conversations seemed to increase in volume as the sun came up.

Looking back I find it tough to figure out what was real and what was just part of a series of wild dreams that night/early morning. This time frame is sure to become immortalized in Baltes family history as the participants polish their stories and have selective memory about events that occured. A little like the aftermath of the battle of Gettysburg or any good New years Eve party.

The Wedding 3

2009-11-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

There are a thousand scenes like this at the Franklin Park Conservatory. This is another beautiful example of glass art set up in the coy pond in the Pacific Island section. Check a cople of the fish hanging around at the base of display.

This is a glass work that is about 10 feet high hanging from the ceiling. The talent/work it took to create this had to have been monumental. Not something you see everyday.

Another scene in the FPC.

This is a better pic of the monster coy fish doing their thing . What a gig for a fish looking for a life of leisure. All they have to do is move a little bit and get fed by all the folks who stare at them over the rail. There is a vending machine where you can buy fish food.

THE WEDDING 2

2009-11-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

The wedding ceremony and the reception was held at about the best venue I can imgine. It is called the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus . If you are ever near it, it is well worth the time to check it out. All glass enclosed , filled with plants and exhibits of extraordinary art . It is so large that it has areas of several different world climates to walk thru--arctic-desert-rain forest etc .
Check it out http://www.fpconservatory.org/ we were lucky in that the current art exhibits throughout featured work by Chihuly one of the most famous glass artists in the world. His pieces were everywhere , blended in to the natural settings everywhere.

This is pic of a lovely fountain I found interesting because of the large number of coins in it. It was located in the middle of the reception area and during the evening I noticed that the members of the our extended family particularly the Matlack, Wilker, Hemmelgarn and Kleinhenz tribes were always hanging close to this fountain and when I looked close you could see that they all had water dripping from their sleeves. When the reception finally shut down I walked by the now deserted fountain area and when I glanced down into the water there was not a coin of any kind to be seen.

This is Miss Sassy and Elissa in front of a glass display that the camer did not do justice to.

More Chihuly works --these were all 3-4 feet across and spectacular.

This blown glass piece was about 6 feet high and hung from the ceiling. I want to see the video showing how this was made.

More wedding stuff to follow when I get a moment to get it together--lots of neat pics and hopefully some video as well .

THE WEDDING

2009-11-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

This Elissa shortly before she became part of our family. This is a wonderful gal--we are blessed.

This is the groom Russ (middle) , best man brother Jeff (right) and our on again/off again adopted third son Justin (left) who served as the marrier of Elissa and Russ. Of note is that this is the first ceremony I have attended where the guy who says "by the power vested in me ...." read his lines from a Blackberry phone screen. Another thing Justin did not do was ask that traditional question ,"if anyone here has reason that these 2 shall not be united in matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.....". This is good because several of Russ's cousins were ready to jump in a filibuster the proceedings with long lists of reasons.

It was a beautiful non traditional ceremony highlighted by the original vows repeated by E/R as well as the wonderful singing by our great friend Angie Pohlman who blew te roof off the place when she sang the song At Last better than Etta James. Another neat thing about the ceremony was that it was shorter than the cocktail hour immediately following, all in attendance showed their appreciation by imbiding like there was no tomorrow.

Elissa/Russ about 10 seconds into their new life together.

Jeff had the job of placing these 2 birds on top of the cake. This must have been a big deal for him because he asked meto help. I was in charge of the one on the right--we ndid a good job.

PearTime at the Farm

2009-11-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

The pear tree at the Baltes farm did a great job this year of producing a bumper crop.

This is pic of me with pear gathering aunts Pat and Ann along with cousin Annette. I am standing in back with orange tshirt. The step ladder in the back played a key role in the days activities as Aunt Pat continually tested her ability to balance on top step to reach pears, continually defying the law of gravity, and providing breathtaking entertainment for all of us in the audience.

I am trying to locate someone I can trust to make a batch of pear wine. This was a good year.

Making Apple Butter --the old fashioned way

2009-11-06T21:14:00.000-08:00

For the third year in a row Miss Sassy and I have been fortunate enough to be invited to the Byrd applebutter extraveganza near Covington Ohio.This is great stuff. The farm has been in the family one way or another since 1812 and has a cool sign hanging on the barn(see picture below for actual appearance).
The annual apple butter making has been going on here for a long long time, and this family of knows their applebutter.

If you are invited to this deal you have to spend time stirring the kettle . The stirring has to be constsnt from about 6 in the morning til somewhere around 6 in the evening. A ton of apples get dumped in the kettle as the day goes by and there is a lot of boiling and evaporating evaporating happening until the only thing left is the best applebutter that I have ever tasted.

I am not sure but I believe that even the wood used for fire is special .

The stirring is done with a wooden stirrer and there are a bunch of silver dollars in the kettle that helps keep the apple stuff from sticking to the edges of the kettle.

This is Carrie Drees looking cute (as per usual) standing by the copper kettle as it is being stirred. Carrie is probably the 5th or 6th generation of apple butter makers and she brought her baby Nathan aka the cutest kid in the world to be part of thye action. Nate is probably 3 years awy from being able to take his turn at stirring.

This is a pic of how the farm looks today--much like the sign on the barn. The farm borders the Stillwater River and has a neat spring between the barn and the river.

Hancock Md The end of the ride

2009-11-06T20:52:00.000-08:00

We made it to Hancock which is about 120 miles from the end of the trail and I decided to call it a trip for a couple of reasons. One was a break in the bike seat bracket (see below), another was that I was just mentally tired of riding the bike. The scenery and the people were great and interesting, just like it has been for the entire trip but I got kinda wore out with it all. Part of it may have been riding the GAP path which is so much different than riding on the public highway. The path was good but I missed the open road after a while.
Another aspect was that I am not the best biker to have a sag wagon driver to interact with. I like to be self contained and able to move at my own pace. Ned is a hell of a guy and I tested his patience a lot. The last reason was that I was not and am not in the same place mentally or physically as I was before crash. I may have pushed to finish ride in 2009 a little too much.

The trip started in late May with the van ride to Oregon with Miss Sassy with the plan to finish before Labor Day. Due to recovery time from after crash it ended on Oct 14th. That is long enough , at least for me it was. I now have some appreciation for how Forst Gump felt when he finally quit running across the country.

After the crash I wanted to get back on the bike and get the rest of the way to D.C. but it all was not the same as B.C. (before crash).
My bike computer says I rode over 7000 miles in 2009--probably 3200 were training miles the rest was trip related .

Several fellow bikers has teased me about not keeping exact milage , daily, weekly or for entire trip. To me that is not a big deal. I actually get bored reading blogs about bike trips that spend too much time on how far, how fast .

I have yet to go back and read what I have written about trip or look at many of the pics, but will do so at some point in time and I am very curious how I will feel about the whole deal. As I write this I feel like it was someone else who put the miles on and not me. In the back of my mind I am thinking of a future ride to Memphis-to New Orleans to Key West. I will see how I feel in the Spring.

My time is filled with several business projects , rehabbing the family farm and not the least getting Russ married(which was the best).

I will continue to blog about happening around me but there will probably be more non bike stuff than bike stuff.

Many thanks to all the blog readers who interacted with me during the trip. It was very encouraging and also surprising how many people were interested in what I was doing and seeing. Very surprising.

While in Hancock we met and had a great conversation with Mr. Hepburn the owner of this fruit market. Very interesting and we could have stayed a lot longer. He turned us on to Honey Crisp apples --very tasty.

We loaded everything in van and headed to see Gettysburg battlefield. That was another wonderful experience and another place on my return visit list. From Gettysburg we drove to Doylestown to visit brother Mike and family. It is always a treat to see the Baltes trophy family.

This was the last of the C.&O. trail I road. It was beautiful.

Not far from Hancock I hit a big bump and broke this bracket under the seat. It was still fairly ridable and I considered wiring it together to finish but decided not to. It appeared that there had been a crack working for awhile before it broke completely--probably crack was result of crash but with my big butt working that seat for 7000miles about any chunk of metal would suffer from fatigue. There is only so much you can expect something like this to take.

Paw Paw Tunnel 2

2009-11-02T18:15:00.000-08:00

This is Ned walking out the far end of the tunnel. I estimate he was about 300 yards away --I was using zoom lens on camera.

This wooden walk way that went off around the bend once you got thru the tunnel. As beautiful as all this looks you also really get a sense of just howrugged it is as well.

This is the entrance as we walked back out . That is Ned rolling along ahead of me as per usual. When he gets a head of steam up all I can do is eat his dust.

There was a posted sign that said DO NOT CLIMB STEPS TO TOPP. I am sure that I am not the first or last person who snuck up to the walkway above the tunnel entrance. That is me and the tunnel entrance. I am the one on top.

What is spectacular about this place is the various kinds of geology you can see in then background of these pics. The various types of layers of different types of rocks--amazing that a tunnel could be built in this area because of the varying challenges from how all these geologic formations crumbled together.

Paw Paw Tunnel

2009-11-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

This is the big daddy of tunnels on the GAP. It is long , has no lights and is cool as hell (oxymoron intended). What a job to tackle with the equipment available when they built it. Unlike the other tunnels this one is not for trains but for canal boats and the animals the pulled them through. There is only room for the waterway and a path above it for the mules/horses.

As I was walking thru it I wondered what kind of lights were used in the day and what happened when there was 2 way traffic.

That is a long way to the light at the end of the tunnel.

When you get a handle on what the builders had to overcome it is amazing . The need to get stuff from one side of the mountains drove the builders to get the job done. Again, this is a place that you have to see to appreciate . Once again I felt tremendously lucky to be able t5ake all this in.

This is loooking back at a biker we met in the tunnel making his way out the other end. Actually we met several bikers while in the tunnel and it was eerie seeing the little lights coming closer and closer.

C & O Cumberland to Hancock 8

2009-10-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

This is Lock 32 along the C & O and provides an idea of how narrow the boats had to be to pass thru these canals.

I climbed down into an area of the canal that did not have standing water to get a pic of a lock.

This is Lock 32 and the log house that must have served as a residence for the lock keeper.

I ran into my blue buddy one last time as I rode along the canal. He/she and I met about 10 times during the day. It seemed like every time right after I snapped a pic he/she would take off east and wait on me down the line.

C & O Cumberland to Hancock 7

2009-10-29T18:21:00.000-07:00

The canal had some spots that were a lot wider than usual. This was one of those spots with some unique looking ducks on the far shore. These were different than the regular ducks i have seen so far. They might be wood cocks --I need to look them up.

It may be worth it to enlarge the pic to take a peek yourself.

Closer look at those ducks.

Another look at the Potomac River which is never very far away from the canal.

Just another typical scene that seem to come along very often as you ride along--wonderful stuff.

C & O Cumberland to Hancock 6

2009-10-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

The scenery along the C & O was mostly trees for a long while and it was tough to see very far beyond them but there were sections where it opened up to beautiful country scenes. What caught my attention about this farm was the 2 flags on the right. When I got closer I learned why they were there.

There is a small well kept cemetary about 100 yards off the path. It is dedicated to a Confederate civil war soldier . I have seen several references to the Confederacy in Maryland and it is evident that although Maryland was considered a Union state there must have been a good many Southern sympathizers there.

The guy buried in this grave was born on the farm in above pic--fought in the Civil war for the South--returned home--married and lived til 1916.

It is coming across neat things like this that makes a trip like this very special.

this tells the story of the above mentioned fellow.

This was the scene directly to the right (west) of the cemetary. Not sure what those mountains are but it was kinda surprising to see them after looking at tree trunks for the previous 30 miles.

C & O Cumberland to Hancock 5

2009-10-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

This guy kept flying away ahead of me everytime I would get close . This lasted for several miles and I felt like we were buds after awhile.

Another one legged goose. They are very common along the canal. It must have something to do with the stagnant water they stand in.

C & O Cumberland to Hancock Md 4

2009-10-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

Scene along the canal. The Potomac River is less than 100 yards on the right (south).

At several points along the path (heading east)you can see the canal on your left and the Potomac River on the right. This was one of those places that reinforced the feeling that I am one of the luckiest people on the face of the earth. Everyone should be fortunate enough to see this place like I did.

This was the second rider I saw this day and when he got closer I was surprised at the interesting way he was dressed--all in black. The path is narrow here so I got off to one side so he could pass. He was loaded for long range travel , riding fast and would not make eye contact.

Another pic of how the canal curves . The Potomac is very close on the right.

C & O Cumberland to Hancock 3

2009-10-25T08:20:00.000-07:00

I came across several interesting kinds of wild life. This was one of the more unusual specimens. Probably the largest frog I have ever seen. At minimum this is by far the largest head I have ever seen on a frog.

These 2 ducks were strange in that they only had 1 leg each.

This owl was unusual because you just do not see many red owls anywhere. Once the word gets out ,I can imagine all sorts of bird watchers checking this guy out so they can list it in their book of distinctive rare birds observed in the wild.

I am not sure what these soccer blls were doing in this place. There has to be some type of interesting story behind how they got there in the middle of no where.

C & O Cumberland to Hancock 2

2009-10-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

There are many many scenes like this along the route. In my opinion some of the neatest stuff I have seen so far.

It is frustrating in that the camera does not capture the distinctive green that you see so many places along the canal.

I saw only 3 bike other riders on this part of the path. This lady was ahead of me for a mile or so and then she was not there anymore. She sort of disappeared and there were no side paths I could see for her to go. I was thinking that this may be one of those ghost deals you hear about during Halloween time.

C & O Canal--Cumberland to Hancock Md

2009-10-25T07:44:00.000-07:00

A short distance out of Cumberland heading east the canal path gets a little rougher and the remains of the canal are very evident. This section of the C & O seems to be less traveled than what I have seen so far There are long stretches of stagnant water with a lot of overgrown foliage --it is very quiet and beautiful. I stopped several times to just look at it all in detail and absorb the scenes. This is something you do not see every day of the week.

This type of pic may look kinda ugly but I found it fascinating.

I kept thinking of how this must have looked and sounded when the C & O canal was in its heyday. Horses, boats, people all making their own distinctive noises.

I climbed up on an abandoned bridge and took this pic facing west. The actual towpath runs on the southside of the canal.

From lo king at these pics one might get the impression that the canal ran relatively in a straight line, but that is not the case. It basically runs close to the course of the Potomac river as it meanders through the mountians towards Washington DC. http://bikewashington.org/canal/

Cumberland Md 3

2009-10-24T21:20:00.000-07:00

As you ride the C & O route eastern out of Cumberland there is a nice park that has a canal boat on display. My bike is parked on the walkway behind the boat to provide a kind of size prespective. It was longer than I expected and pretty narrow but afrter seeing the size of the actual canl locks down the trail it all made a lot more sense.

This is a preserved section of the C & O canal and path looking west back into Cumberland.You can see that fountain that Ned and I posed with outside the visitors center in the distance under the overpass.

There were huge flocks of geese landing nearby in a water area I could not see but could hear a lot of goose noises going on.

This was a lucky shot because the camera I use is pretty simple and it took a few tries to figure out how to get the camera moving with the flock and keep it in focus.

Cumberland Md 2

2009-10-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

The bike path runs along the original C&O route thru a scenic section of Cumberland . A great deal of it is paved with bricks. Along the route is a big bike shop who's owner we met at breakfast in Frostburg earlier that morning. It turnss out he was quoted in that USA Today article that we read in Coraopolis on theday we started the trip.

This is a bike that was being entered in a local art contest. Besides the bike being painted there was a matching helmet, water bottle and riding jersey that went with it.

There is a huge information center in this area that details area history as well as the inside scoop on the C&O Canal. This is Ned standing besides a pretty big fountain out side the viscenter. That is the fountain on the left.

BTW --please note that fashionable sweatshirt ned is wearing. he happened to leave it in my van so it is now that fashionable sweat shirt that Ned used to own. I have been wearing it a great deal lately as I work on the farm, cleaning cow poop out of the stables. I did not want to smell up any of my work clothes on a job like this and ned's former sweat shirt fits me like a glove.

Speaking of Ned I want to discuss my experiences with having a sag wagon on a cross country bike trip like this. It was my first experiences having somebody in a vehicle, carrying my stuff, mirroring my route and meeting me at the end of the day , and sometimes at designated spots along the way. I have talked to many bikers who will not go long distances w/o a sag wagon because they do not want to carry all the extra weight and have to mess around with finding a place to sleep/camp in the evenings. All the biker has to do is focus on riding.

My 2 experiences with having a sag wagon on any trip has been limited to having Miss Sassy (Monica) meet me in Nebraska for the week long Ragbrai trip across Iowa, and brother in law Ned driving me to the GAP trailhed in Coraopolis Pa.with the plan of accompanying me along the GAP into Washington DC.

