First of all, about that traditional Amish dinner we were planning on last night? It didn't happen, we ended up going across the street to a Mexican restaurant.
We got up early today to beat the expected heat. The Millersburg Inn closes down around 9 p.m. and the staff goes home. At 6:30 this morning it was dark and deserted downstairs. We were staying on the 2nd floor and our bikes were locked up downstairs in a dinning room, so we had to wait until the first employee showed up around 7:00 to get to our bikes.
Our planned route called for 2600 feet of climbing. This caused a minor panic last night when we remembered that we are riding tandems, so our route planning department did some emergency rerouting last night to add a few miles distance in order to chop off 500 feet of climbing. With our new route and an early start, we left Millersburg full of confidence.
By 9:30 we had covered 20 some miles. Granted, the first 10 we flat miles along the Holmes County trail, but that was followed by some monster hills.
Leaving the marshes along the Holmes trail behind.
The real reason we climbed the hills was to get to Zanesville. Kerry grew up there and still has relatives and childhood friends there. We enjoyed visiting them.
Kerry with Uncle Fred and Aunt Kathie. Last of their generation, first in many hearts.
Regarding our last minute rerouting to minimize the climbing, a one day road closure between Dresden and Zanesville forced off of the route we came up with last night. We ended up adding back the 500 feet of climbing with interest.
