Day 13 - May 16 - Buckeye Lake, OH to Deer Creek State Park, OH - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent - CycleBlaze

May 16, 2023

Day 13 - May 16 - Buckeye Lake, OH to Deer Creek State Park, OH

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Ed’s Story

The day started like any other day. Wake up, break camp, eat breakfast, and leave. Jared came over and said goodbye to us. He packed up his tent and was gone before we were. We said goodbye to Debbie on the way out. She was the one who checked us in when we arrived at the KOA yesterday.

It was a very nice ride. We rode about 18 miles until we got to Lancaster where we stopped for coffee and a snack. Unfortunately, no bike shops were open that early in the morning. Shortly after leaving Lancaster, the sky darkened; the wind picked up; and the rain started and it rained and rained and rained.

This is our fourth day of riding in the rain. We have been lucky so far and have not had any thunderstorms. I’m sure they are in our future.

We stopped in Circleville at a Kroger store to stock up on food for dinner. We also bought hummus and pita bread and chips to eat lunch outside the store. 

After Circleville, the rain just sort of spit on us; nothing of significance.

We called for Rapunzel as we passed the tower, but she didn’t let down her hair. Maybe she didn’t want to get wet.
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After the tower, the next turn would be toward the state park. We watched the mileage to the turn decrease with every pedal stroke.

Finally, we came to a welcome sign.

Almost there…our welcome sign to the park.
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Someone asked if there is a Deer Creek to go with the park….the answer is yes.

Deer Creek enters the lake on the eastern edge. We are at the blue dot.
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Watching the forecast over the last couple days we noted rain was predicted from noon until 7 PM. We did not want to set up our tents in the rain so we reserved a camper cabin for the night.

The cabin has two bunkbeds; a pullout out couch bed; tables and chairs; a small refrigerator; microwave; and a cook stove (which you can only use outside).

Home sweet home, cabin 172.
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A nice dry night tonight. We’re using the heater in the bedroom to dry our clothes. The wash house is very close…just 2 sites away.
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My sleeping arrangement for the night with clothes drying.
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Tomorrow’s ride is 52 miles with 1400 feet of climbing. We are headed to Caesar Creek State Park near Waynesville, Ohio. We already have a reservation for the night. At times it is good to be a senior citizen. I used my Golden Buckeye card to save 50% of the overnight rate.

Until tomorrow, happy biking!

John’s Story

Not many pictures today. It’s tough to pull the phone out of the handlebar bag and take a shot when everything in it will get wet when you do. The day started with hills as usual, and then insult was added to injury once again when the rain began. 

Don’t you think the constant 100% humidity is doing wonders for my complexion?
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Ed’s all wet.
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Kelly IniguezDoes your recumbent seat hold in the water? I remember that some RANS foam is the dark gray stuff that doesn't hold water, others are the traditional off white foam that acts like a giant sponge. That's what I had. My solution was to wrap the foam in a garbage bag and then insert it in the cover. I was surprised that worked. I did not slip around and it wasn't noticeably sweaty. After it quit raining, I left the garbage bag installed. Now I use an AD Carson mesh seat.

My sympathies about all of the rain. That's no fun. I'm glad you got a cabin for the night to dry out.
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1 year ago
Ed ChimahuskyTo Kelly IniguezI have the dark gray seat. I do have two layers of 4 mm yoga mat on top of the seat for a cushion. The mat get wet but dries quickly. I thought long and hard about the A D Carson seat but I never made it to Recumbent.con last year to check them out. Maybe I will go this year at least get to test before before buying. I put a large black garbage bag over the seat at night to protect from the dew and in case it rains.
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1 year ago

As we left Circleville we ended up in a long line of stop and go traffic through a construction site. Turned out there was a one lane bit of road ahead of us with a light controlling traffic in each direction, and only a few cars got through each time. It took about 10 minutes to go 200 yards.

Amazing! We were riding as fast as this truck! He was no happier than we.
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Something was different when we left Circleville. What was it? We just couldn’t put our fingers on it. It finally dawned on us. The hills were gone!!

Our new song: Where Have All the Hillsides Gone? Think Peter, Paul and Mary for the melody.
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I actually miss them just a little bit. We were back in the mode of constant peddling with no downhills to change things up a bit. Sometimes the uphill bit is a small price to pay for the rest your legs get on the way down the other side.

The Wahoo

My Wahoo has been showing signs of the screen delaminating from the edges. At first I thought there might be a thin plastic protective layer that I had forgotten to peel off when I first bought it. But that’s not it. A layer of glass seems to be separating from the screen below it. Luckily so far it’s only on the outside edges, and it seems to be stopping when it gets to the active part of the screen.

So far Wahoo technical support has been spectacularly unhelpful in giving me ideas about how to address this problem. I don’t think it’s still in warranty. I’m asking them if there’s anything I could do in terms of a field fix to stabilize it; perhaps I could run a bead of superglue around the edge of the screen to keep it from moving any farther. All they want to know is when did you buy it, where did you buy it, what’s the serial number. I see online that there have been lots of folks with the same problem, but all of those issues were resolved under warranty with replacement of the device. That’s not going to work for me out here on the road. I’m thinking it will last till the end of the tour, but I can’t be sure.
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Rich FrasierFor what it's worth, I've had the same problem with my Wahoo and it's been pretty stable after the initial signs of de-lamination. My guess is that you'll be able to finish the ride just fine. But that's just a guess!
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1 year ago

The Salad Dressing

I’ve been hauling around with me in my kitchen kit a small bottle of oil and vinegar thinking that at some point I would make a salad. Today, finally, after almost 2 weeks on the road I made that happen. When we stopped in Circleville for grub supplies I bought a tomato, yellow bell pepper, an avocado, two shallots, some baby Swiss cheese, and some Genoa salami. For dinner I cut them up and mixed them all together into a hobo chef salad that I could then put the salad dressing on. Ed was kind enough to offer his Mrs. Dash seasoning to top it off. Tasty!

The End

I too am looking forward to sleeping inside on a soft mattress pad on one of the bunkbeds in our camper cabin. 

Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 3,459 miles (5,567 km)

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Comment on this entry Comment 4
Rebecca ChimahuskyNo road angel today! And your total mile counter isn’t updated properly either. 🧐
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1 year ago
John ChimahuskyTo Rebecca ChimahuskyWhat about the mile counter?
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1 year ago
Jane ChimahuskyTo John ChimahuskySays you’ve only gone 61 miles total… which is really not that impressive after being on the road for almost two weeks 🤔
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1 year ago
Rebecca ChimahuskyTo John ChimahuskyThe mile counter at the bottom of each journal entry used to be accumulative but now is not. However, Uncle Ed pointed out that the one one the main page is still good.
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1 year ago