To be honest if I have my druthers I have decided that I am not a sag wagon rider. I prefer to be self contained , carrying a tent and enough food/drink so that I can travel at my own pace and not have to worry about having a schedule to meet someone at a designated spot . I like this even though it means lugging more weight but that is offset by being able to stop anywhere for as long as I want . There is so much cool stuff to check out and wonderful people to talk to that I want to do as much as that as possible. I feel that there is no guarantee that I will ever be able to do something like this again so I want to absorb as much as possible when I can. Being on a schedule, no matter how loose , is restricting.

With Miss Sassy and the RAGBRAI sag there were no options--it was understood from the gitgo that sagging the Ragbrai was part of the overall package. I guess there was also no other option than having a sag wagon for the end of the trip. After the crash the only way Miss Sassy would let me ride my bike out of the drive way was with a sag.

All that being said it is only natural to compare my 2 sag wagon experiences with Miss Sassy and Ned. As I rode my bike along at 12 mph thinking of things to contemplate I pondered my 2 different sag wagoning.
To be honest there are some similarities --both involved having vans driven by relatives carrying my stuff so I was riding free. That part was cool.
There are a bunch of differences--some of which I just can not put in writing because of the legal ramifications.
Some of the ones I can talk about are the following:

Listening to books on tape/CD--Ned and I both really like listening to a good book that has mystery, adventure, murder and sex involved. As mentioned before the Worch Memorial Library has proven to be a great source of such books. The miles just roll by and everything is macho. It does not get much better than cruising along listening to Louis L'amour speak on the Sackett brothers with little or no Ned/Tony conversation . We are both lost in our own thoughts unless we stop the CD to discuss some interesting portion of the story . This is great old fat guy stuff.

With Miss Sassy it is a different story. Listening to books is a non starter. So is any music I like(Doowop-oldie country-Zydeco)--if there is any music it is stuff Sassy is into and as I write this none of it is memorble enough to recall/list any of the songs or artists.
What mostly happens is that we "talk" (meaningfull dialogue) because riding in a enclosed vehicle is a great place to share quality time w/o interuptions. Now I like this as much as anyone especially with Miss Sassy but there are limits --after 50-60 miles I feel we have covered about any meaningful topic pretty well, even if we have not seen each other for 2 months like before Ragbrai.

Another endearing Miss Sassy tendency is to slow down and check out any garage sale sign stuck up along the route. This is kinda nice when we are just moseying alone. But sometimes that is not the case and you just want to keep the momentum of the van moving. In c ases like this I employ my BB gun strategy which has worked pretty well over the years. Youe see ,I have had this dream of finding a nice used cheap BB gun on the block at one of these deals. Miss Sassy on the other hand is very anti gun of any kind--including BB guns. So when I am in the mood to keep moving forward and Miss Sassy sees a garage sale sign and starts to slow down I say something like "Oh that looks like a great garage sale, let's stop, I bet they will have a cool BB gun for sale there". Many times this ploy has worked (or at least Miss Sassy let's me think it works).

Both Miss Sassy and Ned are excellent drivers and super at finding good places to rest for the night, but again there is a big difference. Miss Sassy needs rooms with all the regular stuff plus fancy extra frills like soap-toilet paper-working sinks-curtains on the windows-clean sheets and floors that your bare feet do not stick to when walking across them. These extras are nice but I am a cost conscious traveler and it is tough to feel comfortable when you are paying an extra $15 for these luxeries. Ned on the other hand subscribes to my idea of a basic motel room. Bed-toilet --working exhaust fan in bathroom--- TV with a working remote--nearby pizza place.

Another big difference is what happens when we get settled into that room for the night. Like all sag wagon drivers both Sassy and Ned do the basics--have the ice bucket full waiting--wash my socks and underwear in the sink--fluff my pillow--warm up the toilet seat (if it is chilly).

Also both are very good at rubbing my feet with scented oil after I get settled down but unlike Sassy Ned just refuses to work his way up past my feet unless I pay him extra, which I refuse to do.

Other than what I have just described there are not many other major differences between the sagwagoning between Miss Sassy and Ned (that I can discuss in public). As I think about it I can say that although I prefer riding self contained , having a sag wagon is not all bad, especially when the saggers are Miss Sassy and ned, although both have very distinctive and different strong points.

One of the things that made the C&O canal workable was the horses used to pull the barges/boats thru the waterway. It seems that many of the cargo boats had an area for extra horses which were interchanged regularly to keep fresh legs working.

This me standing near a statue of a tow horse and its handler. That is me on the left with my hand on the working part of the horse.

There is a neat looking restaurant beside the C&O bike route that was closed when I rode by. Definitely a place to check out somewhere down the line.

Cumberland Md.

2009-10-24T18:25:00.000-07:00

In my opinion Cumberland Md is the highlight town on the GAP. This the bike path rolling into town between the railroad and a concrete river.
There is a lot of history here because for many years in USA early history Cumberland was considered on the edge of the great uncharted west. It was the where about every traveler heading west took off from.

A good pic looking from the bike path in Cumberland. The artwork was something that needed to be checked out carefully because there was so much being depicted. The cool thing about this spot is the homeless lady sitting under the awning. We started talking and I stayed for an hour. I did not get her name but she was one of the most interesting people I have spoken to the entire trip. She was like a tour guide for Cumberland and the surrounding area. Lot of details about early settlers as well a lot of the civil war history. She was very knowledgeable about the National Road that started here and ran into Ohio.

She told me about an trip she made to Ohio this past summer to a country music concert that was very interesting. We discussed various country music styles .I really wanted to stay longer but I knew Ned would be waiting for me at checkpoint down the road and because I knew there was no cell service I c oule not let him know not to wait on me. I will be driving this way again and I will be stopping at this spot hoping to see this gal again

There is a great fountain near downtown Cumberland that is worth checking out. Besides the visual pleasantness the sound it made was very cool. One of those spots that you just stop and absorb for awhile.

This is the entrance to a closed to vehicles section of downtown. This is very quaint area and a wonderfulplace to mosey along checking out the shops and the cool displays in the windows.
I have heard stories about a neat celebration that is held in this area every New Years Eve. Apparently there are great crowds, music and a ball drop ala New York City.

Frostburg to Cumberland 2

2009-10-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

Although the distance on the trail between the 2 points is only 15 miles it is some of the most beautiful of the route.

There has to be a story behind this display.

This appears to kinda provide proof that the cows in this part of the country actually do have legs of different lengths. Check thyat black one standing up. It's back does not line up parrallel to the hill line it is standing on.

Or at least that is what I thought I saw when I stopped to take pic.

The sun was not shining on this day --if it were this pic would have been even more spectacular than it already is.

Frostburg Md to Cumberland Md

2009-10-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

Riding out of Frostburg the trail runs along side an active railroad track and crosses over a few times so you get a good look at both sides of the track (so to speak).

I was hoping for a train to come along about now but none showed up. I wondered if train engineers blow their horns while in tunnels to hear what it sounds like--just like when people yell and make odd noises when they are in tunnels.

Great friends and good looking cats

2009-10-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

This is Missy--no last name.

This is Bubba Schellhase aka big white--18 pounds of real cat.

After stopping in Frostburg I called high school classmate Dr. Steve Schellhase who lives in nearby Ridgely WV and we got together with Steve and his lovely wife Donna and their 2 cats for a great evening of steak, salad, pie(with ice cream) and wonderful conversation. Donna has a standing invitation to be my sag wagon for any future bike trips but she has to bring their grill because what she does to steak on it is the best. A guy could ride 150 miles a day when provided the proper food as fuel and D can cook the hec out of things.

This is Dr. Steve, nurse Donna and me(I am on the right).

Confluence Md to Frostburg Pa 7

2009-10-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

The path after crossing the Eastern Continental Divide is excellent in that the surface is solid and it runs downhill.

This was another pleasant surprise. I had heard of the M-D line but had never seen it up close.

This me and the other side of the Mason-Dixon line looking towards Maryland.
That is me on the right .

Something I learned about Maryland that made me wonder was that the state sport is jousting, http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/symbols/sport.html

While stopping at the Mason-Dixon I met a very nice family from New Jersey who were traveling the C&O trail and camping along the way. Ken, Gail and cute kids Alex and Anna. Great folks.

Confluence Pa to Frostburg Md 6

2009-10-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is rugged country for plants and especially trees. I came across this uprooted fallen tree and you can see how it grew around rocks it's entire life. I wonder if having loose rocks as part of its foundation makes it less unstable than other trees whose roots are dug into solid soil.

There are several tunnels in this part of world making travel on roads/rail/trails possible. When you step back and look at how these holes in the mountains were made and what the builders had to work with , it makes you appreciate what they did a lot more than just reading about it and looking a diagrams. And the builders of these tunnels had to doit over and over again with different situations to get these roads to destinatioins that would make the effort worthwhile

I really like the name "Big Savage Tunnel". It sounds like something out of a western novel. As I was standing there looking into it I could hear myself telling Dick Shomaker and Dave Richhart when I got back home "yeah, a lot of bikers are scared of tackling the big savage but I just stared at that big ugly hole until it blinked--spit on the ground and rode my ride right down its big ugly throat--you can not show fear to the big savage or else you won't be coming out the other end--many timid bicyclists have gone in there and were never heard from again--but not this cowboy!!"
And then I could vividly see the looks of awe on Dick/Dave's faces and they say, "cool" at the same time. Then they would both give me fist bumps and I would then continue telling my travel tale.
If you enlarge this pic you can see that the lowest light is the one at the end of the tunnel.

Visualize a full sized train engine steaming thru this. I wondered just how much room there would be left over for a pedestrian.

Confluence Pa to Frostburg Md 5

2009-10-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

This part of the USA is different than any I have seen so far. It is softer than the Montana-Dakota west and a little harder than the Iowa-Illinois midwestThis scene was at a place where the C & O path crosses a local road . While it is not super spectacular in itself it is part of an overall comfortable ambiance.

For some reason I forgot that I would be crossing the Eastern Continental Divide so when it popped up it was a pleasant surprise. I could not help thinking about the difference from the Western divide which I had to cross 3 different times after hellacious climbs . When I would finally get to the western divide I was usually so sweaty and breathing so hard I felt a kind of combo accomplishment/survival thing. I could also look forward to a 10 to 20 mile down hill ride that would take little peddaling. Lolo Pass at the Mt/Id line was 20+ miles of climbing and probably 25 miles of mostly coasting downhill afterwards. Also, I never saw another person/rider at the western divides--it was empty country and no big deal.

Yes, there is a steady 100 mile climb to the Eastern Divide but it is hardly noticable because it follows a railroad track so the maximum grade is 1-1.5%. After you get used to it you forget about it.

What was interesting at the Eastern Divide was that after seeing hardly any other riders all morning there were at least 10 under that bridge, and all were involved in taking pics and feeling good. It was fun to be around them and listen to them talk and celebrate . Good folks.

It was no problem finding somebody to snap a pic of me and the Continental Divide underpass. That is me with the white tshirt stripehanging out at my waste.

This is the other side of the divide.

As I rode away to the east it was cool to look back on the divide. The path does noticably go downhill for several miles until ithits the C&O section in Cumberland.

Confluence Pa. to Frostburg MD

2009-10-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

The path at Confluence east is excellent.

This is a long bridge over the Cassellman River which runs along the GAP for quite a stretch. Along the way there are many of these type of benches with some neat inscriptions.

The Cassellman River is as scenic as any I have seen. This pic was taken from the above bridge looking away from the sun.

This is the Cassellman looking into the sun from the above bridge.

Confluence to Frostburg 4

2009-10-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

Just a few pics of good stuff on a great bike ride day. There will be more posts/pics when I get the time to put them up. I am regaining that feeling of being the luckiest guy in the world to be able to experience this sort of trip thru America. I had forgotten about that recently and it is back.

Confluence Pa to Frostburg Md 3

2009-10-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

This is a pic of a bridge near the Pinkerton Tunnel which is closed right now but is scheduled to be repaired in the near future so it will be bikable. Right now there is a detour around the tunnel that is beautiful but very rugged. You have to concentrate on the trail surface in front of you and not check out the scenery. The path is narrower than usual and there is a big drop off on one side .

The roof of the bicycle shop in Rockwood. Those wheels have spokes just like regular bicycle wheels. They are weather vanes and the wheels all spin .

Rockwood Pa. is one of those small towns that has benefitted greatly from having the trail run thru it.

I am not sure what this particular structure/bridge is called but it is spectaular. It stretches a long long distance over a river, a 4 lane highway, and a railroad plus a lot of other things. There is a lot happening in this scene including the big windmills on the horizon. It was fun to just stand there and look it all over.

Confluence Pa to Frostburg Md 2

2009-10-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

The sun showed up again today and boy does it make a difference. Almost everywhere along the trail there are trees on both sides and regularly they hang over forming a canopy which makes for a darker than normal atmosphere when riding. When the sun breaks thru it seems brighter than normal by comparison.

I found that the best way to take shots like this into the sun is to use my helmet as shade for the lense to stop glare.

This is Bill and Mike from Harrisburg , and they are real bikers. They get out almost every weekend and use most vacation time for rides. They did Ragbrai 2 years ago and have done a big trek thru the Rockies. We met other several times during the day as we leapfrogged each other . Had some extended conversations and I raelly enjoyed their company.

CONFLUENCE--finally

2009-10-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

This kinda answered the question of why the name Confluence . I had wondered about thyat all day.
This explains why.

This is as good a pic as I could take showing the Confluence or Turkeyfoot which is a rarity when it comes to rivers. There are 3 different streams that meet here.
At the top of the pic there is a split going right and left. At the bottom fo the pic there are streams coming in from the right and left again. There is a third stream entering from the right as well but it is hard to see from this view.

About the same pic. I was also wondering if there are any salmon like fish who head up stream to spawn like they do out west because when they came to this spot it would be easy to make a wrong turn.

Alittle color. Although stuff like this was around all day it takes the sun to really bring out the color.. It was interesting in that in some places almost all the trees were still very green while in others it was 75% color.

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Although it was only a 35 mile day it took a long time and I enjoyed every inch of it. Lots of stops and I should have stopped some more.This trail is gonna take awhile and it looks like time may become an issue and some decisions will be made tomorrow on what the rest of the trip will look like. It may have to be shortened .

Connellsville to Confluence 9

2009-10-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

The last of the waterfalls--unless I find some more down the trail.

For reasons I can not explain the urge to pop the top of a Rolling Rock beer came over me several times as I checked out these waterfalls along the trail.

Connellsville to Confluence 10

2009-10-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

The trail goes thru the town of Ohiopyle which was having a fireman's buckwheat festival that I did not stop to check out.

This is a church in Ohiopyle where I imagine first time white water rafters go to pray either before or after their maiden voyages.

These were the friendliest dogs I have sen in a while. I understood the owner to say their names were Brian, Steve, and Joel which I thought a bit odd. Why would she do that to those neat dogs.

Finally the sun started shining on the path. There are so many trees around the trail that when there is no sunshine it is a lot less colorful.

Like that running water, especially the sound.

Connellsville to Confluence 8

2009-10-12T20:13:00.001-07:00

There has to be a story behind this situation. It appears that that vine was once growing around that tree.

The You....... river.

Connellsville to Confluence 7

2009-10-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

I looked all over for the "unauthorized " rapids but could not see anything that might be it. There was no running water anywhere close. I was wondering the whole time what an "authorized" rapids would look like. Also, this sign was at the edge of a deep dropoff (dry)so I am also thinking that the "no bike" sign was completely unnecessary .

Connellsville to Confluence 6

2009-10-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

I found this one of the most interesting things I saw all day.

This is the rock formation described in the marker immediately above. I looked this over for a long time--very interesting.

Connellsville to Confluence 5

2009-10-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

The You........ River is spectacular and great to be around but as I rode along it I could not help but remember it as the scene of one of the darkest if not the darkest episodes in Baltes family history.

The You ........ River is one of the best white water rafting rivers in the eastern USA and for reasons now repressed in our family memories we decided as a group to try white water rafting one summer about 15 years ago. It was one of those deals where we all saved our change for over a year and when it was all counted up we had over $300 and a burning desire to spend it on a family adventure. There were several Monica(pre Sassy)/Jeff/Russ/me discussions about what to do. Well we decided on driving to Ohiopyle Pa. and raft down the You....... river. We were pumped and it was going to be the best adventure ever. It turned out to be an adventure but far from the best of anything.

We arrived in Ohiopyle a day after some very heavy rainfall and according to the locals the river was running a couple of feet above normal and very fast. So with this info when we talked to a local river outfitter we made it very clear that we wanted to do the beginners plan. According to their brochure and the counter person this was an easy peasey Japanesey trip that we could "take our grandmother on". That was probably the truth but we did not get put on that ride. Instead unbeknownst to us until afterwards we got put on the advanced ride because there was not enough folks signed up for the easy ride.

There were only us 4 in our raft--no helmets and about 5 minutes of instruction from a guide who seemed irritated that he even had to spend time with us. We knew` we were in deep trouble --over our heads (so to speak) about 300 yards into the ride and the first rapids. We had no idea how to control our raft and we were at the mercy of the river. The other 6 rafts in our pod were way ahead of us, instantly and easily navigating the rapids while were getting the snot knocked out of us bouncing off every rock sticking out of the river.

