Day 68 – Aug 19, 2015 – Clyde OH – Median OH 68.8 miles

Day 68 – Aug 19, 2015 – Clyde OH – Medina OH – 68.80 mile

A long day. It started well with our Northern Ohio trail that ended abruptly only about 5 miles along in Bellevue. We had to make some tough choices, follow the trail on cider trail, and gravel or go on a bigger highway for most of the way. We choice the later. We hit HW 20 which had a great shoulder for almost 20 miles. Then it was onto HW 18 across to our destination Medina OH.

I really don’t have much to say about today. It was a long slog. We got to an intersection and there was a little convenience store. We were hoping to hit the next town Clarksfield and have lunch. Nope, the shop owner said, there is nothing in Clarksfield. So we got some chips, cold water and an Italian sub and made our way down the road. Clarksfield would be half way to Medina. Nope, nothing in Clarksfield so we did an emergency shade and lunch stop under a big tree in the local cemetery. Yep we had to have lunch in the cemetery since the town had no parks or even churches to stop at.

The rest of the way was boring except for our storm experiences. We stopped about 10 miles from Medina for a snack and as soon as we got back on our bikes in poured down rain. It was like buckets were being dropped on us. But, it lasted about 20 mins. Then we had a little drying out before arriving in Medina. As we got to the motel another fiercer storm hit just about 30 seconds after we pulled in. Amazing. It was gust of 20-40 mph winds and a heavy downpour. But no worries, we got into the motel. The only issue that I have is that my front Arkel panniers are about 2 inches lower than Gregg’s newer Arkel panniers and the lower portion of the bags seem to get wet.

We have concluded that perhaps it is a good idea to get the German Ortlieb bags, (or one of the knock-offs) for the front panniers when doing this kind of tour. Our Canadian Arkel panniers are great, with all there compartments and zippers etc… but for rain… I am definitely not convinced. Most of the bike travelers we have seen have the Ortlieb bags just because of that. But, since we do most of our tours in sunny California, the Arkel bags are fine. We do have expensive covers we put on the bags but they don’t work for me when we ride through puddles, and on uneven surfaces that is often the case. Tomorrow, another rain day, I will put the contents of the bags in a plastic bags just in case. Oh, and the Toepeak handle bar bag covers are also almost useless. We use some store bought shower caps under the rain covers just to make sure our cameras stay safe. Actually we put the cameras in waterproof Sea to Summit bags. So when it pours….things get wet!

We got to town and relaxed a bit. I have gotten into the pattern of finding hotels/motels close to good restaurants. As you all may have guessed by now, most of the best restaurants are near the “gentrified” downtowns of these towns. But not always. We usually try downtown but mostly the motels are really really sketchy – of the $30-50 range. We have been there and will not do it again. Most of the standard fair is near the nearest Freeway. In this case we found a cheap Quality Inn just next to the 111 Bistro, which was a farm to table place that just opened in a strip mall. Great food. We had bacon rapped dates stuffed with chorizo sausage. I had the duck breast over sweet potatoes and grilled asparagus. Gregg the smoked chicken over a bacon and raison risotto. Good stuff after a hard ride.

Tomorrow we have lots of choices. We may try to make it to Youngstown OH, but that may be ambitious. After Youngstown we have to contend with some of the hardest riding we had done in a long time with grades of 6%-13.5% before we hit Pittsburgh. I guess there is a reason there is a Burg in the name!! It will be hard for us weary warriors but we will do it somehow, we hope?