Day 101: Mary Jane Thurston State Park, OH

It was pleasant enough when we hit the road at 6:30 am, but the wind slowly increased with the temperature, which hit 90 degrees by late afternoon.  We figure the gods must have been angry with us today, giving us a headwind straight out of the west, because the majority of the 110 miles we rode were due west, often with little or nothing to break the wind.

Narrow farm road.

Since this was only our third 100+ mile day during the past year, it is also the first time that we have done 100 mile days back-to-back.  And I think we've done a total of 290 over the past three days.  Our bodies are telling us it is time to give them a rest, and we intend to comply.

Into the wind.  Near Bowling Green, OH.

The things in Ohio that I am most interested are in mainly Columbus, London and Cincinnati, so we've been on the wrong end of the state this past week.  The one exception is a short drive north of here, which is why we will stay here two nights and take tomorrow off from cycling.

We are staying at Mary Jane Thurston State Park, OH ($22, power), which is near Grand Rapids, OH.  There are showers here (very nice showers, at that), but they are located by the marina, about a mile down the road.  But paying $2 more and having to drive a mile to the showers seems like a far better deal than where we stayed last night.

In order to cover our 110 miles today, we opted to split the day into 5 sections of roughly 22 miles each, and I had the honor of taking the extra odd section.  In the end, Alea rode 48 miles and I rode 62 miles.  We didn't get off the road until 4 pm, thanks mostly to the effects of the headwind, which definitely slowed us down.  A quartering headwind would not have had near degree of effect upon us.

We were fortunate that Alea had a rear tire blow out this morning just a few feet from where I was waiting for her.  Something cut through the sidewall, which made the tire pretty much unusable.  Since we used our last spare in replacing it, we'll hang on to the old tire until we get new spares.  In a pinch, we can throw a boot patch on it and ride it for a week or more.

I had a bit of time on my hands today, so I made another small change to how we stow our gear.  I added a couple of straps to the streetside rear door, which now hold my bike messenger bag and a large fanny pack.  These had been stored above the generator, blocking access to my shoe organizer.  Now all of these items are more easily and more directly accessed.

Rear door storage: table (right) and bags (left).

Unfettered access to my shoe organizer.