The guide who was in a kayak ahead of us could see we were in trouble and came back to us. We hollared at him that we wanted to stop right now but he kept shouting instructions which were unhearable over the roar of the white water. We headed in to a particularly nasty stretch called something like diablo death hell hole (or where greenhorn/idiots go to die) and all we could hear the guide say as he paddled behind us was to "hold on". This was better said than done because in the first part we hit a deep hole and immediately lost Jeff and Monica(Sassy) over the side (actually Jeff flipped out over the front and was ahead ofus in the water).

It was a mess --Russ and I pulled Monica(Sassy) in and I moved to the front of the raft to try and pull Jeff back in but he was trapped between a big rock and the raft which was being pushed from behind by the rushing water. It was all I could do to keep his head from going under the raft. As I was kneeling in the raft I felt my knee explode which was actually the point of the guide's kayak hitting me thru the bottom of the rubber raft as he was swept underneath and trapped there for awhile. It was a real cluster ****.

Finally we pushed the raft to the right enough to get unstuck and although we lost hold of Jeff he was swept ahead of us through the remainer of the rapids (probably 100 yards) to calmer water. His life jacket kept him afloat and he was scared as hell but ok.

The details of what happened next is only spoken of in hushed whispers by the peoploe who were there. The guide who came close to drowning was justifiably crazy mad as were all of us. I after being crazy scared along with my knee swelling up like a watermelon went at it like 2 pissed off gladiators--the language was ugly at best and it lasted for a while. When we both settled down we could see that all this had happened within 25 yards of a large group of church people , mostly kids. You could hear a leaf drop in the surrponding forest.

When we could talk civally I said we were done and were not moving another foot down that river even if it meant walking out. I actually demanded a helicopter.We would rather die of falling off a cliff or getting eaten by a bear than being beaten to death by hitting rocks in that river. It was a standoff and despite the begging of the guide we were not moving. Finally that clown guide radioed back to HQ and another guide kayaked down and got in our boat and talked us through the rest of the trip.
What was stupid funny (as I look back) is that they had pictures of the whole scene which we have in the Baltes vault. These pics could probably win a Pulitzer if published.

The bike path is seperated from the river by about 100 yards of trees so there are not many places you can see the rapids, but you can hear them and as I rode along I recognized those rapids--I knew they were there because they sound exactly the same as when we were trapped in them. The were calling me but I ignored them--actually I did not completely ignore them --about a half mile up stream I walked down to the edge of the river and took a leak. Thinking to myself "take that diablo death hell hole!!"

Collinsville to Confluence 4

2009-10-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

More waterfalls. There is something about them out in the wilderness that makes me stop and watch for awhile.

Collinsville to Confluence 3

2009-10-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

Probably because it had rained heavily the previous couple of days there were a bunch of scenes like this along the trail. The river was on my left and these scenes were on my right.

Not exactly a waterfall but a small stream running under a bridge on the trail.

Connellsville to Confluence 2

2009-10-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

This is a pic of the parking lot of the factory at the edge of Connellsville that makes colored glass. It seems like maybe a bad batch can be used as a gravel substitute.

This section of the trail runs along this river that I can not pronounce or spell and I probably will not be learning how in the near future.
It is beautiful and apparently has a bunch of fish in it as well.

This is what happens to a trail like this during a rain storm. This is the kind of stuff that will flip a rider if you are not focused. The folks that maintain this trail are heros in my book because you can see a lot of spots like these or where trees had fallen on trail etc. where there were fairly recent repairs so the crews must be out on the job a lot. I should add that there are very few spots like the one above that have not been fixed.

Just a great riding/walking pathway.

The GAP -Day 2--Connellsville to Confluence Pa.

2009-10-12T05:02:00.000-07:00

Connelsville Pa is one of those neat historic towns that you want to spend a day in because there is a lot of interesting things to see. I only spent about an hour riding the streets before the GAP called me and I hit the trail.
At the very beginning of the GAP in C-ville is a huge church and the trail runs thru its back yard. There re several stone structures there incuding a very nice grotto of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
above is a pic of Ned standing in the BVM grotto. That is Mary on the left.

Ned tried to take my picture in the same spot but 2 things happened that discouraged that happening. First I got a healthy electric shock when I touched the statue and second the camera froze up when Ned tried to press the shutter. Not sure what that was all about and we could not locate any priests to offer an explanation so we thought it best to head out.

Near the edge of town the trail runs by a factory that makes colored decorative glass, which was interesting especially when you could look at the colorfully decorated bins located nearby.

The camera does not do the artwork justice --very colorful.

The decoration was a combination of paint and colored glass.

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So far this is a differnt kind of riding than any I have done so far. First of all I am realizing that I am not physically 100% from where I left off--more like 75% but that is OK as long as I do not get crazy and try to log the same milage Ihad taken as routine earlier in the ride. I had figured that I could average 60-70 miles a day easy but that probably will not be the case for 3 reasons.
The trail is not like riding on a road surface--the crushed gravel probably takes about 10%-15% (my guess) more effort than a paved road. Second starting from Coraopolis to almost Cumberland (150+ miles) there is a constant uphill grade between 1-2% which is not terrible but again it takes a bit more effort than biking a normal level surface . The reason for the up grade is that the railrod tracks had to climb the nearly 3000 feet in elevation from Pittsburgh to the eastern continental divide near Cumberland and although it is pretty gradual it is still a climb. It is interesting seeing on coming bikers from the east rolling aling at 15-20 mph while the westbounders are moving at 10-15 mph.
The third reason is that there is so much to see along the trail that it is very hard not to stop often to take a pic and/or just absorb the beautiful scenery and historic landmarks. If you are in ahurry this is not the path to be on.
The leaves are in full color and when the sun is shining bright it is spectacular.

I am way behind on blogging so far. I have taken a lot of pics and need to take the time to post them . Right now I am almost 2 days behind and this will be all for today because we are heading out to breakfast and then the trail. The sun is shining and it is riding time. Hopefully this evening I can put a dent in the blog.

Coraopolis to Connellsville 3

2009-10-11T06:22:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to stop and explore this area along the trail more but it is starting to really rain and it is now dawning on me that I am SOL as far as getting to Ned and the motel before dark. So this was the last pic of the day and I focused on getting as many miles behind me until I would have to stop.

Coraopolis to Connellsville Pa. 3

2009-10-11T06:15:00.000-07:00

There were several places where the trail intersected a highway that I had to get off the bike and walk it thru. Considering the obstacles of building a trail in an urban setting with the type of terrain involved places like this were a very minor inconvenience. It also gave me a chance to stretch my legs a bit.
I am glad I am not pulling the trailer because when you come across places like this you have to unhook and carry that sucker down the hill because there is no way you can walk the bike/trailer at the same time. I tried it once back in Oregon during the first week of trip and almost lost the whole rig off a cliff when it got away from me.

This is looking back at those steps from previous pic after crossing road.

Another thing that made this stretch of trail interesting is that there are probably 25-30 of these posts set up at the various road intersections. This keeps motor vehicles off the path. The spaces between these posts are about 36 inches wide and my bike and me is about 30 inches wide so I have to slow down considerably to ride thru . I rode thru all of them with no problems--so far so good.

This was a longer tunnel that actually curved to the right inside so you can not see the light at the end of the tunnel until you are quite aways in. After about 100 feet of darkness that light was a welcome sight.

Coraopolis to Connellsville Pa 2

2009-10-11T05:58:00.000-07:00

Even though it was starting to rain and it was dark and overcast this is still a beautiful way to move through the area.

The patterns on this old bridge abuttment caught my eye.

The thing that interested me about this trail shelter is the set of old railroad tarcks running thru it. I was trying to figure out where they went originally because directly ahead is the road and a big hill while directly behind the spot I took this picture was a valley.

One of the few negatives I found while riding the trail under the existing condidtions is that when there leaves were thick it made the surface pretty slickery and I had to reduce speed quite a bit but places like this were the exception and not the rule.

Day 1 Riding the GAP--Coraopolis to Connellsville PA

2009-10-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

Apparently the long drive from Greenville OH to Coraopolis PA exhausted both Ned and me because after eating breakfast at the best motel free breakfast bar I had ever been a part of (the sausages were devine) we laid back down in our beds like a couple of old boar hogs and watched an old Clint Eastwood movie (Coogan's Bluff) until noon before driving over to the trailhead. Also it was raing like hell and neither of us wanted to go outside under those conditions. About the time the movie ended (Clint/Coogan got his man )it stopped raining so we loaded up and found our way to the starting gate.

As I was getting ready to take off we met a neat guy named Van Weaver who actually helped build this part of the GAP (Great Allegheny Passage) called the Mountour Trail. Van works as a volunteer on the trail keeping it is shape for all who use it. He told us that when Hurricane Ivan came thru the area several sections of the trail was washed away leaving holes several feet deep that had to be filled in. Since the surface is mostly crushed limestone any large rain has the potential to wash away part or at least cut some nasty groves as I saw later on down the trail.

This is a pic of Van and me and Mountour Trail mile marker 0 . That is me on the left.

After Van went on his way I got loaded up and hugged Ned goodbye, mounted my bike and took off. This first leg of the journey was basically over before it began because about 25 feet into it my chain broke. Normally this is a minor problem because I always carry a quick link that makes it easy to fix a situation like this. However when you drop one of the quick link pieces in heavy grass in the process the easy part of the situation becomes problematical and very frustrating.
One of the reasons I really like Ned is that in situations like this he is the idea guy to have around. He remains calm and unlike me does not utter words that would make a Teamster's hair curl. We methodically searched the area for the missing piece for an hour with no luck and were just about ready to go look for a bike shop when I said "ok , one last look and then we go", and as expected the quicklink finds us. I should have said those words right away and we would have saved ourselves a bunch of crawling around in wet muddy ground.

Well the bike trip finally started around 2 which was about 2 hours later than the carefully laid plans called for. This would have serious repercussions later on because we still had the same 7 hour destination in the works and did not figure that it would get dark in 5 hours as well as start raining like hell again in about 2 hours.
The plan was for Ned to drive on to Connelsville and find a motel and I would meet him there between 6 and 7. Ned did his part well and found a great place. The problem was that there was no way in hell I was going to make that distance in the time allowed because I started so late, and it got dark earlier than normal because it was raining strong from about 4 o'clock on.

So about 7 or so when I could not see to ride anymore I call Ned for a pickup which seemed simple enough but me not knowing exactly where I was after asking 4 different local folks plus the fact that entire state of Pennsylvania has nothing but "Mae West" roads--full of curves combined with the fact that there is a tremendous shortage of road signs in the area which makes it crazy to navigate --made it an interesting trek for Ned. Without going into all the details I can say it was exciting and at 10 p.m. we were in the Connellsville motel room wondering what we were doing in this place, and if wew ever going to be able to get out.

The Mountour Trail isn a wonderful bike trail. Perfect for a casual ride in nature so close to the city. It goes by the Pittsburgh airport and it is amazing how removed the trail is from all the noise associated with the airport and the surrounding highways. The trail follows an abandoned railroad route and the original bridges and tunnels are still used. This one was well lite and fun to ride thru.

There is a section of the trail that is not exactly crushed limestone but still very ridable even after and during a rain storm. A rider just has to go a little slower and be focused on the path directly in front. This was beautiful and I can only imagine how much cooler this will be in a week or 2 when all the leaves are turned. What a great place to walk or ride.

This is a bridge that is mostly new built on top of the original railroad structure. Again, check out the foliage and imagine in in a week or 2, the leaves are just starting to turn now.

Greenville Ohio to Coraopolis, Pa

2009-10-09T06:51:00.000-07:00

Picked up Ned Hemmelgarn in Celina about 9 a.m. and the we headed east with adventure in our hearts , snack food in our mouths and a Louis L'amour story(Treasure Mountain) in the CD player. It is tough to think of how life could possibly get any better.

We drove to Columbus and got on route 40 east to retrace the last 2 days I had on the bike. This is a great drive if you have the time, while it basically follows the National Road , there are several places where you can get off Rt. 40 and drive sections of the original National Road. This will provide a good sense of just how twisty turny hilly and nasty that original route was.

It was like I had ridden this stretch a few days ago. I recognized many many things that I had seen while peddling by at 12 mph. I was even telling Ned about what was coming up before we got there. We stopped to look at afew things of interest like the Y bridge in Zanesville, the "S" bridges east of there, and Doc's Hospital Lounge with pictures of the "nurses" on duty.

When we got past the town of Old Washington Rt. 40 joins I-70 so we traveled down the back roads I had ridden to get around this stretch. I wanted to see exactly where I had hit the road with my face and what might have caused it. As had happened so far I was remembering every thing--telling Ned what was coming up around each corner in detail. I was surprising myself. We came up on a farm and I let Ned know we would see a sign saying Bison Meat,which we did. I distinctly remember looking at that sign when I saw it while riding by it on bike and thinking I should take a picture of it for the blog, I even remember deciding not to stop and take picture for some reason.
Then I did not recognize anything else.

I had the name and number of the couple (John and June) who lived near the crash site and had locked up my bike until it could be brought back to Greenville. I called and while John was not home June invited us to their home, which turned out to be where the Bison Meat sign was. What a nice lady and when we entered her home we met the friendliest British bulldog I have ever been around. It acted so happy to see us, jumping on me, sniffing and licking me all over . I was surprised when June says "Sassy, leave that man alone". The dog's name was Sassy. My golly it was just like being in my own house and having Miss Sassy welcoming me home after a long sweaty bike ride. Ned thought the whole scene was hilarious.

June showed me the exact location of the wreck and it is about 50 years past the Bison Meat sign across a small bridge. There are a couple of potholes and some loose gravel but nothing unusual. These are things I had seen and ridden around 1000 times since leaving Oregon. I am guessing that I was looking back at the sign and missed the pothole/gravel or maybe I just fainted.

This whole back road route is marked as being part of the original National Road . It is about 15 miles of rugged road that is patially paved and partial gravel covered. It is all ridable on a bike but it would be slow going .

Above is a pic of me standing on a section of the National Road about 2 miles from the Bison Meat sign. That is me wearing the shorts.

I messed up by not taking any pictures of June or Sassy or the wreck site. Did not even think about it until we were down the road a ways and did not feel like going back. I told June I would be stopping back to see John, June and another neighbor who helped me and taking them out to dinner. I will probably take a few pics then.

Ned and drove the rest of the way via back roads which were very scenic and interesting. One of the most interesting was driving West Virginia Rt. 2 which runs along the Ohio River from Wheeling to north of Pittsburgh. There is a sliver of WV that goes north a lot further than it looks on the map. Along this stretch of road are a bunch of shut down steel and similar factories, pretty rugged scene.

We made it to Coraopolis in time for a spagetti dinner at a restaurant with this sign in the lobby. Apparently there have been some past issues with patrons wondering exactly where to wait for service.

Today promises to be an interesting day. It is raining pretty hard and the the forcast if rain all day with 15-20 mph winds from the NW. Not sure right now if there will be any riding today but I am sure we will find something to occupy ourselves .

There was something of note that happened at the motel continental breakfast this morning. USA Today has a big spread article on biking the Allegheny / Cumberland Trail . I consider this a sign that I need to get on that trail wet or dry.

Btw--my definition of a acceotable motel room has been modified from one with a bed, TV, working remote, and a pizza place within walking distance. After last night in the room with Ned I would include a working exhaust fan in the bathroom.

Notre Dame vs Washington 2

2009-10-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

I saw so much photoworthy stuff it was tough to focus on them all (pun intended). This was something I noticed while standing in a 30 yard long line for the portapotties. I have not often seen a cigar that big let alone beside an equally large gold ring all on the outside of a batting gloved hand. BTW,the guy was only wearing the one glove.

This is one of the ND student leaders , leading cheers in the parking lot before the game . He was mesmorizing and I found myself drawn into his aura, getting into the spirit of the day, wanting to yell my lungs out for the Irish with him . As typically Notre Dame charismatic as this fellow was I wondered how much more charismatic he would be if he died his hair/head blue/gold/green etc. like so many others walking around that day.

It crossed my mind to bring this man back to our van to meet Jim Phelan et.al. and ask if we could borrow some of the face paint Jim always carries so we could decorate this student's hair, but on second thought I quickly dismissed the idea because I did not have an alternative ride back home after the game, as Jim is what could be called a traditionaist when it comes to social issue stuff like this.

A sort of snap shot of the day. Golden Dome, Stadium, parking lot flags with Budweiser right below a Fighting Irishman.

Another shot of the band. Their sound was tremendous. This pic shows about where our sets were , we got to see a 10 play goal line stand by the Irish right in front of us. It don't get much better.

