Into the Heartland

What a surprise Ohio has turned out to be. Maybe its the weather cooling down from its highs of 98 degrees to more manageable levels, the disappearance of the steep grades, or a change in my daily routine, but I’ve got to say, I’m really enjoying what is going on out here at this time of the year.

I’ve decided now that for days that I don’t have a solid place to stay via services such as Couchsurfing or Warmshowers I’m going to take it easy during the hot pats of the day. This means get moving a bit earlier in the morning (I’m up anyways at 6am, but dawdling around, or just lying there capturing the sunset), and getting a good chunk of the day (this usually means 50km) in before finding a place to stop and chill out, have a nap, see some sights, or just hang out in a climate controlled coffee shop. It splits the day into 2 or 3 chunks, and since I don’t have a place to stay at night it gives me the ability to ride just until Sunset, using the last 30 minutes after it goes down to unpack the gear for the night, grab some dinner and start the night-time rituals of entering in data, listening to some music, and reading a book. I continuously get asked if I ever set fires, and the answer is no – never. I think there’s been 2 fires that I’ve ever been a part of, and they weren’t my idea. Too much hassle with wood, putting it out, and certainly isn’t the right thing to do when you are stealth camping on someone else’s land. Perhaps If I was traveling with someone else then maybe, but likely not. An awful lot of effort when I have rechargeable batteries for the headlamp and can always put on another layer.

After I stopped doing the snake like route swapping I have found my groove in Ohio, heading down the Historic Route 40 for the majority of the way west. It’s still nice and hot, but I’ve gotten into the habit of getting a lot more water into me, to the point of where I’m now finally starting to piss clear, and making sure I get more fibre into my diet, as things were starting to block up. The last thing you want is a rock inside your gut backing everything up and no way to get it out, so the more fibre the better at this stage. I chuckle every time I think about that sort of thing when someone who was genuinely interested in what I was doing a few weeks back in Pennsylvania came flat out at a coffee shop and asked me if I had weird coloured/looking poops. The things you learn on the road i say!

This little guy had a broken leg and hobbled across the road not to get hit. We talked for a while, but had to leave him be.

While the cities / towns/ villages certainly aren’t set up for bicycles, and to be honest I’d be surprised if there are any bike stores in this area the countryside is great. Traffic isn’t so bad, a few semi trucks here and there, and most of the drivers are courteous to move over to the other lane. Odd amounts of glass litter the road, more so in the cities. On the rural roads you are mostly dodging broken turtle shells the size of dinner plates, squished possums or other roadside treats. That’s not to say I haven’t had problems with cars however – It’s a second difference between me typing this and you reading an obituary notice – as I narrowly dodged a car (without even realizing it until the driver screamed and slammed on her brakes) that came far too close to my personal zone while I was climbing up a hill heading westbound – Sun in my eyes, and obviously in the drivers eyes too. This poor woman had tears streaming from her eyes, and mentioned she felt like she was going to pee her pants but I managed to set her straight and on her way letting her know I was OK and she’d be OK. To tell you the truth, I didn’t see it, hear it coming, I was too busy looking in the other direction waving at a family playing in their yard. One second you are there, one you’re not – probably not even getting the chance to go over what you wish you could have done, should have done or wanted to do before it was over. This stuff used to bother me before – I think I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve moved past it.

The other incident was likely due to the fact that we’re in some different country here, mostly the red’s seem to be populating these areas judging by the amount of road signs, gas station signage, and bumper stickers I’m seeing on a regular basis. Lots more gun firing clubs and signs offering concealed weapons permits and training are also starting to appear.  Some of the liberal thinking has gone by the wayside, and while that’s OK with me, I’m still wondering if people are the way they are on “sides” because they lack the full understanding of what they are actually taking sides on. Anyways – we’ll get back to it – I’m riding in South Zanesville, in the heat of the day, rush hour has just started and the shoulder, while non existent is covered in ripples, glass, and is virtually unrideable. My bike can take the abuse so I plow through this sort of stuff holding onto my handlebars for dear life so that I don’t lean into traffic. Car’s are usually leery to deal with someone like me, usually staying behind me for a while, or cutting into the other lane to go around me. This time, I noticed a lull in traffic and finally directly beside me heard the blast of a car horn. I think the east coast did me in a bit as I turned around while riding, cut into the lane, looked directly at the driver (woman), who’s passenger had their feet up on the dash and asked them “What the F— is your problem? We get to share this road!” and headed back towards the shoulder, not before I manage to catch the the drivers face change from a hard glare to a shameful frown. She made her way around me and while I expected a last word by means of the middle finger to come up from her of the passenger it never came. All bark no bite. Again, I think I’ve gotten to a point where I can move past these things and not afraid to stand up when I’m in the right. Sure, they’ve got a moving chunk of metal that they likely can’t manoeuvre properly, but I’m going to continue to choose my battles wisely. Last years routine of waving at them and taking a photo of them seemed to work well, but I don’t have the speed and dexterity with these new handlebars to be able to keep the bike level and grab the camera out of the handlebar bar in a split second like I once could. Practice!

