Day 69 – Aug, 2015 – Medina OH – Hartville OH – 34 miles

Day 69 – Aug 20, 2015 – Medina OH – Hartville OH – 34 miles

You may all be looking at the miles and wondering what’s going on? We had all the intention in the world to do a minimum of 50 miles today but, things got in the way.

We got up bright and early again, breakfast at 6am and hopefully out the door by 7-7:30ish. That is our normal pattern. Well, we got up, turned on the TV to the local weather and realized a front is on it way that will bring severe showers to the area. Nonetheless, we thought we could get down the road a little and stop somewhere and wait out the storm. We packed quickly and just as we were almost of the door it started pouring rain. Gregg promptly took off his shoes and jumped back into bed and told me to wake him when it stopped raining. Because I have covered a few hurricanes in my day, I have an doppler radar apt that I watch to see when the bands of rain pass. I watched for about 20 mins but saw that it would take a little longer. So I too took a nap and woke up about 9:30. The radar indicated that the weather was clearing and the storm was passed. We ended up getting out the door at about 10 am.

We wanted to ride via south east via Kent OH and down to about Alliance OH, which was a route heading towards Pittsburgh. First plans were to go to Youngstown since I like the place but people told us all the roads are torn up and it was awful to ride there. I guess the fracking trucks destroyed that area too. So we altered our route. Our main concern is how to approach Pittsburgh which will be the last big challenge for us. As I mentioned, there are grades of up to 13.5%. Anyway, we will deal with that when it happens. But today, just out of Medina we met hills again. It has been weeks since we have climbed at all. My legs and knees let me know that I should ease into it. The country roads we chose were great rolling hills. The cloud sky opened up to beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the mid 70s with low humidity. Perfect riding weather, a few puddles here and there, but generally smooth riding.

And then it happened. Gregg felt a bumping sensation in his back wheel. He thought he was imagining things. We stopped, and sure enough the wheel was bulging at a spot shortly before a blowout. No more riding on that tire. The young bike mechanic in Bay City said the tires were going and that Gregg should replace them. But Gregg really wanted to finish this trip on one set of tires. Not going to happen.

So there we were on a suburban country road. Luckily near Medina, Fairlawn and actually not to far from Akron. We found a bike shop that was only 3.7 miles away. I decided to try and find a cab, which I did after a few calls. I asked it they had a mini van or something since we wanted to put Gregg’s bike in it and drive to the bike shop, I could ride there no problem. The taxi company said sure and a cab would be there in 20 mins. That was 11am. We waited and waited. A few friendly people stopped and asked us whether we need help, one of them a man with a nice big pickup truck. At 11:45 there was no sign of a van. I called the company back and they said they will call the driver up and call me back. Still no call back. Gregg said that the next person who offers us help he would accept. But then I got a call. It was the cab driver who said that when he heard we needed to transport a bicycle he turned around and drove home to get his pick up truck. He apologized for being late but would be there in 20 mins. He arrived and we loaded Gregg’s bike and panniers onto the truck and off they went.

I continued down the country roads, rolling up and down some pretty steep hills and made it there in about 20 mins. The most difficult thing was getting into the Mall where the bike shop was located. I had to take a major highway road for about 1/4 mile with no shoulder and cross over 4 Interstate exits and entrances. Ohio roads and cities are not very bicycle friendly. I would say worse than towns in other states. The country roads, for the most part are good and pretty well paved, but the cities roads have no shoulders at all. We anger many many commuters on their daily grind when we take the lane, our way to ride safely. The drivers are forced to slow down and wait until traffic clears before passing. We have had angry people speed up or spew diesel exhaust in our faces. Yep, nice people out there.

Gregg got 2 new Specialized touring tires called Nimbus, which should hold to Washington DC and beyond. His Schwables had about 4000-5000 miles on them already, they were great but nothing lasts forever, even German bicycle tires.

After the repair we had lunch at a health food cafe. I loved it – Kale salad, salmon wrapped and turmeric smoothy, my kind of place. But by the time we finished and got on the road it was well after 3pm. We decide to see if we could make another 28 miles. The shop told us to ride down to the Canal Towpath which should take us all the way to Canton. We found it eventually and it was very nice for the recreational rider that doesn’t have to make a lot of miles. It was windy and curvy and hilly. It slowed us down quite a bit. So we took it into Akron and then got back on the roads. But both of us were tired. The rain and the tire ordeal had taken it out of us. We got to Akron and decided to just pedal another 14 miles to a town called Hartville which I saw had a motel. Most all other towns were too small or didn’t have motels.

We made it to Hartville at about 6:45pm. It took us a long time to make very little progress. We are still good with our timing. The hotel is outside of town just next to the Hartville Kitchen which is a huge “family diner” style Amish home-cooking restaurant. Not really my kind of place since I don’t like the ambience of a cafeteria like place for dining, not to mentioned they do not serve cold beer! We got their fired chicken which was OK but nothing to write home about. How could they provide the “home cooking” for 300 seated guests. We liked the chicken from the little town outside of Minneapolis the best (have to look back in the blog for the name). That is hands down the best fried chicken I have had outside of Philadelphia Mississippi.

But we got to a see a beautiful Ohio sunset. And now can relax. Don’t think there is rain in the forecast tomorrow. That is at least one positive thing to start the day with.