Notre Dame vs Washington

2009-10-06T18:41:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I had the priviledge of attending the Notre Dame -Washington football game in South Bend ,Indiana--which is always a happening. I went compliments of Jim Phelan, a big time ND fan along with Todd Phelan, Tim Lyons, and Shane Stonebraker all Versaillians and a hell of a lot of fun to share a van ride with.

We got to SB about 11 a.m. for the 3:30 game time. There is so much going on around the parking lots it is fun to just mosey around and check out all the tailgating and related activities. What a party and what a lot of food and drink being consumed--an aweful lot.

This big 8' balloon was being raised about 60 feet in the air about 4 spaces from where we parked. Not sure what it means but the folks blowing it up were having a great time doing it. Check out that gold thing in the distance.

This is a pic of our tailgate site and the people who inhabited it for 3-4 hours before the game. Featured here are my van mates Jim Phelan, Shane Stonebraker, Todd Phelan, TimLyons and 3 homeless guys Todd found wandering around the parking lot begging for free food/drink handouts from the ND partiers. Since we had a bottomless cooler full of drinks these vagabonds stuck around our site for quite awhile. Although only 1 spoke English Todd spent a lot of time with them because he is such a wonderful people person.
That wire running from the van behind Jim (the guy with the cowboy hat) led to a very nice flat screen TV that got aabout 10 other football games thanks to a satalite dish. In addition there was a large cooler full of a wide variety of liquid refreshments. Unlike a lot of our fellow tailgaters we did not have a grill working or a pot of chili bubbling. I quickly ascertained the need for solid substinance and solved that issue by buying an extra large bag of kettle corn . I was eveyone's new best friend when I walked up with the kc.

Another thing to note is the 3 pine trees on the right. When the lines to the portapotty got to be ungodly long they proved to be very functional and discreet when nature called our group--which was a bunch due to the bottomless cooler of beverages.

There are zillion statues on the ND campus of all sorts of dieties both regular immortals and mortals alike. This is me with one of the newest statues and most famous (IMO) of all ND folks, Knute Rockne(that is me on the left with the binoculars).

Watching and listening to the ND band in pregame was spectacular. I had thoughts of a scenes/sounds like this in the Roman Coliseum before the lions and the Christans went at it. The Game was crazy interesting with a lot of action. ND wins in overtime and afterwards there was not a dry seat in the house(it rained for a good portion).

Darke County Ohio

2009-10-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

As I get my legs back doing training rides all around the area I keep coming across neat stuff that I certainly would have stopped to check out and document during the ride from Oregon to here.
I an not real sure what this is but I have heard it is a place to hold lunch/dinner meetings and other get togethers.

There is about 100 yards of this wooden fence belonging to a horse farm that all looks about the same. Over the years there apparently have been some hungry hungry horses working over this fence

As I rode by this fellow he turned 180 degrees on top of that sewer tile, and he looked very comfortable doing it.

This is a sign for a church near Versailles that only has one service a year. I was fortunate enough to be invited by fellow recumbent biker Dick Shoemaker. It was a nice place to be on a Sunday afternoon. I regret I did not get a picture of that Church, it has a long history.

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Well , I have finished my self imposed rehab period and rode 500 miles around the area in preperation for finishing the ride. I am feeling pretty good and looking forward to giving it another shot.
The plan is to leave Thursday morning with brother in law Ned Hemmelgarn who will serving as a sag wagon. I was not planning on having a sag wagon actually had not even thought of it. I mean after having Miss Sassy sag for me during the Ragbrai ride I figured that would be it, but Ned was/is available so here we go. I would be remiss if I did not mention that many family and friends are a great deal more enthusiastic about me finishing the ride with Ned being part of it.

The plan is to drive thru Ohio on Route 40 retracing my bike ride, including the crash site. I am looking forward to checking it out.
We will continue on to Coroapolis Pa. which is neat Pittsburgh and the start the Allegheny Trail, so I will not be riding on any roadways used by motor vehicles. It will be odd not pulling my trailer since Ned will carry all the stuff in the van.

More National Road stuff

2009-09-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

I learned that there were several "S" bridges on the original route and they are unique in the USA. There is an explanation below of exactly what "S" bridges are and why they were built.

While listening to my tour guide at the National Rd. Museum I also learned that the eastern part of the National Road in Ohio(Zanesville to WV line) was made of brick because because of all the turns and hilss made it a better method of creating a good surface , while from Zanesville west concrete was primarily used.
It is interesting to see how the bricklayers did their thing on curves and "S" bridges. Sometimes there were several of these lines in a pretty short length of road.
There are still some sections of the original brick National Road that have not been paved over to see and actually drive on (slowly). These sections are not part of Rt. 40 but are very close and marked.

This part of Ohio is knows as the home of the "alphabet" bridges given the "Y" bridge in Zanesville and all the "S"bridges.

Back in the saddle again -2

2009-09-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

Getting some good miles in the past couple of days and boy is it feeling good. Riding a recumbent really is like sex in that once you learn how............you never forget, or something like that.

Rode the 14 miles from Greenville to Versailles and back--only felt a little tired and once again did not want to get off the bike. Saw some good friends in Vtown and also stopped at The Worch Memorial Library and got hassled by the librarians as per usual--these folks are tough--forget your library card one time and it is like you are guilty of a felony. Personally I think it is a little much when they post your picture on the scofflaw board , and the pic showed my bad side too.
On the way back I ran across one of those cool signs that seem to pop up during rides. Pure Americana.

Thinking real hard about finishing the ride to Wash. DC in 2-3 weeks. I need to be back in plenty of time for Russ/Elissa wedding on Halloween and I have been warned I need to be there in one piece--that is a lot of pressure.

I made the announcement of my desire to finish ride to Miss Sassy today and although there was a lot of silence she did not give me "the look" which is a good sign. Hopefully the big question will be where to start, as I see it there are 3 options
1-start from Greenville and duplicate the ride to Cambridge and beyond (10-11 days)
2-start from Cambridge and go from there(6-7 days)
3-start from the Allegheny Trail head in coraopolis Pa.(5-6 days)

I should be able to get 20-30 training miles in a day with some 50-60s worked in as legs get stronger. If I can do that for 2 weeks I think I can make that last 350 miles. I figure if I get 500 training miles in I can manage the A-Trail.

Spent 3 hours tonite setting up new 25 function bike computer/speedometer--it shows temp-altitude-and all the regular stuff and I probably will only really use 6-7 of these functions but it was on sale so like a sucker carp I bit. Actually I only spent the last 15 minutes setting up computer--the first 2.75 hours were spent trying to decifer the instruction booklet and just pressing buttons kinda randomly wich caused a lot of frustrated cursing until I actually read the instructions carefully and my brain light came on. I am glad I did not get the deluxe model with pedal cadence and heart rate capabilities. It could have been an all nighter.

First Traffic Fatality in Ohio

2009-09-23T05:19:00.000-07:00

While riding along a section of the National Road near Norwich I came across the following markers that caught my attention.

The stage coach came down the above hill apparently too fast for conditions (which were probably crazy rough at best) and overturned about where the rock marker which has the above info plate is, killing the passenger.

Norwich is one of those many small towns at the bottoms of a hill along the eastern part of Ohio Rt.40 and like a lot of small towns has its claim to fame. This reminded me of the town of Seymour Indiana that makes the claim of being the site of the first train robbery in America http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/recon/robbery_1 . Then there is Adair Iowa which claims to be the site of the very first train robbery west of the Mississippi River http://www.angelfire.com/mi2/jamesyoungergang/adair.html
It seems like the Adair robbery is cooler because the James/Younger gang was a lot more famous than the Reno brothers who did the Seymour job.

One of the great things about touring America is checking out how small towns work so hard to be unique and stand out from all the other small towns. Sometimes it involves an historicasl happening and other times it is claiming itself the capital of something (like that world Purple Martin in Indiana) or having the "est" of something--largest, smallest, fastest, highest, lowest,etc etc etc., . This is what makes the USA the best.

Signs along Ohio Route 40

2009-09-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

Old Washington is one of a whole bunch of small towns along the eastern edge of Ohio Rt.40 or The National Highway. It is hard to travel a mile w/o coming across something interesting like this. There was a small battle here that is well documented by several markers.

The reason there are a lot more smaall towns along eastern Ohio 40 as opposed to the western section is that the eastern section is very hilly and after travelers struggled up a hill they rested at the bottom before tackling the next hill. So small towns sprung up at the bottom of these hills when vendors showed up with refreshments and other services for travelers.

The grave of the 3 Confederate soldiers killed during Morgan's raid.

One of those interesting signs you notice when traveling at 12 miles per hour. I wonder how many wild horses there are in this part of the world that need breaking.

This sign was on a very back road and it pointed down a gravel lane that looked like it led into a jungle. Anyway when I saw it I immediately stopped and pulled out my trusty purple marker and adjusted the first letter in the first word which changed the meaning a little. Actually it may have increased traffic down that lane at least until the first rain washed off my modification. I felt a little guilty as I rode away but quickly got over it.

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The above pics and posts are from stuff I saw/did the last day I rode .

On the other hand today was another very good day. I started out on a planned 10 mile ride (5 miles into the brisk south wind and back) but I felt so good I ended up riding 15 miles into the wind and finished with over 30 miles for the trip. I am waiting on a replacement computer/odometer so I am guessing a bit on this distance. The route took me to Arcanum Ohio and back. On the way I had a super visit with Nancy and Bill Miller, 2 very good friends who I had not seen for several months. That was a treat and on top of that Nancy decided to not charge me for the ice water, what a gal.

I forgot my camera today and missed some good pics. Saw a couple of beautiful flower grdens and some clever halloween displays. I also would have tried to take Nancy/Bill pic but nancy is very camera shy.

I won't forget camera again.

Back In The Saddle Again

2009-09-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day. After wondering if I would ever feel "normal" again I am seeing some light at the end of the tunnel (as opposed to the light that keeps flashing in the corner of my right eye at night).
For about a month after the wreck I did little or nothing except sleep and watch TV along with reading an escape book a day. Some days I did not even walk outside even though we have been having wonderful weather. My head hurt a lot and all the road rash scabs were itching like hell. In addition I had periodic balance problems--like if I was on my feet for more than an hour I had to grab ahold of something .
Then a week ago last Saturday I started feeling better--a lot better all at once. Miss Sassy noticed it first when she hollared at me for teasing her about something--I guess she had forgotten how much she enjoys that sort of thing. After not wanting to have any kind of conversations with anyone I was suddenly chatty Cathy.
I was also jawing some friends on the phone that weekend about football and a lot of other stuff. In addition I got the urge todo some exercise and on Sunday went to the Versailles high school track and walked . I made it 13/4 miles before I ran out of gas(and got a little too dizzy for comfort) but damn it felt good to do something(actually it just felt good to even want to do something). Every day since then I have walked and am up to 4 miles w/o feeling crappy.

It5 is a hell of a thing to go from riding 70-80 miles a day for 2 months and then go to absolute zero activity--muscle tone is all gone and tan has faded as well.

In addition to getting some exercise I got intertested in repairing the bike. To date it had been sitting in the garage and I had no interest in even looking at it unless I was showing it to someone. Now it was interesting and I really wanted to get it in working order again. I took it all apart and ordered replacement parts which came in last Friday.
Actually there was not a lot of super damage. The seat was bent but not real tough to rebend. Both brake cables and one gear cable had to be replaced and I am waiting on a new computer . The biggest deal was the bent handle bar. Above is a pic of what it looked like when I took it off along side of the new one. It takes a lot of torque to twist it like that.

What I have figured out about the wreck from taking the bike apart is that somehow the front wheel got turned 180 degrees and the bike fell to the left. that is where all the damage was on the bike. The seat fabric on the left side was beat up as was the left side of any other parts of the bike or trailer that hit the ground as evidenced by the gravel scratches.

What was interesting is that the right handle bar was full of gravel--where the plug was torn off and the hollow end hit the road. The right side of the front wheel and fender were also scraped up. So as odd as it sounds something caused the front wheel to flip around and I flew off the left side of the bike hitting the road face first along with shoulder arm etc etc. Now I still do not remember anything for about 8 hours of the wreck day so I put the crash scenerio together from looking at the bike damage as well as my body damage.

Face is healing as well as it can be--there will be no plastic surgery so I now possess "character" scars. Actually it looks like I was in a bar fight and somebody broke a bottle on the side of my head.

What is cool is when I am having a face to face conversation the other persons eyes are looking at my right eye instead of eye to eye. That side of my face feels like there is something pressing on it and it feels funny when I wink or raise my eyebrow because the skin is not stretching back to what it was before. In addition the eye waters a lot and in the moring it takes awhile to clear the gunk out.

Anyway , this will be the last time the wreck will be a topic. It is time to move on and it is hard to describe the feeling of "getting back to normal again". It is like that old saying "that is gonna feel great when it quits hurting".

What prompted the renewal of blogging is that this evening I rode 5 miles on the reconditioned bike and it felt great. I did not want to stop riding which is the exact feeling I had almost every day for the last 2 years when riding a recumbent.

I am psyched to ride and then write about it. I still have some cool pics from the last day I was riding around near Cambridge so I will be posting those in the near future along with new stuff that I see when riding around Darke County. If I can get my stamina back I am gonna start thinking about finishing the ride this year ,even if it is cold out. The Alleghany Trail is car free and as long as there is no snow I think it is doable. In any event it is the new goal replacing the non goals for the past 5-6 weeks.

National Road Museum 3

2009-09-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

I spotted this original poster hanging on the wall and asked our tour guide what a "square drink" was . He did not know so I have looked it up and can only find one reference listed on google.
This is from Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska , published 1869

A good substantial repast is known as a “square” meal all over this coast, and the term is applied to many other things. A “square” drink is a “deep, deep draught,” and a good “square fight” is an encounter or “muss” where the opponents were in earnest. Some of these terms are common to the “Western” States and outlying “territories,” but can not be regarded as full-blooded Americanisms. They attract just as much notice from “Eastern” men travelling in California as they do from Europeans

This is a wooden bicycle that was the rage at one time. I like biking but not enough to jump on something like this , if for no other reason than I doubt it would hold up very long with a full figured (old fat guy) like me .

This is another bike that was ridden on the National Road and that is all I have to say about that.

This was our tour guide Don McKendry who was tremendous--very informative and entertaining. Don is one of several local volunteers w2ho work at the museum and mke it a wonderful place.

National Road Museum 2

2009-09-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

The pottery business in this area of Ohio was big because of the special type of clay that was readily availabe. When the National Road was being built the locals would steal this clay from the road bed at night by filling pots and hauling it away leaving a hole . The word "pot hole" was coined here because of this.

The first "National Road" originally ran from Cumberland MD into Ohio and then to Maysville Ky. It was built by Ebaneezer Grey , Zanes grandfather. The next "National Rd" was originally intended to run from Cumberland to St. Louis but because of political turmoil stirred up by a new congressman named Abe Lincoln in the state of Illinois over whether the state capital should be Vandalia or Springfield , the road stopped in Vandalia. It eventually stretched all the way to California but a lot of history is packed into that stretch from Cumberland to Vandalia.

There is a full sized Conestoga wagon on display and what is interesting is that the brakes were blocks of wood that would press against the iron covered wheel. Eventually this block of wood would get very slick and make stopping problamatical. Many times folks would nail old worn out shoes to the block of wood and the leather made for better stopping power. This is where the term "brake shoe" originated.

This is a model of the Y bridge in Zanesville. Originally all the bridges were covered in order to protect the wood they were made from.

National Road--Zane Grey Museum

2009-09-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

Checking out this museum ws the best $7 I spent on the trip. In a way I wish I had started in the east and went west so that I could see the history of the USA develope. A lot of what I saw in the west and midwest either started here or the folks went thru here .

A section of this museum also is devoted to the pottery industry that developed in the area . At one time it was the world leader.

This is me standing beside one of those big vase things that were so abundant in Zanesville. That is me on the left.

The National Road was a big deal in Washington DC because it was needed to open up the Northwest Territory and then the Louisiana Purchase . It literally was the main road west and was very heavily used. The National Road started in Cumberland Md , which was the "west" began in the late 1700s.

It is interesting to see that there have ben 63 different license plates for Ohio automobiles.

This is the ceiling of the pottery area . This pattern became world famous and made zillion$ for the folks who came up with it.

Zanesville Ohio East

2009-08-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

After a restful Friday evening in Zanesville I continued east on Rt. 40 with Wheeling WV. the goal for that day. It is approx. 60 miles from Wheeling to the beginning of the Allegheny Trail in Coraopolis Pa which is not far from Pittsburgh Pa. to the northwest. My thought was that the trip on Rt. 2 from Wheeling to Coraopolis would be easier on Sunday morning--less traffic.

