TransAm Day 18

Camping in Lieber SRA, IN. I've modified my ride schedule. I want to ride 1 day, followed by Phil doing 2. The pace is just too much for me to enjoy it. Grocery shopping and running down supplies, like a new awning and water carriers takes a lot of time. I went to Walmart today. It's a store I never use. The 12' awning I got was really too heavy for me to lift into the trailer by myself. I need to pace myself on the heavy lifting. But I replaced my tent with a $44 Walmart one. It's heavy and impractical for backpack trips. But it's roomy and will keep me drier than my bashed up old favorite MSR Hubba. I will get a new Hubba, I hope, after the trip. I'm not sure if they are still available.

Red beans and rice for dinner

My turn to cook with Mike. It turned out fine. Followed by Kroger's bakery chocolate cake.

Day 17 0 miles!

Layover in Franklin. My highlight was to bike 0.9 mile to the Rec center for a shower and free WiFi to catch up on bike trip accounts. Most of the day I sat in a camping chair next to the trailer in the sun. Another chilly night comes (low 40s). Brrrr

Layover in Blue Heron Park, Franklin IN

Slept warm and dry, woke to blue skies and random conversations with locals about who we are and what we're doing. Catch up on chores for me. Design the next couple of weeks' cooking duty rotation, and sent my laundry, plus the kitchen box dish towels and pot holders to the local laundry in Tom's car, to be washed and dried by the guys. Tom is from Indiana so he's rest stopped at his house, with his wife, while we take over the gazebo once the Memorial Day weekend birthday parties are wrapped up.

Barn in Rushville

After this respite it was road work on SR 44, with fresh tarmac followed with the experience of biking on a cheese grater, where the road is scraped and grooved. Absolutely exhausting to ride it. You feel your fillings will fall out of your teeth as you negotiate it. Passing traffic is simply icing on the cake.

Auntie Em’s insert

I guess the Bible Belt extends up through Ohio and Indiana.

Lemon Chess and Oreo Chocolate pie

$4 a slice in the closing up farmers market. Also an opportunity for Auntie Em, the baker, to share her faith. The price list includes a little religious tract.

I went off route by 2 miles on a 68 mile day seeking coffee in Connersville. BrianCoffee Bat

A Masonic Office these days

Outside Connersville, IN. Once home to a secretary of the interior during President Lincoln's time.

Day 16 is a lot of this

Quaker Town

In Alquina, IN. They almost look toy like.

TransAm Day 16 and camping in a Franklin town park with permission from the superintendent

This apparently is OK in the Midwest. To a Seattle resident well inured to the homelessness blight of home

We hate camping

What a difference a day makes...

Day 15 of TransAm delivered rain, a nearly hypothermic rider dragging into camp at Whitewater Memorial State Park, and the type of soggy and cold camping that makes people swear off tents for the rest of their life. We huddled in the van to choke down dinner and lingered under the scalding shower nozzle longer than necessary. Ye gods a real s**tstorm of a day.

TransAm Day 15 no bike for me

On this rainy humid Friday I get to grocery shop in Waynesville, OH, a town that specializes in country furnishings and antique shops. The tiny, crammed Hometown Market was a challenge for my loaded shopping cart, as was parking the van and trailer. So I'm recovering to easy listening Christian rock in The Butter Churn cafe, which has exquisite Olde tyme decor.

My favorite photo for today

Love those barns

Mixed cover crops in bloom

Seen enroute to Caesar Creek SP

Faith, family and farming

Apropos to this part of the country.

Not what I’d name my cafe

Barns and grand old houses in OH

Brunch in Jeffersonville

Enroute to Jeffersonville, OH

Easier grades and cooler weather.

TransAm Day 14 May 27

Cool morning start after midnight deluge. Lots and lots of cicada exo-skeletons. Plus a cool cloudy start where I thought I'd packed too lightly.

Deer Creek SP camping

After torrential downpour. The weather is certainly delivering today. Another flooding gully washer at midnight. Plus cicada carapaces falling on my tent all night.

TransAm Day 13

My day for groceries, gas, cash at the bank and a coffee at Provisions in Lancaster, OH.

Ready to roll on Day 13 as van driver

Mosquitoes, humid night in the tent torrential downpour at 7:30 am during packing and breakfast, it's no wonder people travel in big RVs.

Dinner in Buckeye as lake KOA after a very trying day

How’s this for a municipal building?

Not much time to explore this city but hard to miss this Victorian 2nd Empire confection. It's grandeur makes no sense in this city of boarded up storefronts.

Hunting for bike repair in Zanesville

Not only was the weather torrid, I had developing bike problems. An occasional rattling inside the bike frame became ominously persistent and I knew I had to deal with it. Hurtling downhill at 30+mph when you don't trust the bike is scary. I labored into Zanesville suspecting bottom bracket issues. The new location for three sixty bikes took finding, and nearly 2 hours to correctly diagnose and fix dirt and rust inside my rear wheel hub (thanks to unfamiliar gravel riding on the C&O and GAP) followed by wheel washing, but I'm glad I stopped. I want to ride with confidence in my bike, as the riding itself is so hard.

Hot as blazes (mid-80s)

Two rural Ohio buildings in Chandlerville that appealed to me.