May 14, 2023
Day 11 - May 14 - Senecaville OH to Zanesville OH
What a Difference a Day Makes
Ed’s Story
A great subtitle - the sun was out; and it was much warmer than it had been. We were able to leave camp with just shorts and a jersey.
Then we remembered we were at lake level. Just climbing out was a mile long and 100’ of elevation. Yep, I’m not proud - I walked. Then we had to tackle the hills on Skyline Drive that John talked about in yesterday’s journal.
We eventually found ourselves back on the route to Zanesville, and believe it or not we ran into more hills. This is eastern Ohio so the hills were expected. I was able to ride up some of the climbs including one that got up to 15% grade; how I did it I’ll never know.
We stopped for coffee at a BP about 5 miles out. It was a refreshing stop. We met one older man who told us we could get a ticket if we rode too slow on state highways. All the debating in the world couldn’t get him to change his mind. After all he said he has 17 cousins who are highway patrolmen.
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We got into Zanesville and went shopping at Riesbecks for dinner items. We found a brewery but it was on the other side of the river with no short safe way to get there. We ended up at Tumbleweed Tex-Mex grill for a beer and chips with guacamole.
We headed and got to Wolfies campsite and guess what it was at the top of, a hill.
We met Marianne who is riding her trike solo across the U.S. (for the sixth time). I will let John talk about her.
A little while later, Peggy shows up on her bike. She also started in Washington DC and is on the same Eastern Express route that we are. She is also riding solo. I won’t give ages, but both John and I are younger than the two women riders we’ve met.
As I noted in the beginning of the journal, my sons challenged me to not shave, and to grow a beard on this trip. For those who are interested here I am at day 9.
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Tomorrow we are headed to the KOA campground at Buckeye Lake. It is only a 32 mile ride so hopefully we can get in fairly early in order to wash some clothes.
Well, it’s dinner time so I need to close. Until next time happy biking.
John’s Story
Ed is being conservative about the climb out to Skyline Drive from Seneca Lake this morning. By the time we got to the campground entrance we had climbed 270’. I managed to ride all the way out by steering serpentine from one side of the road to the other to lower the effective grade, something I couldn’t have done on a busy road. There was another 130’ of climbing before we got to the highway and the beginning of today’s route. So we climbed to the top of a 40 story building before we had our morning coffee.
So what did we see today? Picturesque southeast Ohio, meaning hills. The hills were just as much fun (?) as yesterday, but they came more often and in different forms. There were of course the stealth hills like yesterday. You know, average grade of 3.5% with some 12%-15% sections included for seasoning. Then there were the insidious hills. The ones not even identified as climbs by the Wahoo, but which slowed you to a stop on the way up nonetheless. But we did have some good rollers that allowed us to use our downward momentum to push us most of the way up the next summit. Those were fun for real. Today’s 3,000’ of climbing was packed into 42 miles of riding, as opposed to yesterdays 3,500’ stretched over 60 miles.
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So how about some more pictures of picturesque southeast Ohio? After all, that’s what we saw today.
After cramming in all that hill climbing we thought a cold beer would be nice when we got to Zanesville. The bartender had trouble tapping my beer. Too much head. When I had drunk it halfway down she refilled it. Then she wouldn’t charge me for it because of the inconvenience! Extra beer is an inconvenience? People in southeast Ohio have odd ways.
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When we arrived at Wolfie’s Campground (a really nice place!), a woman came over to talk to us. Marianne was camped at one of the other tent sites. She left Barstow, California alone on March 3 riding her recumbent trike. She is headed to Philadelphia. When she gets there she plans to ride north to Quebec, then ride west across Canada before turning south at last to ride back to California. This is her 6th self supported transcontinental bike tour. She is older than I am. Lynn, your records are in danger!
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1 year ago
1 year ago
Not sure of the raccoon situation here so we have our foodstuffs locked away in our critter sacks for the night.
Personal Note
One of my grandfather’s Pennsylvania Polish coal miner brothers apparently rode the rails during the Great Depression looking for work so he could send money home to his family. Once I heard that story I thought that might explain my wanderlust tendencies. I refer to my condition as inherited hobo-somes.
I became so enthralled by this idea that several years ago I travelled to Britt, Iowa to see the National Hobo Museum and attend the Britt Hobo Days. Since 1900 Britt, Iowa has hosted a National Hobo Convention. This year it will be held August 10-13. Check it out at Britt Hobo Days. Fascinating, to me anyway.
Some definitions:
- Hobo - intentionally homeless person who travels to find work
- Tramp - intentionally homeless person who travels but doesn’t work
- Bum - intentionally homeless person who is too lazy to travel or work
Song about hobos, from Don McLean’s Solo album.
Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 3,534 miles (5,687 km)
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1 year ago
1 year ago
On the website the developers laid out a suggested daily itinerary from Washington, DC to Walden, Colorado that avoided a lot of the big hill climbing in the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains that you find on the original Transamerica to Yorktown, Virginia. I laid them both out in Ride With GPS and the Eastern Express had 40,000 less hill climbing between the East Coast and Walden than the original Transamerica.
The developers included on their website day by day Ride With GPS routes from DC to Walden with detailed logistics information along the way. That’s what I used to develop our tour route over the past two years. So, yes, we are on the Transamerica Eastern Express route as envisioned by those who developed it, not as ACA modified it to suit themselves.
The Eastern Express route presented to ACA started in DC and followed the C&O Canal towpath to the GAP to the Montour Trail to the Panhandle Trail; on to Wheeling, WV, across the Ohio River into southeastern Ohio where we are now; then roughly west between Dayton and Cincinnati to Terre Haute, IN, Effingham, IL and across the Mississippi River at Alton, IL. The rest is pretty much as ACA has presented it.
I talked to ACA and they told me they cut off the eastern part and routed it up to Indianapolis for two primary reasons: 1) the C&O and GAP are already very well defined and described, and 2) they wanted to tie it into their existing Chicago to New York City route.
When I get back home I may put our route out there as a single Ride With GPS route, to show what it looked like in the minds of those who did the work to create it.
1 year ago
1 year ago