The A-trail runs from Coroapolis to Cumberland Maryland via a new rails to trails route --and from Cumberland to Washington DC runs the C and O Canal route which is a crushed gravel path along the old canal route. There are no motor vehicles on this route and from what I understand it is a beautiful bike ride. Peaceful-historical--not hilly --everything a biker would ever want--and it dumps you nout very near downtown Washington DC. . I am getting psyched to ride that part of the trip sooner than later. http://www.atatrail.org/

Besides crashing the bike ,I did not count on all the neat stuff to see between Zanesville and Wheeling on Rt.40. This is a wonderful route of about 60 miles and I look forward to exploring it further--hopefully on a bike but at least in a motor vehicle.

Not far from Z-ville I came to a very interesting place called Doc's Nurses Station . When I took this pic I was thinking that I would post it and write something in the blog about how it is always a concern of touring bikers where they will get medical treatment in the event of a mishap . I was thinking to myself "dang, it is a shame Doc's is not open yet today because I had a fever blister on my lower lip that has bothered me the entire trip and I bet that I could find some comfort from one of the "nurses" working there." I am trying to work the word "irony" into this post because I know it has to be applicable in some way but I can not come up with it right now.

Another uncommon sign along the way. I almost stopped to check out this fish hatchery but the road to it was gravel and I did not want to travel it.

This was of interest because it advertised a "dog & cat dude ranch". I have no idea what that might be but I had to wonder.

This sign intruiged me. I knew ZG was a local around here and was hoping to see some more markers about him. My wish came true a very short time later when I came across the really neat museum which included not only Zane Grey but the National Road and Ohio Pottery. Tht was a great stop. http://ohsweb.ohiohistory.org/places/se07/index.shtml

Bike Buds

2009-08-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Maconline songsters Chris-Beth-Tom-Danielle-Veronica-Sherrie, Rodney and me (I am on the left). They are the best.

2 nights ago I was sitting in our living room in my comfy chair half watching tv , bored out of my mind when I heard some noise coming from the street in front of my house. I did not pay much attention to it at first , thinking it was just the neighbors walking by. Then I listened a little closer and what I heard sounded like the the sounds made by Christmas carolers--somebody or sombodies were singing and it sounded a lot like that old song A Bicycle Built For Two--you know the one "daisy daisy give me your answer true.......". http://video.google.com/videosearch?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1ACAW_ENUS329&q=bicycle+built+for+two+song&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=JBOYStqbKo7rlAfF5PTABQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4#

At first I thought I was hallucinating and that all those pills I have been taking finally got to me. Maybe it actually was December and I had missed 3-4 months somehow--or maybe my short term memory loss was expaanding to medium term . After double checking the date on that days newspaper I shrugged it off and figured if I ignored it, it would go away--did not even get up out of my chair to look out the window. After awhile the sounds stopped and I got even more comfortable in my chair.
Then , I hear sounds again--this time much louder and again it sounded like Christmas carolers. I am thinking to myself "what the hell--that damned neighbor is playing his stereo loud again". But then I recognized the song and damned if it wasn't Bicycle Race by Queen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUGuEy2cMGQ

and it sounded pretty good. I am thinking "maybe my neighbor has upgraded his play list from Hank Williams ."
I turned down the TV and just sat there enjoying this seranade until it ended, thinking that was it for the night. Then after a few minutes I hear more Christmas carol style singing , only louder--it was coming from my front porch. This time the song was BIKE by Pink Floyd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9U-Rzd7Lqs

Now this got me excited and I slowly got out of the chair and looked out the front door. Boy was I surprised to see this odd looking group of folks standing on my steps singing their lungs out. I did not recognize them at first and hollred at Miss Sassy to bring some cookies and hot apple cider to reward these entertainers.
When Miss Sassy hollered back at me asking me if I were nuts I took a closer look at this song crew and then started laughing. Hell, these were my buds from http://www.themaconline.com/ and they had come to see how I was doing. What a surprise. A genuine sight for sore eye.
Well even though we did not have any hot cider or booze of anykind in the house (which I could tell greatly disapointed all but 2 of these people) they came in and we had a great visit. I was filled in on all the local dirt that I had been missing. It was a great time had by all.

Then they left the same way they had arrived , singing a song MIDNIGHT BICYCLE MYSTERY by Deerhoof , which brought a tear to my eye(the good one that had not been watering all evening like the banged up one).

You know before Wed night I had been sitting around feeling sore and sorry for myself for 10 days but after my Macster buds left I felt like a new man. It is time to get over this bullshit and start feeling good again. I may not be able to ride right now but it is time to start blogging again, and I got some great pics from that last day's ride which I will be posting in the near future.
I even looked at a map for the first time and checked out a possible new long ride to start dreaming about--Greenville-Memphis--New Orleans-Tampa-Key West,(all in the late Fall -winter time) after finishing the rest of the cross country deal to Washington DC of course.

Thank you a bunch maconline songsters--you raised me up.

Reaching Verticality and Then Figureing Out The Parameters of the Present Situation

2009-08-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day i have been able to sit at a computer for more than a minute since last Friday. Both eyes are open now which makes it much easier and head is not aching as much right now. As my man Steve Dartt says "If you can reach verticality , the rest is easy". Well verticality is getting easier and I can feel healing happening all over.

After seeing that pic posted by Elissa and Russ I figured I had better post some additional info.
Yes, I did wreck and will post details as they become evident.

I am still assessing the situation and what actually happened. I have a gap in memory that includes this past Saturday afternoon for several hours . It will be a few days before I can see bike damage as well. I have had all sorts of wild stuff going through my mind regarding what could have possibly happened--from getting clipped by a vehicle or animal(the guy in next hospital bed was riding a motorcycle and was jumped by a deer)--or maybe I was dodging a wayward squirrel and lost it. I have come close to either hitting small creatures before or wrecking from trying to dodge them in the past--most recent memory was prairie dogs in western states. Did I lose it on loose gravel and flip or maybe I passed out before taking the header.
What bothers me is that wrecking a recumbent is different than a regular bike. Since your center of gravity is lower to ground and lower than handlebars it is a lot more difficult to flip over handlebars, practically impossible. Also, the times that I have skidded I have had time to get a foot on ground as well as a hand to break fall. There is no evidence that I tried to break fall in any way. Neither hands or feet are chewed up in any way.
I led with my face and dug in real good. Also big bruise on chest and right shoulder as well as a bunch of heavy road rash on forearms , shoulder, knees etc etc etc etc etc . There are no marks on palms of hands which is where I would expect if I had reacted normally to spill in any way.

Left some good chunks of meat on the scene which will leave some decent sized crevasses in face because they could not be sewn up. Although my "favorite" nephew Joe has generously offered to provide skin from his butt(ass) if a graft is needed I am thinking that I will pass on the plastic surgery options. There was not a lot to be proud of beforehand so I doubt a lot of folks will even notice any difference. Revisiting surgeon in Columbus next Wed after swelling receeds to see what the deal is.
The concensus among my family and close friends is that the Angie Pohlman idea of wearing a Phantom of the Opera type mask for my son Russ's wedding on Halloween night is a done deal--we will see about that. I am thinking of something more like that paper bag the unknown comic wore.
As for road rash --all that will do is make me look like a pinto pony on the parts of my body that did get tanned during ride.
There is also the matter of some broken teeth that will have to be dealt with at some time.

Apaprently I was taken first to S.E. regional hospital and then transferred to Grant Trauma center in Columbus.

Not sure about some details of this but I did feel much better after talking on phone to the local guy last evening who found me on road east of Cambridge. He reports when he first saw me after the wreck I was standing by road/wreck and trying to convince him that I was ok and saying a couple of bandaids would get me back on the road again. He suspected I was full of poop when I kept asking same 4-5 word questions repeatedly.

I and the mess was at the bottom of a hill with light gravel covering mixed with some heavier concentrations of stones and he says it looked like I came down hill at good clip and according to skid marks braked several times before losing it comepletely. So I feel good that I was at least fighting it and just did not faint/pass out and go down. Now this does not rule out everything but I do feel better. Hopefully I will feel good enough to be driven to scene this weekend and take a look myself and p/u equipment--maybe something will come back.

In the mean time I am trying like hell to remember details of that day and entire trip and they are showing up more and more. I want to get my camera and notebook back so I can blog about all the cool stuff I saw earlier on Saturday. If memory serves ,there was a bunch, including an extended visit to a wonderful national Road Museum and riding the actual bricks of a section of the original national Road. I remember seeing the marker showing where the first traffic fatality in Ohio took place , which was on the national Road. I think it was a male librarian from Washington of all things.

Anyway I will continue to blog as things come into focus. As for continuing ride I believe I can do that in not too distant future. That may be a bit too optimistic and I may have to sneak away from watchers to do so but I am thinking "why not" right now. Miss Sassy/family may be toughest to convince.
I rode about 3700 miles and had about 400 more to go which includes 350 miles of vehicleless trail from Pittsburgh to DC. By far the easiest section of entire trip. Again, all this remains to be seen/worked out and I have to be able to ride again but from what I understand from talking to others (or maybe I read this in a library)--riding a bike is like sex..............

Kinda of whipped right now but as Arnold says "I'll be bach"

Fear not!

2009-08-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

(this post guest-written by Tony's future daughter-in-law)

Hello everybody,

Please excuse my absence but I've run into a bit of a snag--- let's just say that if the road were the barber and my face were my hair, he took a little off the top. I was biking along in Cambridge, OH along a not-well-traveled and hilly road, and on one of those roads, I skidded on a patch of loose rock and divested my visage of its Venusian virtue. But I digress.

My son plays Lynndie England while I lay in repose. That's me on the right.

A friendly Quaker picked me up and took me to the hospital, where I was airlifted back to Columbus. Or at least, that's what they tell me. As we speak, I'm getting a little bit of surgery done and will be just fine in a few.

Stay tuned! I don't know quite when I'll be on the road again, but it should be soon.

Yours,

Tony.

Route 40 Between Columbus and Zanesville 2

2009-08-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

I did not understand this until I got close enough to the sign to see that the sheep(a ewe) was holding a plant (a herb) i8n its mouth.

This may not seem like much at first glance but when you are traveling at 12 miles per hour you get a little extra time to think about stuff. as I kept looking at this scene I kept seeing more different geometric shapes , angles and lines that usual. There are a bunch when you look closely.

When I was a kid you would see these ads painted on barns all over the place. From what I understand it was very common to not paint a barn because of cost. Mail Pouch came along and painted the farmer's barn if they could include the ad. There are not many left.

There are several classic buildings along Route 40 like this one.

Zanesville Ohio USA 2

2009-08-15T05:07:00.000-07:00

Last evening the downtown areA was almost deserted so it was fun tooling around the streets seeing the sites, and there was a lot to see. Z-ville is a great place to check out--lots of history and interesting stuff to see.
Not far from the courthouse I saw this very classy memorial and thought it was one of the best I had ever seen. Then I rode a little further and saw the memorial below.

This is about 8 feet tall and all these metal helmets have the name of a soldier on them. I just stood and stared for a long while. In my experience I had not seen something like this before and it was very moving.

This is one of those beautifully painted plastic ceramic things that are all over town. I guess it is a vase but I could not find anyone to ask for sure. Miss Sassy will know exactly what this is supposed to be and I am sure she will inform me of same during our next phone conversation.

This was closed when I got there but it is a place I want to revisit and learn more about what happened here over the years.

Zanesville Ohio USA

2009-08-15T04:55:00.000-07:00

This is the best pic I could figure out to show the "Y" bridge in downtown Zanesville. It spans the Muskingum and Licking Rivers alll at t5he same time and is the only one like it in the world. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/4597
There is a lot happening in this pic--besides the bridge itself you can see the neat waterfalls as well as those guys fishing off the far span . I stopped and talked to them a bit and learned how to catch a cat fish from 40-50 feet above the water. "First you bait the hook and then drop the line in the water", "the trick is to make sure you have enough line to get the hook in the water or you won't get hardly any bites because the fish can't jump much out of the water" This must have been a father/son comedy team who were taking some time off from their day jobs.

Also near the Y bridge was a lot full of these big plastic ceramic looking things. Zanesville is the "Pottery Capitol of the World" and these must have been or will be decorations in front of downtown businesses. Just like the dogs in Ponyiac Illinois or the Cows in Chicago.

It seems like Z-ville was once in line to be the Ohio state capitol. If that had happened I wonder if the Ohio State football team would be called the "Ceramics" like that high school in Crooksville Ohio http://crooksvilleceramics.com/?keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true Which was named after the Hull Pottery compamy, the big employer in Crooksville.
Of course this immediately took me back to wondering why the Reynoldsburg teams are not the Tomatoes.
Instead of Brutus Buckeye we would have Peter the Pot walking around games kissing babies and doing cartwheels.

The Zanesville courthouse has a State Capitol look about it. Oh, what could have been.

Route 40 Between Columbus and Zanesville

2009-08-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

As I understand it Route 40 or The National Highway that would run the entire length of the USA is a sort of patchwork affair overlaying several other routes the farther west it goes.
In Ohio there were originally one of these stone markers every mile, about 225 in all. Now there are about 80 still in place. The Cumberland is the one in Maryland.

I am not sure what makes this one special but it looked big and mounted on a pedistal of smaller rocks so I stopped and got the pic.

About 15 miles from Zanesville there is a "bike path" on each side of the highway. This is really a glorified berm but compared to the rest of the road it is wonderful.

I like the logo used for the sign. That stripe across the state represents Route 40.

Columbus to Zanesville Oh

2009-08-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

When I saw this sign in Hebron Ohio so many thoughts flooded (pun intended) my mind of all the leaks in all the places , including bridges, since June 3rd when this trip began.

Not far from the town of Kirkersville on Route 40 is the National Trail Dragstrip http://www.na-motorsports.com/Tracks/OH/NationalTrail.htmlThis is a big deal in drag racing circles and I have attended a few events here that were NHRA sanctioned. I rode in and the gates were wide open so I rode up to the start line and was just looking around when I got the idea to see what my bike could do a quarter mile in from a standing start. The only way I had to time myself was the computer on my bike and that goes to the second so I could not get a real accurate time that would include tenths and hundreths of a second but I gave it a go anyway.

I went up to the line and imagined one of those Christmas Tree of lights deals that they use for real races. I revved myself up mentally and blasted off down the track. I quickly realized 2 things 1-I started off in way too high a gear to get up to speed quickly--I felt like one of those Albatrosses you see on wild Kingdom that seem to take forever dancing/skipping along the top of the water before they actually are airborne. But I pumped as hard as I could anyway.

2-the track is slick as hell from all the burnt rubber laid down by a zillion cars before me. I was actually sliding sideways from the torque I was applying to the peddles --like when I pushed with my left leg the bike slid to the right a little bit. I made it to the end and witha total elapsed time of a blistering 74 seconds but I just knew I could do better and I was stoked to try again.

When I peddeled back to the start line some maintenance guys were standing there laughing their butts off at me. Apparently they had watched me from the big glass enclosed press box and had to come down and get a better look. I let them know I was serious and asked if they would turn on the official clock scoreboard for my next run and they laughed even harder--one guy had to sit down on the ground he was laughing so hard. Then I asked if it were a track rule that I had to wear my helmet because I thought it might be providing too much wind resistance and was affecting my time.They suggested I lose the trailer and American flag as well but I thought that was not an issue and wanted to make the run with them.
Anyway , they never did not give me an answer about turning the clock --they just kept laughing and another guy calls somebody on his cell to give a play by play-- so I revved up and took off again , but this time I got cranking a whole lot quicker because I started in a lower gear and up shifted as I gained speed. My clock said 62 seconds and I just know I can do better--probably even get into the high 50s if I work at it.

I was not sure I wanted to do an third run because I was still breathing hard and then decided not to when a white van pulled in and all the laughing guys quickly took off back to whatever they were doing before I got there. I rode back to Route 40 feeling pretty good about myself.

This is a look back at the starting line after I made my first run. Wow , what a feeling . I now have a sense of what all those real dragsters feel after burning one off in their juiced up rods. BTW--that is farther than it looks especially when you are on a bicycle.

Also, you can see how big that glass enclosed press box really is.

After not seeing anything like this for the past 2.5 months I see 2 similar signs in one day,this one in Zanesville. Although the thoughts did not flood thru my mind like they did 30 miles earlier when I saw the first sign --there still was a steady trickle that I just could not shake.

It was probably a coincidence but the last letter in this sign , a "P", looked like it was searching for a place to go--maybe to the nearest bridge or something.

Columbus to Zanesville Oh --Reynoldsburg

2009-08-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

I traveled Route 40 east from Columbus and the first town I came to was Reynoldsburg. What really got my attention was all the references to tomatoes and then I saw the plaque on the edge of town that said R-burg is "the birthplace of the tomato". This was big news to me and I thought about that declartion for a lot of miles today. I had to check this out asap.

