July 7, 2022
Cruising through the Great Black Swamp
Ohio ride day
After a couple of days with rain and gray clouds, I was glad to wake up to sunshine and clear skies. Time for a bike ride! Today's choice was going to be a circle out into the countryside around Archbold. We got things going by 10 and headed out to explore.
NW Ohio is part of what was called the Black Swamp that was once glacially fed wetlands that developed after a large lake receded. In the 1850s, attempts began to drain the swamp for agricultural use and ease of travel. Over the decades, this was largely completed and the area settled. From past tours in this region, we knew it was also FLAT!!
Don put together a route and we headed toward Archbold where we soon got "lost" in a nice subdivision. Discussions and complaints from the stoker ensued as we went round and round dead end streets before finally exiting the complex onto a through road. Sheesh!
Once we got out into the countryside, we found the road we needed and headed west. It was pleasant riding on these FLAT low traffic roads past all of the farms and fields. Don commented that he didn't know if he could handle all of these cars:)
Again, the roads were laid out in a grid and mostly paved. One road did have new gravel laid on it for chip seal which was a pain to ride and another one had so many potholes, we nearly turned around. But most of the time the pavement was smooth. No shoulders, but none were needed.
The farms looked well cared for with few falling down buildings and the crops looked healthy. I imagine all of this recent rain was welcomed by the farmers. I do know that it lowered the temperature today and the humidity was lower which made it more pleasant riding.
Our destination today was the Lockport covered bridge. This is a new bridge that was built over the Tiffin River in 1999. In 1871, a covered bridge was stood at this spot until it was replaced by a steel truss bridge in 1919.
The bridge standing today replaced the steel bridge and was built using traditional construction techniques. It's almost entirely made of wood with no steel beams. It had to meet modern bridge requirements in order to be strong enough to allow a semi-truck to pass through the span. So the deck is concrete.
I took a few pictures as Don swatted the mosquitos. Then we headed off to explore some different roads on our way back to the campground. We did stop at a Catholic cemetery near the end of the ride that looked interesting. The predomident surname I saw was Dominique.
Back at camp, it was about noon and time for lunch. It hadn't been a long ride, but we didn't care to be out during the afternoon's heat.
Later in the day, the rest of the rally attendees arrived and we enjoyed visiting with everyone at the happy hour and potluck dinner. It's a small group - only 6 trailers with most everyone from Ohio.
It's always fun to learn from these experienced travelers, many of whom have owned multiple Airstreams over the years. One woman said they had done 2 caravans into Mexico, with one going as far as Panama! That would be quite an adventure and maybe not one we'd want to do. I think if we did a caravan, it would likely be to Alaska.
Caravans are multiple week or month trips to different destinations. Some are history oriented like the Oregon Trail with others just traveling through a specific area. You travel as a group, like a supported bike ride.
I don't know what we have going on for the next few days so stay tuned!
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Today's ride: 21 miles (34 km)
Total: 257 miles (414 km)
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