The evening riding is wonderful – skies are opening up, crickets are doing their thing and the temperature is getting to cooler levels. I found a place to stop about 30 minutes before sunset in Rushville, which is about 10 miles away from Lancaster, yup there’s a few of them in USA – remember I was in Lancaster, PA a few weeks back in Amish Country. Over here, they have the Quakers, similar signage on the side of the road warning of buggies and horses, but I’ve only seen one so far, and no horse poop at all on the roads. Rushville isn’t too big, yet has a Lions Club, with a great area to picnic, but not so much for stealth camping. People in the town already knew I was there as I tried to find out where a pub was so I could watch the Vancouver Canucks spank the Boston Bruins 1-0 (I found this out in the morning via the newspaper) in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Everyone looked at me funny when I asked where one was, so I gave in and camped out underneath the Water tower, slightly dehydrated, and tired. I’ve been sleeping without the fly on my tent and had a few deer coming around poking around my area last night, softly walking around curious at what the new structure was in the brush. It was pretty cool to see them up close, without them noticing me. Another highlight (gee this paragraph is just filled with irony and puns) was the fact that the fireflies were out doing a show for me well into the early morning some going in a straight line, some in a semi circle, some very erratic for a few seconds at a time. I saw a few of these in Pittsburgh, but this was a real treat without the light pollution.

Rushville certainly didn’t do a lot of rushing, but I made moves on out by 6:30 in the morning to get into some more populated territory after my coffee and a light snack. I hung out in Lancaster for a while checking out the city buildings, having a rest, and moved on towards Chillicothe. I managed to grab some email from a random open wireless network on the way over in that area when a friend who’s bailed me out quite a few times in the past few weeks happened to email me and say that they had a place for me to stay in the area. It was early in the day and I was flying, 1pm and already done 70km with a serious tailwind behind me. I haven’t had a good wind in a while and wanted to make the most out of it, and declined, but wondered about the possibility of a quick rest stop and shower to freshen up. It worked out well – as Sarah, the home owner (notice in my writings the Sarah’s have always been good? Whether its era, ra, rah this seems to be highly coincidental) was just returning from a small weekend vacation and we had a chance to talk while her fiancé was busy at work upstairs (I have a feeling he was up doing IT stuff too – working from home and IT = dangerous combo) before I took off clean from the past few days of really grimy riding, and no longer feeling the scratchy salty fabric against my skin. Everything actually feels lighter now too! I suppose I’ll have to start figuring a hygiene schedule again. It’s funny – 2 years ago I was washing clothes every night and swapping them daily. 1 year ago I was wearing my clothes for 2 days and then swapping them. This year, I’m wearing them until I shower. Evolution of living on the road I suppose. I’ve decided since I’m in the Republican territory I’m going to wear my red shirt for a while as opposed to the blue one and see how people react to me.

I managed to make it 30km away from Chillicothe, my one speaker blasting some chilled out music, next to no traffic passing me, and the landscape just erupting with colours, pink green yellow red and blue. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and to be honest, a photo couldn’t even capture it – It was true bliss. I kept on riding before I saw two youths standing in their yard who waved at me. It was getting late so I went over to them intending to ask them if I could pitch a tent in their yard, but instead asked them if they knew any parks in the area. They quickly said yes, right down the road, past the high school – I figure it would be a fine place to stop, High school ends here in Ohio tomorrow June 3rd, and if I was a day later I may be met with drunken youths. They mentioned to me I was in Paint Valley, as I marvelled at how beautiful the area was – Such a great name for a great evening of riding.

Wish I could grow hair that long

The park has pit toilets, running water, and some trees to set my tent up underneath. Lots of grass, but with it comes a lot of bugs. These aren’t bugs that I’m worried about however – I think back to a years time in 2010 when I was making my way up to Yellowknife, where the bugs would just maul you at any second, and I actually eventually lost my mind. I wrote a post about it, and recently found a few videos lying around my hard disk from the that I don’t remember taking – check them out:

Anyways, these bugs have some training to do if they want to learn how to take chunks out of people and go undetected. I’ve still got the quick reflexes if they ever sneak into my tent to flick them to their death with my fingers – they don’t last a chance.

I have one more day to go in Ohio and while I am simply riding on one road the entire way out of the state, I hope to get something out of this pleasant surprise of a state I didn’t intend to visit in the first place. Kentucky is next!

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