It is all about the tomato in Reynoldsburg and appears to be the towns claim to fame --besides being the boyhood home of rapper BOW WOW.
Anyway , back to the tomato deal. If true, this is huge. I mean what would pizzas or french fries or tomato soup be w/o sauce/catsup/tomato--none of these staples of our diet would exist. Our lives would be drastically different than it is now. What would be soak our pets in after they get sprayed by skunks(I have done this on 3 different occasions). There must be many many other important uses and by products that I have not thought of, and according to Reynoldsburg the tomato was born here. Who knew?
http://www.roadmuseum.org/3_04_reynoldsburg,_oh.htm This website gives some info and kinda lets us know that although the tomato was really domesticated a long time ago but was really not the tomato that does all the cool tomamto stuff we know about today.

A farmer in Reynoldsburg actually changed the exisiting tomato into something that had a zillion more usues and was much more practical to use than what was known beforehand.

I rode around Reynoldsburg awhile until I came across the home of the guy who "fathered" the tomato and got some more info. This marker is near where the guy lived. It seems that the Reynoldsburg folks like to interchange the words "birth" and "developed" when it comes to talking about the tomato. In any event something big did happen here regarding the tomato that did affect us the last 100 years.

As I rode away from Reynoldsburg my mind was a puree (pun intended) of thoughts about what I had seen while there. I wondered if the local high school team names were tomamto related like so many other places are. Many times when the town is known for something the sportsteams carry related names. I can only think of a few good examples right now like the Zeeland Michigan "Chix" (big time poultry) and another school calling themselves "The Ironmen/women" after a local steel mill, but I know it is fairly common. Anyway I checked out Reynoldsburg High School to see if they are called the tomatoes or something similar.
What I learned is that the Reynoldsburg football team is called the Raiders and have a purple and gold pirate like guy with a knife in his mouth as the mascot. I was disappointed because unless this Livingston guy was a reformed pirate on the side or smuggled tomatoes overseas or something similar there is no connection.

Then as I rode along my mind thought of other school mascots and for some reason the town/school of St. Henry popped into my mind. Now St. Henry has arguably the most famous high school sports in Ohio and maybe America--they are that good. Anyway their nickname is the Redskins and their mascot is an Indian with a full feathered headdress. To many casual observers this is about as politically incorrect as it gets and very offensive to a huge number of native Americans. There has been talk (nothing real serious) on and off for years regarding changing the name or mascot much like Miami University did a few years back from Redskins to Redhawks

When the topic is brought up to St. Henryites the standard line is that the name originated many years ago when their basketball team wore new red uniforms that stained their skin red. Thus the nickname Redskins that stuck. Nobody has an answer when the question of why the mascot did not become a red arm or leg instead of a red faced Indian chief. Now this situation may never get hot enough to force any action of change by St. Henry but if it does I have a suggestion for them to consider.
Why not adopt the redskin potato as their mascot? They would not have to change their entire name like Miami U. It would be real easy to paint a big red potato on the town water tower and sports scoreboards. It would even be easy for the cheer leaders --no switching the "gimme a R, gimme a E....." or if they wanted to change a little they could do the "gimme a P, gimme an O, Gimme a T........" because Redskins and Potatoes have exactly the same amount of letters so it spelling the word would not strain the attention span of the St. Henry fans , although it might take a few years for them to do it automatically without thinking.

It would be cool to call yourself a St. Henry Potato Head--GO SKINS GO!!!

Besides the big Redskin Potato mascot walking around games there could little kids dressed as tater tots entertaining at halftime. Of course opposing teams like Fort Recovery would make signs like "Peel, Boil , Mash or Fry the Redskins"as well.

You can kinda see my thought process after riding thru Reynoldsburg and having tomatoes on my mind for about 30 miles. Cruising along at bike speed gives a person a lot of time to roll things around in his head.

The Ohio State University

2009-08-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

While riding around German Village I came across this interesting marker.

Later in the day I found this marker near 17th and High Streets.

I moseyed over to the football field and was surprised that all the gaates were open and I could ride in. I actually rode a ramp right down to field level and was standing there next to the end zone thinking the unthinkable. Wheeling my bike out into the middle of the block O on the 50 yard line and taaking a picture. This thought died a few seconds later when a security guard said "no bikes in here--you have to take it outside--now". So I did but then I walked back in to just look around and maybe take a couple of pics. They were testing the scoreboard by running through all the numbers in all the spaces and I thought this would make for a good shot.

When I did not see anyone else around I walked to the block O , laid my helmet in the middle and went into the stands and took a shot. Nobody said anything.
As I was leaving the area I ran into a guy I played softball with many years ago who had played football for the Bucks. He let me know it was media day later on which is where all the official pics are taken and family/friends could intermingle with team as well. I did not stay around for that but later in the day did see Terrell Pryor the OSU QB and he is indeed a physical specimen. Taller and thicker that he appears on TV. He has been picked in preseason to be the Big 10 offensive player of the year and I believe that is entirely possible . I also believe that if T.P. is the O poy then OSU will be in national championship hunt because that will mean the defense will not have to win games --they can just play their asses off nasty with a lot less presssure than last year because the O will be putting up some serious points.

Now on a related note, if Notre dame can get it's running game back to averaging 5+ yards a carry it could also make them a contender and it could be a ND-OSU championship game but that is a lot of "ifs".
The field surface seems aalmost too nice to play on.

Columbus Ohio

2009-08-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

My intentions today were to cruise Columbus for awhile and then head east on Rt.40 but I just could not stop cruising until about 6 this afternoon. I ended up putting 45 miles on the bike and saw a lot of neat stuff. I visited some old friends and made some new ones. So I will be staying at Stella's for another night and will be heading out as early as possible in morning.

This is the state capitol and William McKinley and my bike. My bike is in the foreground and has the American Flag on it.

Although this guy would not give me his name--actually he could not hear me talking because he was listening to some heavy loud music with earbuds ,really groovin. Besides wearing some devine vines(threads) this man could dance like Michael Jackson , although he was wearing 2 while gloves instead of one. He had a bunch of ladies cheering his every move right there on the side walk in front of the state capitol.

In my heart I know that I found another of the lost souls from Flaming Blues's band--the one where the members "were killed in a hurricane back east somewhere in 1960 or somewhere around then" according to F.B. himself who is still in Walla Walla singing songs about that disaster.

I have read a lot about this man and one day will take the time to visit this place and read more details about not only the man but the Underground Railroad.

This is son Russ, his fiance Elissa and me (I am on the right) after eating a great dinner of authentic (as opposed to fake) Mexican food. A good time was had by all and I look forward to spending more time with them in a couple of weeks.
Now if Stella will jet me get some shuteye it should be a fairly early departure in the morning --heading east.

Fairborn to Columbus Ohio

2009-08-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is a pic of a wall in Yellow Springs Oh near the bike trail that runs to Springfield. I was trying to figure out if those letters that say "no painting"were actually graffitti or were there originally and were just ignored.

I am a big fan of good creative inspireing graffitti and am drawn to it (no pun intended) when I see it. It is fun to study the various styles of lettering as well as the clever wording. I can definately say that this was not good graffitti but it was the only stuff I came across yesterday so that is all I had to work with.
Yellow Springs is a very interesting town full of interesting people, a very eclectic bunch. Yesterday I dawdled there too long, just sitting in the shade on a bench in the "downtown" area people watching. I definitely want to visit here again and do some more people watching--I used to think that the Great Darke County Fair was the best for people watching but although Yellow Springs does not have the quantity of the GDF it really has the quality. I may just work up to talking to some of these folks as well, I am pretty sure I would learn something that I do not currently know.
It is a sure thing that Antioch College is the magnet that attracts a lot of folks to Yellow Springs. I do not know a lot about it and as I understand it the college will be closing down pretty soon, so I better get back there before the cool stuff goes away.

I am not sure why but this large ear of corn got my attention as I rode east out of Springfied.

I finally got on Route 40 in Springfield and once I cleared Springfield traffic it was a great ride on a very pleasant highway. The next time I drive (in a car)to Columbus and am not on a tight schedule I will take this road. My only issue yesterday is that I messed around in Yellow Springs way too long and it got dark as I hit Columbus. I stayed on Route 40, which turns into Broad Street and found myself riding through a very interesting part of town that was not exactly bike friendly, and that was just the pedestrian folks on the sidewalks and along the street.

Most of vehicles on the busy street acted like they had never seen aa bicycle before andthere were several pleasant verbal exchanges between me and some drivers regarding whether I should be on the street or sidewalk, and yes some selected hand/finger gestures were used to communictae opinions as well.. I am super glad that I have those very heavy duty Amish buggy flashing lights (red on back and amber on front) that you can see a mile away, because it gives you a good chance to be seen at night. I have had many other bikers laugh at these big lights and comment about how much heavier they are than the standard bicycle lights but I know that in situations like this they increase my survival odds 1000%. Even if drivers do not like bikers they give you adequate space if they can see you or are aware that something with a blinding blinking red light is ahead of them. I do not have reason to use the big lights often but when I do I kinow they help and will never have a bike w/o them.

Btw--if Miss Sassy would have been in the area she would have beaten me senseless with that new pipe wrench. Although riding the last 15 miles thru Columbus after dark is doable and not a huge deal it is extremely stoooopid if you do not have to do it. Normally I would not think of doing something like that and would have stopped for thenight but I wanted to get to Russ's despite starting out way too late from Yellow Springs to get there at a reasonable time.
I was fighting my way through the mess and had about 5 miles to go when Russ found me with his car and escorted me the rest of te way. It was neat turning south onto High Street and blowing thru down town on a bike at 10 p.m. accompanied by a car with flashing lights. It would have been even neater if Russ had a siren as well.

I was under the mistaken assumption that I would be staying overnight at Russ's apartment but I was very wrong. After 5 minutes in the place I realized that it belongs to Stella the resident cat. Stella belongs to Elissa, Russ's fiance--actually it would be more correct to say that Russ will belong to Stella when he marries Elissa.
All cats are divas but Stella takes the diva thing to a whole new level and like all divas the rest of the world is all about her.

It is interesting trying to sleep on the couch when Stella wants to interact(have you pay attention to her). Also Stella is the noisiest damned cat I have ever been around. She acts like she is training for the cat olympics decathalon in that bshe iss constantly jumping on and off pretty high stuff and then sprinting from room to room at full speed.

Now I realize that a lot of cats do this stuff and it is a natural cat thing and part of their natural instinct so that they can fend for themselves in the jungle. I had always been impressed by how cats can quietly sneak around unsuspecting prey/food. They are very excellent hunters. Well ,in my opinion Stella would starve to death in the wild because she could not sneak up on on a deaf mouse standing near Niagra Falls as a freight train went by.
I swear that when Stella lands from jumping off something that an anvil has hit the floor--or a sack of concrete--it scares the hell out of you . Also, when she runs across the wooden floors it is like she has army boots on or possibly little cat wooden shoes.

Now , I appreciate the patter of little feet early in the morning as much as the next guy but when Stella does her thing at sunup it is like being in the middle of a buffalo stampede.

Russ and Elissa are getting married this October in Columbus on Halloween Night ( and that will probably be a whole other blog) and we are all excited about it, but I am wondering what role Stella will play in the ceremony and the reception afterwards. Seeing the way things are now and how Stella rules the roost it is clear that there will not be room in the hall for both Stella and the bride at the same time. I am bringing my camera to this one . This has America's Funniest Home Videos written all over it.

I originally planned on being in Columbus today for a minimal amount of time before heading east on routs 40 but I am going to browse Columbus a bit this morning just to see what I can see. So far I have avoided cities whenever possible but Columbus has a lot of cool stuff. Russ lives near Shiller Park in German Village which in my opinion is the best/most scenic part of town--so I am looking forward to some bike exploring.

Greenville Oh to Fairborn OH

2009-08-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting road sign near where Darke-Preble-Montgomery counties come together. I did not see a Number Eight or a Number Ten road in the area.

While riding thru Brookville I spotted this excellent use of grey stones and red cedar mulch.

This a pic of the 4th -5th-6th or maybe even 7th place finishing trivia team ( it was unclear where we ended up except that only the top 3 teams were recognized) at Cadillac Jack's Bar/Grill in Beaver creek. I am on the right.

Alex (who like many Brazilian soccer stars only has one name), Cameron Goubeaux (of the Russia Goubeauxs), son Jeff and I took on the world in bar trivia last night. Our team name originally was El Studientos , but after much prematch debate it was voted (3-1) to be the That Dirty Yeti Eddy team. Our mission was to taake down that the reigning trivia champs the Inglorious Rat Bastards who were finally caught using their Blackberrys to google answers and penalized --all for a $5 rebate on their bar bill--personally for anyone that low down to cheat at bar trivia I think they should haave been called the Inglorious Rat Bastard Sons of Bitches ande had their Blackberries taken away.

The way this all happened is that as I was making my way to Dayton I called Jeff to let him now where I was (by Trotwood) , I would be arriving about 6:30 and that I was looking forward to spending some quality son/dad bonding time with him. That is when he said "well dad you know it is Tuesday Night and that means trivia night with me and some of my college buds, and it starts at 7". After a pregnant pause Jeff says "Hey why don't you join us--we have a really good team but every week we get beat up by questions about old ships and Shakepearean literature." " We can use you"
Well I can tell you I was excited because for the longest time I had thought that all the knowledge I had gained by being the first mate on a frigate boat in 16th century England would never be used and just go to waste. Here was a chance to show my stuff--be a hero to my son and dazzle his friends. I was so in.
I tried to review all I knew about these 2 subjects as I rode and took on the more immediate job of figureing out how to navigate a bikable route through all greater Dayton(west to east) during the 3-6 rush hour. I learned there are no direct routes though this urban paradise and that Wright Pat Air Force Base is like Mount Everest because it is very large and very impossible to get thru and very much directly in the way, unless you have high secret clearance to see what really is in Hanger 18 on the base, which I did not.
I really think I came closer to more cars in a 3 hour period yesterday than I have the entire trip so far. I called Miss Sassy after I made it thru and gave her instructions to go the closest ACE Hardware store and purchase the largest pipe wrench they sell, to keep it handy and the next time I say I am going to try to cross Dayton on a bike at rush hour she is to beat with that wrench until I am senseless.

Anyway I finally made it in under the wire and we were ready for some trivia--I am thinking Pequad(the Moby Dick boat), The Argus(Jason and the Argonats), Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, Mayflower, The Golded Hind, The Minnow (Gilligans Island), The Orca (Jaws), The LUV Boat............. I was primed--bring it on. "To Be or Not To be"(Shakes )

I had been assured by Jeff and his "scholar" buds that I would fill the only hole they had and would raise them from a medicore trivia team to the next level. They kept telling me how hip they are on TV shows, Movies, Music, etc etc.
Well I came away with mixed feelings about the type of education given out by Wright State U , these guy's alma mater (actually Alex is a prof there) .
There are 5 rounds of questions of 10 each and some of the questions have multiple parts like list in sequence 5 movies as to when they were filmed etc.

We won round 1 by getting 14 out of a possible 15 points (which earned us $5) but I couldsmell something burning and it was us . I had to come up with Tony Stewart's car #(20) , The greatest football player ever for the U of Illinois and the Chicago Bears (RedGrange) and who discovered the Mississippi River (Hernando DeSoto). I was carrying these guys on my back--I felt like a Clydesdale horse in need of aa saddle blanket--these guys had some huge holes in their game and there was not 1 Shakes. Lit or boat question.

Some things happened that only confirmed my suspicions about our team--there was a question about how many teeth does a normaal adult have and there was a delay in answering while Cameron opened his mouth and Alex and Jeff carefully counted his his upper and lower teeth l (and then almost forgot to add their numbers together for a total). Also there were a possible 12 points in tehe 5 rounds that were song related--we only got 2 points out of that mess because I hppened to know "Spirit In The Sky" by Norman Greenbaum. And as God as my witness not one of these gys had a clue that Clint Eastwood starred in the movie Pale Rider--what the hell do these guys do in their spare time???

As It turned out we peaked in round 1 and the songs killed us--we would have been overall champs (and winners of $15) if we could have just gotten 8 points out of the song stuff. Damn!!! Damn!!! Damn!!!

But the wings were great and I rehydraated myself from my sweaty ride across Dayton --actually I may have overrehydrated myself a bit. Slept5 very well thank you.

It was a 70 mile day and I am ready to head for Columbus which is about the same distance. We will see how things go with other son Russ in Columbus.

Verona 4

2009-08-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

This are the family members who make this place so neat. Wendell, Gordon, Parker, Logan,Randy, Laura and Joy.
I would truly like to say that I am the guy with no shirt on but can not come close.

This is Logan feeding some of the chickens that have the run of the place. There is a cool rooster in the bunch hiding under that trailer in the background that is the only one of his kind left on the farm because local hawks have been having regular chicken dinners.

As Logan and I were walking across a bridge over a small stream on the grounds we spotted some amphibians (frogs/toads) catching some rays. See if you can find 4 of them in this pic.

