Day 67 – Aug 18, 2015 – Syvlania OH – Clyde OH – 64 mile

Day 67 – Aug 18, 2015 – Sylvania OH – Clyde OH – 64 miles

Low low low, our spirits are low. I hit a low today and so did Gregg. This journey has been such a never ending slog that it has gotten to us. People always ask us how much fun we are having, and I can say for sure that there are plenty of other words I would use to describe it, but FUN would not really be one of them.

Again this morning the issue of shortening our days, spending half a day in towns and actually renting a car to get ahead came up. I was adamantly against it. We have come this far we can make it the rest of the way by bicycle. We have to do that because that is what we set out to do. Gregg is now retired, if I were retired we would have approached this in a totally different way. I got 3 months off, and we will make it in time. We need to catch our train back to LA on Sept 5th and we will. We will make it all the way by bicycle. It is not about the achievement but more about the principle of it especially as we get to the end. The last time we were in a motorized vehicle was in Missoula Montana when my brother visited (oh maybe a short 1/2 mile lift from the Medora ND musical back to town). So thousands of miles on bike or by foot around towns and cities. I am proud of that. Gregg comes from a different world of bike touring where it should also be a vacation, and fun. I agree I really wish this would have been that, or a little more of that. But now it has become more of an accomplishment, an achievement. I really can’t wait to ride my bicycle into Washington DC. It will be amazing.

But for now, we were down, very down today. We both left the motel in bad spirits, and to make things worse, the receptionist sent us 1 mile down the road in the opposite direction of where we wanted to got to get back on the route. Gregg was furious. But we found our way eventually and got on a nice bike trail towards downtown Toledo. That trail was great, probably the best we have had so far. It was smooth and wide and barely a soul on it. Perfect.

Got to Toledo which was not much of city. Depressed and run down, as I said, Detroit light. But we did see a lot of public art and nice graffiti. They are trying to make and effort. I guess the art museum in Toledo should also be very good. No time for us to visit. We have to feed our “monster”, the monster journey we are on. We feed it with blood, sweat, and tears, and miles, lots of miles everyday.

After Toledo we crossed into Oregon OH and into the countryside. We hit a nasty rain storm with winds and a steady downpour for about 1 1/2 hrs. We covered our bags in time and got on our rain gear. Yet our legs and shoes remain exposed. Within 5 mins my shoes and socks were completely soaked. Since I wear glasses, the rain made seeing the road a bit challenging as my lenses were covered in drops of rain. Luckily Gregg had his tail light blinking and I followed that. But the heavy downpour and wet socks really didn’t add to my mood, which was as wet and soggy as the road.

But it cleared up when we got to Elmore where we had lunch and got on 23 miles of bike trails. Nice. This lifted the spirits a little. On bike paths we are able to listen to music and we both go into our own zone. My choices were melo but rhythmic music to keep me going.

At just about 60 miles we pulled into Cyde OH. After passing a huge Whirlpool factory that went on for mile or two we got to a cute little town. We did our usual and stopped at a Tavern. As we entered and sat down I asked the bartender what beers they have and she said “all the domestic beers”. This struck me kind of funny because I knew what she meant, Buds, and Coors, and PBR bottles, but I have been working my way across this country drinking “domestic” craft beer and mostly drinking “local” craft beers. My favorites have been – Double Mountain EPA out of Hood River OR, and the Bell’s “Two Hearted” out of Michigan. I asked for a “domestic” craft beer and she said, oh you need to go out our back alley and go to the Tap Room. We did and found a cool “speak easy” like bar with loads of beer on tap. Viola. They can appreciate good beer in Clyde.

Well we found the Tap Bar and met the bartender Buddha who told us a little about the town and the next town down the trail, Bellevue. I researched accommodations and concluded that we should stay here in Clyde. Buddha told us that the bar is busiest at 7am in the morning, when the factory workers get off of the night shift and at 11:30pm when the afternoon shift gets off. They are open from 6:30-2:30am every day. I guess you have to work your schedule around the factory shifts. He told us about Whirlpool and how tough it was for him to work on the “line” and how his job was cleaning a yellow mark off the lids of the washing machines as they passed. He hated it. He also told us about what Clyde had been famous for in the past – a cancer cluster. Apparently for many years Whirlpool was dumping its toxic waste close enough to the neighborhoods that it leaked into …. I guess the ground water, the air? Apparently it is all cleaned up. He said the company is still trying to buy up some of the properties that could “still be effected”. It didn’t make me feel very good to think we will be staying here for the night. He said that Whirlpool has had a pretty nasty reputation recently. He said they never were unionized but in the “old days” they used to take care of their workers, today it’s not the case.

We stopped to have dinner at the “Blue Collar Diner” where the chef made Gregg a parfait of BBQ brisket and mashed potatoes served in a styrofoam cup and I ordered a salad of wild mushrooms and smoked chicken, also served in a styrofoam container. Actually it was all pretty good, if only they had real plates and silver ware instead of a plastic fork, and if the former pizza joint would have been air-conditioned, we wouldn’t have had to wipe our brows to prevent sweating into our food.

Got to our motel and doing our laundry. Maybe our spirits will be better tomorrow. We will see, tomorrow we will have a 70% chance of rain. I hope it won’t dampen my spirits. This evening I feel OK and ready to move forward with this “accomplishment” nonsense.