On the road

We played hide & seek today, the rain and I. It was expected around 03:00 am but I only heard it come around 05:00 am, still in the distance. I was counting the delay between the lightning and the sound to evaluate the distance of its rumbling advance (number of seconds x 300 m = estimate for the distance of the storm).

As hail was expected, I had been recommended to set my tent under a tree. But with lightning, it's not that wise... What a dilemma? I folded everything and found a hard shelter to finish my night on a bench. I was already on the road indeed.

So the rain did not get then and when I escaped at around 08:00 am, I spent my morning in some kind of a race against it, trying to catch up with the blue sky in the distance.



Got caught a little before 11:30 am, on road 613 between Leipsic and Continental. Not much though. And after lunch, I was on the road again, I mean THE road:



There I was, a few decades later, on the steps of the beat generation, reading Jack Kerouac in one hand, steering my bike with the other hand and declaiming 'On the road':

"The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great, that I thought I was in a dream."

Except that this road 66 is just a State road and not the mythic US Route 66 that for the most part does not exist anymore. It would not even run thru Ohio, nor Indiana where I ended up tonight.

More info:
* Jack Kerouac
* Quotes of 'On the road'
* US Route 66

Strawberry fields forever

And not just strawberries, corn and wheat as well.



After few days in Ohio, it gets pretty obvious that the road is flatter and straighter. A quick look at a map shows how suddenly the roads get orientated east to west, north to south, as you cross the border from Pennsylvania to Ohio. As the land gets flatter, the fields get bigger and so do the farms, to the extent that the most modern ones may slightly look like a chemistry plant.



This little house along the road told me that the west wind can be pretty strong.



The weather forecast is talking of hail storm for tonight. Yet the end of the afternoon has been sunny and the sky has cleared. But "everything is possible, we're in Ohio!"...

I guess this is just an invitation to even wider spaces (wilder?),
"Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to
Strawberry Fields..."

Think positive

Rain is good for the green fields of Ohio.

Still it rained quite a bit today which gave me the opportunity to try some of the equipment I had plan to cope with rain. The outcome is
1. Wet,
2. Eventually, the solution remains the pancho, not techy but efficient.

This mmorning, the weather forecast was about rain for the coming days in Ohio. Just like sailing, you need to handle the weather as part of your trip. There is no storm that lasts forever; but half an hour is already long considering the quantity of water you can get here on your head.



At a local level, storms can be quite sudden. The sun may break thru the clouds but it may still be pouring with rain. It may stop suddenly for 20 seconds and start again. Weird!

When I arrived at Country Stage Campground, I was welcome and invited by a nice bunch of campers to have diner with them. Richard and his wife were giving their annual diner there: a Thanksgiving kind of diner in June with plenty carbohydrate to better ride in the rain tomorrow.



More info:
* Country Stage Campground, Rd. 1031, Nova OH

The enlighted rider

Road 224 crosses Ohio East to West in an almost straight line. As I was ridding, I noticed in the distance the silhouette of an unusual bike rider, on a "recumbent" as they call it. As I get closer, I can see his many bags on the rear of his recumbent. He must be a traveler:

- Hey! Where are you going?
- Colorado! And you?

We stopped and talked for a while. He was not only the first long distance rider I came across with, he is certainly the one who has ridden the longest distance I will ever come across with: he has crossed the US around 15 times so far!

His name is Hans, Reverend Hans Myors. He leaves in Georgia, 4 months a year and spends the other 8 months on the road, riding thru America, going from places to places, from churches to churches. He speaks enthusiastically of his life on the road.



Yet no time to get into the mystery of his ministry: he has to be in Colombus in two days, which is leading him south from road 224. Our roads split there. We carry on our trips at each other respective pace.

More info:
* His website: www.pedalprayers.org
* More specifically, his various trips
* And advices on bike touring

We're closed

Riding thru Youngstown OH reminds me of this ads once published in Seattle, a long time ago, when the city was depressed: "Would the last person who leaves Seattle please turn out the lights".

I was just looking for a breakfast this morning, riding thru downtown Youngstown. From a distance and apart from the road which was in a very poor state, it looked like any other downtown, with high buildings to give it the look and feel of a place for business.



I was even a little excited as this was meant to be the biggest city I visit since I left NYC a week ago. Yet when I got to the main avenue, all shops seem to be closed; or rather seemed to have been closed for a long time.



In Pennsylvania, I have already been thru some depressed towns like Hazleton or New Castle yesterday. But it was not as depressing as Youngstown this morning.

It's 9:00am, there are very few people in the streets and sure they don't look like business people heading to work in a bank. I find one place that look like a restaurant: the room is dark and filled with empty tables. At the counter, the waitress is talking the only presumed customer. They don't serve real breakfast, the English type of breakfast you enjoy before biking for a day.

Although they tried to direct me to another place, I never found it. And I took the road towards the south. A guy I talked to in a gas station explained me that the town had been great in the 50's with a good mix of cultures and communities. The steel industry was strong then and it was known as the Steel Valley which extends between Cleveland, OH and Pittsburg, PA. The steel business has moved out of Youngstown. And so has the other businesses; they went south of Youngstown where you can get a decent breakfast.

As I was riding south, I came across with this group of Pro Life, chaplet in hands, praying in loud voice along road 7.



More info:
* Youngstown
* Steel Valley Authority

Hello Ohio!

Here I am half a mile past the border of Pennsylvania and Ohio. There was not even a sign to mention it, probably because I was ridding the bike trail that runs from New Castle to Lowellville.

This monday evening, this nice little town hosts a "typical american car show" as it was recommended to me by another bike rider: music from the 50's, food and drinks, and a gentle crowd walks thru the field paved with fancy cars.



Yet it was around around 7:00pm and I needed a place to camp. I checked with the local Police and they let me throw my tent on the field by the fire department: tonight I will sleep in Ohio.