Verona 3

2009-08-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

Verona 2

2009-08-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

While there are many unique antiques and yard jewelry for sale here what fascinated me most was was is not for sale.All the interior walls of a fairly large barn are covered with old signs. Joy told me that most of these signs are localand were mostly given to her and her husband by friends and family over the years. They hung them for display and to cover holes and now the whole place is covered.
Joy says none are for sale because the represent too many memories.
.

I could have taken 40 more pics like this.

Verona Ohio

2009-08-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

My loose plan for peddling east across Ohio included heading south thru Darke County in to Preble County until I hit Route 40 aka The National Highway which has also been called The National Highway because at one time it went coast to coast http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_40. I runs parrallel to Interstate 70 and I have been on part of it over the years and liked what I saw so I figured it would be an interesting route to bike , but so far I have not made it onto Rt. 40 although I did cross it yesterday.

One of the great things that I have discovered on this bike trip is that it makes no difference what road you take if you are looking for something interesting and photogenic--it is a sure thing that you will come across something really neat sooner or later--and most usually sooner.

It happend again yesterday--as I was riding south out of Ithaca heading for Rt. 40 I saw a sign that said Verona 3 miles directly east so I decided to see Verona because it was kinda on the way. It is typical small town like many others in the area . It is located right on the Preble-Montgomery county line and I did not stop, just rode down the main drag and decided to coninue heading east out of town before turning south agtain for Rt40.

A little ways out of town I saw this distictive house with some colorful wild flowers growing in the front yard and stopped to take a pic. While I off the bike the owner of the house named Joy pulls into the driveway in a pickup truck and we start a conversation about how attractive her house is. This is when I learn that this is just a small part of a 20 acre place called Little Shop Antiques and Gardens which is next to Baltimore House Antiques. Joy invited me to check the place out and I am so glad she did. This place is as cool aa place as I have seen on the entire trip. I was there an hour aand plan on going back when I have a day to spend there. This is a fascinating place and if anyone gets close they should stop and see it. You can get a rough idea of what it is all about from its website but you have to walk it to appreciate it. You will spend some time there.

I learned that this is part of a 5th family generation farm.

There are all kinds of scenes like this one . Note the working windmill in the background.

This is Joy and daughter Laura. Joy and husband started the antique business almost 50 years ago and now Lauraandhubby is doing their thing in the business and working on letting the rest of the world know what is happening in Verona.

On The Road Again Greenville to Fairborn Ohio

2009-08-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

After several fits and starts I finally got the bike and trailer on the blacktop heading east and southeast towards Fairborn which is where son Jeff lives (when not in Greenville eating all the good food and monopolizing the TV while sitting in my favorite chair). The plan is to spend the night there and then ride to Columbus where other son Russ lives (when not in Greenville eating all the good food and monopolizing the TV while sitting in my favorite chair).

In my world having 2 kids live a days aride aprt directly on line with the route I am taking across country is what I call great "family planning" or as close to family planning as our family ever gets.

I did not have a finite route laid out because I am fairly famial with this part of the country which means I was confident that I could not get too lost for too long of time. I figured I would mosey the back roads in the general direction of Fairborn and figure out a way to get thru Dayton when I got there. I had not big time limit except that Jeff wanted me at his apartment by 6:30 so we could go to a bar called Caddillac Jacks and play trivia for cash--I will provide details of how that that deal worked out in near future.

I made my way to Arcanum (which is latin for Secret Place) thinking maybe I would learn some more about the town as I rode thru. That did not work out, after making my way thru Arcanum north to south I can honestly say I do not know anymore about it that I did 2 days ago.
I knew there was a town called Ithaca near the Darke/Preble county line which has always intrigued me because it hs the same name as the anciet Greek city which many believe was the home of Odessyus the sailor the author Homer made famous in the poem The Illiad.
I had not been to Ithaca before but knew it was directly south of Arcanum and figured I would run into it sooner or later..

I was getting a little concerned when I came to the above marked cross road and there was no town there even though it seemed like there shouldbe judgeing from the road signs. I kept going osuth and about a mile later found my town.

.

What impressed me most about Ithaca was the size of the lettering on the sign at the edge of town. Even Mr. Magoo could find this place.

Near Ithaca is the town of Verona and this is the most interesting building I saw there. It is the Post Office.

It was at the edge of Verona as I was leaving town that I came across something really neat.

Last of Darke County + Family Reunion

2009-08-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

This monument wall is located near downtown Greenville and consists of old headstones, apparently the result of moving a cemetary or something of that sort. There are several references to the war of 1812 in that almost all of the markers with Vet stars (at bottom of wall) denote that these folks fought in that war. There are also some refences to the Civil War as well.

I have yet to hear the story about that wooden stockade in the background but look forward to learning more about that and the entire Darke and surrounding counnties area when I am done traveling.

This is a marker near the bandshell in Greenville Park--very interesting.

One of the neater small towns in Darke county is Ansonia located about 7 miles from Versailles. There is a lot of interaction between the 2 towns--many family and business ties.
I recently heard a good story about how Ansonia was named from a mostly reliable source. It seems that whoever originally founded the town or had enough juice to give the town a name wanted to call it Dalles, which if it were treated like several other local would have been pronounced Day-less, Duh-less, or Doll-eese, or Day-all-ass or something like that which would then have evolved to something like Springfield. It would be no big deal considering how Ver-Sales (or Ver-Zales if you are from north of North Star), Roo-she, or House-ton (the shelby county town of Houston)are pronounced.

As I write this I can see the sports headlines when Dallas (Ansonia) played Houston . It would be similar to when the local towns of Egypt and Palastine had town baseball teams and regularly played each other.

Anyway the town fathers of the about to be named Dallas ordered a big clock which was made in and sent from the town of Ansonia Connecticut. As they say --the rest is history. If this story is true then one has to wonder what the deal would have been if they had ordered a clock from some place in Russia (the country) like Vladistock, or Turkey (the country) like Istambul, or Big Bone Lick- Kentucky, or Fraziers Botton -West Virginia, Whorehouse Meadows -Oregon, Belfry -Idaho (home of the Bats), Polka -West Virginia (home of the Dots), Truth or Consequences -New Mexico, Shitbritches Creek -California, or Toad Suck -Arkansas (I have actually been there) or some other place besides Ansonia-Connecticut.

One of the reasons I stayed in the area so long was the Reitz family reunion in St. Marys this past Saturday. This was my mother's maiden name and she was the youngest of 11 kids (all the others were boys) who lived just west of Celina in Trinity Indiana. Grampa Reitz died of blood poisoning in his 40s leaving Grandma and the kids to scramble to make it. These were some hard working people in some hard times.

This is a pic of a portion of the Reitz bunch. As you can see all were blessed with good looks, athletic bodies, and charm. That is me about 20 or so from the right.

These were old school hard core Germans which made it interesting when my mom married my dad who was all French (from Frenchtown). This combination left my siblings and I with a textbook case of left brain-right brain syndrome which means we regularly and unpredictably flip flop back and forth between the 2. This makes for an interesting dynamic that our spouses have to deal with when trying to understand and/or communicate with us.

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I finally got the bike on the road again yesterday late morning after a nice layover in Darke County. I am tan , rested and ready to complete this journey. Although I had ridden over 200 miles while at home yesterday was the first time I had peddled with a full load and I am happy to report that my legs feel as strong as they ever have. I was blowing up any hills that got in my way.

Versailles Ohio USA revised

2009-08-11T07:14:00.000-07:00

The village of Versailles is the crown jewel in the treasure chest known as Darke County. The motto People Pride Progress says it all.

There are several landmarks in Versailles but in my mind one the best and most representative is the Sweetshop with the American flag out front. It could be argued that this is the heartbeat of the community. Many important decisions on all sorts of topics have been made at the counter and in the booths of this legendary establishment. I know for a fact that many many love affairs have either started or ended over cherry cokes in Brown's Sweetshop.The Brown family haave been baking the best rolls and bread here for well over 50 years--actually it could be close to 100--I only remember the last 50.The Sweetshop is where many small town rumors originate before they become facts at either the barbershop or the hairdressers.If you have any questions about anything or need information regarding what is happening in the Versailles area, Darke County, the state of Ohio, the USA or the rest of the world the Sweetshop is the place to go for answers. The regular clientelle are well versed on about any subject you can think of and are very willing to share their views as well as provide solutions to issues that any visitor asks them about

The town square is a one of the nicest in the area, definitely worth checking out when in town.

On Friday nights during the summer musical groups entertain the community. This past Friday The Grandmas and The Grandpas(The old Gehret band from Willowdell) were the featured act and a good time was had by all.

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It was brought to my attention that I neglected to include the above photos in this particular blog about Versailles . Hopefully this corrects the situation which I would like to blame on someone else but am not able to honestly do that.

Versailles Ohio USA 3

2009-08-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

The is a pretty scene at a pond on Woodland Drive in Versailles.

At Heritage Park Versailles has its own version of the Arc de Triomphe like the one in Paris--this is a real French Connection. http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Paris/Monuments-Paris/Arc-CDG.shtml
Although I have walked/run/biked by this thing for years I have never taken the time to look at it closely. When I did recently I was amazed at the historical info it contains. It has a bunch of cermic squares that contain info on many of the families in the area. This was erected in 1984 and I was not living in the area then, so I was not familiar with the fact that anyone could make their own square and have it included . As I understand it The father and son team of Jack/Dave Richhart did the work. Both are considered master craftmen and about the best free entertainment around if you ever had the opportunity saw them working together and verbally interacting(yelling) at each other.
That is me in the middle wearing the red shirt, tan shorts, white sox and gray shoes.

This is a closer look at some of the ceramic squares with Miss Sassy peeking around the corner.

This is me and the plaque that is mounted on the corner of the Eagles building in Versailles. I am on the left.
It is the story of a very smart cow in Versailles history. I remember hearing this story before I even went to grade school (there was no kindergarten back then). I also remember asking my dad "what ever happened to that cow?" and all he said was "Hamburger". Maybe that is when I first realized Versailles was a tough town.
Anyway in a lot of places a cow that smart would be buried with a monument of some sort , hell even an elephant named Norma Jean got a monument in Oquaka Illinois and all she did was get struck by lightning when chained to a tree.
Obviously this was not even considered in Versailles for the cow, but I do wonder what the town would have done if an elephant had been killed by lightning in Versailles. I will ask this question of the regulars the next time I am in the Sweetshop before 8 in the morning. They will know and as I write this I will not be surprised if the answer is "hamburger".

Versailles Ohio USA 2

2009-08-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

Versailles has an excellent reputation as a powerhouse high school sportstown. The Tiger boys and girls have been very competitive and have had state ranked teams many times as well as state champs several times.
In Versailles the big daddy of athletics is football and has been so since the first teams started playing (and winning) back in the early 1920's. The Versailles football program is considered one of the premier programs in Ohio because it has been consistently excellent for close to 90 years.
I have listened to many folks try to explain this phenomena and several reasons have been presented but in my opinion the success of football teams in particular and the town in general is the result of an understated toughness that permeates the community. It is not like motorcycle gang tough --it is a lot more subtle than that. It is a kinda " I can take your best shot and still beat you " mentality. When things get tough our people hang in and figure out a way to come out on top, they do not give up easily--if at all.
I do not know when it started or why but I know it has always been there. I do not believe it is talked about a lot it just is. I remember feeling it when I was growing up--folks had as sort of inner strength and you instinctively understood that was the way to be.

A long time local legend named Jerry Kerns coined the term "Tigerball" that sorta captures the essence of the message.

I think this community's inner toughness as a whole manifests itself in the sports teams in general and the football team in particular. In my small circle of experience I think of guys like Keith Batty, Denny Mumaw, Louie Kremer, Jerry Voisinet who were all undersized and not blessed with tremendous ability but I would want them on my side in any fight. There were many more football players like this and I could make a long list of men/women not associatd with athletics who will just plain outwork a situation. They do not quit easily--if at all.

I realize that other towns have toughhard working people too but I believe that Versailles just has more of them.

This pic is of Hole Field the home of Tiger football. On Friday nights when there is a home game it is the place to be. Hole Field is a great home field and has the deserved reputation among opponents as a very tough place to win. The teams that have beaten the Tigers on Hole Field knew they were in a battle and had accomplished something special.
Although there have been many great teams cheered on by Versailles fans over the years there is one team that stands out above all the others and is considered by many astute followers of the sport the standard setter for not only Versailles football but high school football in general.
Most of you readers probably have already heard of the 1966 Versailles Tiger Football Team and how good it was(if you have ever met me). I am proud to say that I was a member of that squad and had the priviledge of sharing the same shower room with legends like Wenning, Mumaw, Weaver, Nixon, Groff, Wills, and Knapke when they were doing their thing. What a beautiful thing to see let alone be a part of (I am talking about the football stuff not the shower room stuff).
It is a good bet that when you visit Versailles for the first time and the conversation turns to football (about 99% of the time) the 1966 Tigers will be mentioned.

This is a pic of me and a very nice sculpture titled "the perfect catch"near the entrance to Hole Field (that is me on the right). It is a beautiful piece of work and if memory serves was donated by the Midmark Corp. which is located in Versailles. When seeing this pic I am sure that several folks will ask if the statue was modeled after me. I have to answer no to this question for several reasons. First of all the statue has a #36 jersey and my number was #30. Secondly my pass catching abilities were very suspect--actually I was called stone hands and could not catch a cold if I were dumped in the Arctic Ocean which would make any attempt to pose me in a position likemthis problematical for any serious artist unless super glue was involved --a lot of super glue. Thirdly the last time my waist was that small was before I hit puberty.

As for who really did pose for this work of art I have my doubts that it was a Versailles guy because since 1921 Versailles has gained its superior reputation by having the philosophy of running the football down the other teams throat until they choked on it and then running some more. It has been grind 'em up beat'em up smash mouth football. The kind tough guys play, not the cutesy 5 reciever sets you see today. Throwing the ball was used by Versailles to either set up the run or if an opponent put 11 guys in the box to stop the run making it easy to pass over them, ergo it is uncharacteristic to have this type of image associated with Versailles football. Even the school alma mater confirms all this in the last 2 lines by saying "the seasons pass, but not Versailles". While this statue is awesome it does imply that another player had to have thrown the ball and that is an odd fit in Tigertown. There have been 3 year starters at the "reciever" position inthe Tiger offense who never had a pass thrown in their direction their entire careers, but boy could they crack back block.
Kids from Versailles just do not grow up with visions like "the perfect catch " in their minds. They grow up invisioning running full speed into a good sized tree repeatedly and having that tree fall over after maybe 10 or so hits.

I suspect that whoever did this statue had to go to St. Henry or even Coldwater (gasp) for a poser like this.

Being a former defensive minded player and considering anything related to offensive football truley offensive in every sense of the word my initial instinctive thought when I first saw this fine statue was how to stop that catch from being made. In my experience a good clothsline shot to the throat works very well. It is very difficult for a pretty boy sissy assed reciever to concentrate on making a picture perfect reception like this when he is having his larnyx being relocated.

btw--That is me with my back to the camera.

Versailles Ohio USA

2009-08-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

More Darke County towns

2009-08-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

Who knew that a national "first" happened right here in Darke County.

This is downtown Hollansburg with the fire department building on the lower right. What I found interesting is the apparatus that holds the stop sign in place. There must have been a shortage of sign posts at one time.

The Hollansburh Fire Dept are my buds in that every time I ride my bike thru the town I stop and get cold bottled water from them and they refuse to take any payment. These are some good folks.

Whatever this is it is located near Palestine and the old American Aggragates pit. At first I thought it was one of those rural quirky works of art I like so much but when I looked closer it seems to be a piece of legit equipment of some sort. Maybe something that was powered by a horse walking in a circle?
The name plate said something about a Bluegrass company name and being made in Kentucky--so maybe there is a horse connection.

Arcanum is the third or 4th largest town in Darke County (pop.2000+) and is a place I do not know a lot about. I know the name itself is Latin for "A secret Place" which would explain a lot. I also have heard that the guy who founded the place wanted it to have a unique name and it seems like he did a good job of that. A very reliable source (from Arcanum) told me that Arcanum is the only town in the USA named Arcanum and that it was once the answer to a question on Jeopardy. That's about all I know about Arcanum.

Russia-Egypt-Palestine-Glen Karn

2009-08-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

About 2 or 3 mile from Versailles(Oh) is the town of Russia(pronounced roo-she). This is a pic of the Russia skyline and it's new water tower --there is also an American flag for perspective. Although Russia is located in neighboring Shelby County it is almost like an extension of the Versailles community. There are a lot of close ties between families and businesses and a general feeling of good will between the towns--a big part of this good feeling can be attributed to the fact that Russia does not have a football team so Versailles residents do not have that natural rival barrier thing to deal with every Fall.
When Sarah Palin said "I can see Russia from my house" 2500 people in Versailles said," been there , done that"

This is the entire town of Egypt which is located Auglaize County which in a normal world would be an adjoining county to Darke County but because of some suspected skullduggery originating in Mercer County many years ago this is not the case and there is a tiny strip of land seperating Darke/Auglaize.

This is a pic of the community of Palestine which is located in southwestern Darke County. Have not heard the story behind the name but will ask my favorite local historian Wayne Nichols what the deal is and am confident I will hear the straight poop on the rest of the story.

Every time I ride thru this town I wonder about what the story is behind the name.

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There are a bunch of small towns in the area with interesting names. It is fun speculating what the origins were.

York Woods

2009-08-07T19:49:00.000-07:00

Near York Woods is a roadside pullover park where I saw this marker. It has probably been there 40 years but yesterday was the first time I had seen it.
This fills some holes in the Annie Oakley story and explains where Willowdell fits into the story.

Directly across from the roadside park is this restaurant. The first thing that comes to my mind when I see it is , isthere a "new "Annie Oakley restaurant somewhere in the area.

I have my eye on the big saw because I am pretty sure I do not have one like it, and if it is still here on Sunday I will buy it just in case a sitiation arises inthe future where it can be useful.

Thi is another side of Kinky Friedman's (the parrot) van. The "Russ and Kinky" lettering at the top caught my eye.

Route 127 Garage Sale 2

2009-08-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

There was some serious transacting going on all over the place. When you multiply that by 700 miles and the many stands per mile the amount of cash changeing hands had to make the IRS happy.

I recognized several of these horns as ones I saw in Montana and other Western states. I should have loaded up when I was out there and probably could have paid for my trip.

While roaming around the area I came across a very non talkative parrot named Kinky Friedman. Kink either had a very limited vocabulary or did not give a hoot (so to speak) to chat with me. I was wondering why a blue parrot was in York Woods and the guy with the Kink was even less talkative than the bird.

This is the vehicle that Kink and his human buddy were traveling. I did learn that they are on their way to Texas to help Kinky Friedman(the real human) run for governor of Texas--again. When I heard that I mentioned to Kinky (the parrot's human) that I knew a great local company called Tigereye Design that is very good at producing political paaraphenalia and maybe he should hook up with them. Information was exchanged and hopefully the KF camp and the folks at Tigereye will get together.

If anyone is interested in contributing to the Kinky Friedman 2010 campaign here is the info http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/

The 127 Garage Sale

2009-08-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

Some may laugh at this deal but it is huge and I believe an under the radar stimulus package in its own way. This thing stretches from somewhere in Alabama to northern Ohio and from what I hear it continues on into Michigan along Rt. 127.

In our area it is hard to travel a half mile w/o seeing a sale of stuff or at least a sign directing you towards a sale, sometimes for locations 10 miles off the main route. The traffic is extremely heavy and somewhat dangerous to bike , even on the wide 127 berms becuse of the many cars pulling over and leaving the edge of the road.

This is one of the busier locations in the area. It is clled York Woods and is aa large field bordered by a lrge woods that is normally used by the Darke County Steam Threshers Assoc. for events. It is ideal for the garage sale because of off road parking and the shady woods. There are probably 50 different setups in the woods and browsing is fun.

If you can not find it in York Woods you probably already have one at home or do not need it in the first place.

This was tough to pass up. I wanted to touch every one of these critters.

This is Avery and a suit of armor that I believe was empty--there wss no response when I tapped on the helmet and said hello.
If you have not realized it yet or are blind Avery is the cutest kid you will ever see--and she is sharp as a tack. Her grandparents Charlie and Suzie have a near by stand and Avery was their chief helper.
btw-that is Avery on the left

Frenchtown Ohio USA

2009-08-07T05:16:00.000-07:00

This is the skyline of Frenchtown Ohio which was the center of my universe for the first 20 years of my life. The center of town consists of a turkeyfoot cross roads ( a cross roads with a twist in that there is an S curve in the middle with a 3rd road entering into the mix which looks like a turkeyfoot from the air).
Like many small towns in Darke County the church is the center of activity. Holy Family Catholic Church was established in the early 1800's http://books.google.com/books?id=BToVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA605&lpg=PA605&dq=holy+family+church,+frenchtown+ohio&source=bl&ots=sfxcZgo9v9&sig=Iba0NN2-Jaysqrqd77F8xtO6o2c&hl=en&ei=cBB8Sp-SApiqtgeh0LX5AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Obviously Frenchtown had many French folks as early residents, a lot of names like Grilliot, Barga, Bey, Goubeaux, Baltes, Subler, Magoteaux(or Magoto or Magato) among others are still common in the area.

For a guy my age , walking thru the cemetary in Frenchtown is like walking down memory lane when looking at the many names on headstones that were so much a part of my life as a kid growing up in the community.
A lot of long forgotten anecdotes popped up in my mind while I was there. When I saw the grave of Urban Winner who was a close neighbor on an adjoining farm from where I grew up I recalled a neat story I heard as a kid in the 1950's. Urban was talking to a Mr. Demange(Frank?) who at the time also lived on an adjoining farm, about their experiences in WWII. DeMange was a POW in a German prison camp which was liberated by Allied troops. One of the first persons Demange met was Urban Winner--these were 2 guys who back home could see each others homes across the fields reunited in a German POW camp.

I can not count the number of things like this that came to mind while in the Frenchtown cemetary. Things that I thought I had forgotten were remembered about family and friends like they happened last week.I imagine a lot of folks have similar experiences in situations like this.

This is one side of my parent's headstone. Mom was from a small town in Indiana named Trinity and was considered an outsider of sorts when dad brought her to Frenchtown . I guess I did something similar when I drug Miss Sassy from her home in Toledo to Darke County Ohio USA.

This is the reverse side of the headstone. Dad was a member of the First Air Commandos or Flying Tigers in India and Burma during WWII. What an interesting learning experience I was fortunate to have attending some of the reunions of this bunch over the years. Getting to meet these vets and hearing their stories was fascinating.

Darke County USA 4

2009-08-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

Darke County is ranked in the top 3 counties in Ohio when it comes to agriculture/farming. Alot of corn-wheat-soybeans-oats-hay are grown here. There are also a bunch of farm animals residing in Darke county, including cattle, hogs, and poultry. While riding my bike I did not come across many free range pigs or chickens so I took a pic of some cows which was all I could locate.

I have seen some tremendous sunsets on this trip but Darke has some goods ones as well.

Another neat sunset in Darke county.

This is a pic of our neighbor's farm at sunset. Delbert Dirksen and family are dairy folks.

Darke County USA 3

2009-08-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

Another of the unique small towns located in Darke County is Osgood . This pic shows the exciting skyline of Osgood.One of Osgood's claims to fame is that it is the home of several excellent high school athletes who somehow attend Marion Local instead of Versailles HS. Marion Local is located in nother whole county and also is a huge rival of Versailles . Personally I believe that something is amiss with this deal and that there has been a big coverup of sorts. Hopefully this obvious discrepency will be corrected in the near future.

Near Greenville is a beautiful biking road which I use regularly. Along this road is a sort of scenic cemetary and every time I ride by I think of one of 5 things
1-the purple martin bird
2-a very cool family I met at a campground in Idaho
3-my inlaws by the same name in Toledo
4-that lemonaid stand located under the grandstand at the Great Darke county Fair

5-Chalmer Martin who was one of the grand guys in Versailles

This pic represents one of the enduring mysteries of Darke County. You see Darke county is one of a very few counties of the 3200+ in the USA that are adjoined by 8 other counties. I can not recall the exact number right now but I believe there are only about 10 in this small group.This alone makes Darke County unique.
BUT--what many do not realize is that Darke County should be connected to 9 different counties which would put it in an even rarer circle of USA counties (like maybe less than a half dozen).
If you look at a map you will see that to the north Darke county are the counties of Mercer and Auglaize--and directly to the east is Shelby county. Now all of these 4 counties are basically boxed shaped which in a normal situation would have all 4 coming together at 1 point, much like the 4 corners area of the southwest where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. In most cases that is the American way of doing things but not so with Darke County. In our situation there is a very thin strip of land that connects Mercer and Shelby county which prevents darke from touching Auglaize. Now this is disturbing because it prevents Darke County from claiming its rightful spot in the list of unique USA counties bordering on 9 other counties--instead of the 8 we now border.

The above pic provides some idea of this bull poop situation. That distance between the Darke -MercerCounty roadsign and the Darke/Auglaize county sign is about 40-50 feet which is the width of that strip that prevents Darke county from bordering Auglaize. I suspect there was some skullduggery taking place when they laid out these county lines. I suspect it was those Mercer County people who are responsibe and are still very openly jealouse of Darke county and its residents.

This is a skyline pic of scenic Webster Ohio located neaar Versailles . The reason I call Webster scenic is because there are a bunch of signs that say so. These signs also say "on the Stillwater" which is the river that runs thru it. I am not entirely sure it is true but I have heard stories that at one time Webster was the alpha village between them and Versailles and was the in place to be but when the railroad was built thru Versailles , Webster became just another pretty (scenic) face in the land of Darke.

Darke County USA 2

2009-08-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Traveling due east from North Star you come across a place called Teacup cemetary which is all that is left from what was what you could call a very small (teacup sized) community that had a store a few houses amd maybe a church , which would explain the cemetary.

Near Teacup is the village of Yorkshire , one of many small towns in Darke County. As you can see by its distinctive skyline Yorkshire is a happenin place. Several famous people are from Yorkshire but as I write this I can not recall any names but I will add when they come to me.

Yorkshire is the base of opporations for The Goat Farmers organization. They have a nice meeting hall and several fund raisers for local people and projects are held there every year. Thie fish dinners during Lent are big time.
When you google Goat Farmers, Yorkshire you get the location of a pay phone http://www.payphone-project.com/numbers/usa/OH/YORKSHIRE/

Not too far down the road I came across a field of goats and I had to wonder if there is a connection to the Goat Farmers in Yorkshire.

Darke County USA

2009-08-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

This will probably sound like an infomercial for Darke County and maybe it is . In the few days I have been back home I have been unable to stop roaming around talking to folks and basically touring the area, just like I have been doing the past 2 months. Dang, there is so much interesting stuff around here that I am rediscovering and appreciating . In my opinion Darke County during this time of year is as pretty as anywhere I have ever been. Riding around and looking at all of the many shades of green is a treat.
Although I am looking forward to hitting the road to Washington DC on Sunday and finishing the trip I am enjoying myself here as much as I have anywhere else. Getting into the mode that I have developed during the last 3300 miles to take time to check out my surroundings has carried over. I believe that anyone anywhere can experience this same feeling because I beliueve there is neat stuff all around us wherever we happen to be.

One of the annual highlights if The Great Darke County Fair and it really is Great for over 150 years. It is one the largest , if not the largest county fairs in te USA. There is something for everyone --it sort of sums up what is Darke County. http://www.darkecountyfair.com/
I should be back in time to see some or all of it.

I learned from the signs around town that STYX a big time music group that I can not name a song they have done but I know they are big time.

Also I am rooting for all 4 of those cute Bergman kids to kick serious butt in the lamb judgeing competion again this year.

This is a permanent booth located under the Fairground grandstands and it is usually one of my first stops when I hit the fair, the other is the elephnt ear stand. I am a sucker for warm elephant ear and shake up lemonaid. Fair food is as tasty as anything on earth.

This is the county courthouse at sunset with lady liberty doing her thing as per usual.

Another big landmark is Bear's Mill which is still a working water powered grinder of corn and wheat flour.
This pic looks sort of catawampus because I was trying to include that old truck . There are much better pics at their website http://www.bearsmill.com/.

North Star Ohio

2009-08-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was in North Star and like the majority of most other folks who see North Star I was passing thru because NS is on the way to a lot of other places. I stopped in at the Ice Cream Parlor for a chocolate yogurt cone. It was an interesting stop.

Alice, the friendly owner waited on me and even though it was the first time we had met we had a nice chat about mutual friends. Things got interesting when I ordered a medium chocolate yogurt cone. Alice tells me she does not have that flavor of yogurt available but she does have 44 other flavors along with the 24 flavors of soft serve ice cream. I was instantly intrigued and asked Alice about why no chocolate the second most popular flavor next to vanilla. Although she explained it was about the yogurt machine configuration I am still a bit fuzzy about the whole no chocolate deal and made a mental note to return to the Ice Cream Parlor and investigate this phenomena further. No matter how many trips it takes.

I looked at the list of 44 yogurt flavors and selected German Chocolate which was excellent. As I drove away I was mentally calculating how many more trips I would have to take to other places where my route would take me thru North Star so that I can check out the remaining 67 flavors available (43 yogurts + 24 soft serve) .

This house is located directly accross the road from the Ice Cream Parlor in North Star. I took this pic because I believe this house is the boyhood home of Chad Groff and if I am mistaken about this particular house I know it is located very near the boyhood home of Chad Groff.
Chad is one of those guys who is not well known in general yet, but most of the people who do know him feel that he will be famous for something at some point in the future. Chad has "IT" and it is just a matter of time before "IT" manifests itself and a statue and/or plaque will be erected in front of this house (or one located very near by) commemorating whatever Chad becomes famous for..

One of the things happening in Darke County this week is the big Route 127 Garage Sale which bills itself as the longest garage sale in the world http://www.127sale.com/ . It stretches from somehwere in Alabama to upper Michigan along route 127 which runs smack thru Darke County and North Star.
It appears that almost every available free space along 127 has tables set up with stuff for sale. In addition there are many garage sales located in the vicinity of the main route. I will be checking a stretch of this big sale out this evening and tomorrow. Although I have no idea what I will be looking for and I can not think of anything that I really need I know that I will instantly recognize whatever it is when I see it. I am taking an empty bike trailer and expect to fill it up --maybe more than once.

This is a pic of a group of very cute kids at the corner of Rt. 127 and North Star-Ft. Loramie Rd. They did not know anything about the sale advertised on this sign but they were eager to check out the traffic going thru town during the next few days.
This is Kim, Brittany, Marcus,Brian,Andrew, and Kristin and I can honestly say that this was one of those times when the camera did not capture the true cuteness of these kids.

More North Star Ohio

2009-08-06T06:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit North Star again. Like a lot of people who visit NS I was on the way to somehwere else and NS is on the most direct route.
Anyway I stopped at the Ice Cream Parlor and it was interesting as usual. Alice the friendly owner was working. I ordered a chocolate yogurt cone but learned that although Alice has 44 flavors of yogurt on tap plain chocolate is not one of them. So I got a German chocolate instead and it was very good and made me quickly forget about the original regular chocolate.
Regarding the 44 yogurt flavors and the advertised 24 flavors of soft serve ice cream I made a mental note to check this out in more detail when I have some extra time. Alice gave me a very short version of how this all works but I am still somewhat fuzzy on the details and look forward to doing further research.

Check them out --if you want soft serve that is hard to find in other places thyen head for North Star.

I believe this is the North Star boyhood home of Chad Groff which is located directly across the road from the Ice Cream Parlor, and if I took a pic of the wrong house then this is very near the boyhood home of Chad Groff. Although many have heard of Chad in Darke County he is relatively unknown outside the area, but all who have met Chad will tell you that he will be famous someday for something. That is why I took this pic.

This a bunch of cute North Star kids I met on the main corner in NS. Yesterdy was the start of the largest garage sale in the world (no kidding) which stretches along State Route 127 from Alabama to Michigan. This sign is advertises part of it.
Kim, Brittany, Marcus, Brian, Andrew, and Kristin were checking out the traffic on the corner of Rt. 127 and North Star -Ft. Loramie rd, which is always intertesting this time of year and agreed to pose for this pic.

Worch Memorial Library 2

2009-08-06T05:01:00.000-07:00

This is the front of the of the library and the very interesting neat iron rack which subtlety informs approching bicyclists that it stands there to serve them.

This is Worch staffer and ace book restocker Elaine and me (I am on the right) doing the secret Worch fist bump in front of a nice map of the USA which shows my progress as I bike across it. There is a small picture of me on the bike that is moved across the map as I travel eastward. When I learned about this map I was very flattered and felt honored that something like this would be displayed in such a classy place. Normally my name and picture are crudely drawn on the walls of much less nicer public venues.
BTW, it is common knowledge in the libray world that Elaine is the fastest most efficient book restocker in Darke County . She is quietly referred to as A.J. by her co-workers , as in A.J. Foyt the 4 time winner of the Indy 500. Elaine even has a customized book cart that she regularly uses when she is doing the restocking part of her job.

Btw--only select library patrons are deemed worthy enough to do the Worch fist bump. You have to have done something special benefitting the library to be included. My high standing is a result of the multiple fines I have paid for over due and lost books. In my heart I just know I have paid for that fountain next door and probbly Elaine's customized book cart as well.

I guess this is sort of llike getting comped in Las Vegas after you lose enough to be considered a profit center for the casino. I am a profit center for Worch Memorial Library--ergo I have gained fist bump status.

This is another view of the beautiful garden area adjoining the library. The fountain and gazebo are just like the library staff in that they are very attractive, peaceful, classy and colorful, which is why Worch Memorial is a center of Versailles community activity.