Day 101- Zanesville to Newark

August 18, 2022

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Back on the bike! We had a very good ride from Zanesville to Newark today. Once we got out of town, we had quiet rural roads and some attractive towns to visit.

Early in the ride, we were very pleased to find that the Ride with GPS route had the elevation profile for miles 6-9 very wrong. The 300 foot climb in less than a mile didn't happen. There were no 10% + grades. We cruised along with nothing steeper than about 5%. It was a nice surprise!

The first town we came to north of Zanesville was Dresden. Dresden was the home of the now defunct Longaberger Baskets. At the height of the Longaberger basket craze, the town was full of tourists and tour buses. There were many stores and restaurants lining the streets. Now only a couple of small shops remain. The Longaberger name was bought by a New York company which sells baskets and other handmade home goods online.

The residential areas have the classic tree lined streets.

A few small shops remain.

This replica of a Longaberger Market Basket was built by employees and has been refurbished.

From Dresden, we rode to Frazeysburg. It is just a little town which distinguished itself for me by having a Subway that produced the best rotisserie chicken sandwich ever!

We saw many of these tall flowering plants along the road today.

Here is a close up view. Does anyone (BIll) know what they are?

The last part of the ride was on the T. J. Evans Panhandle Trail. It is a "rail with trail" with an active rail line parallel to the trail. We were disappointed that no trains passed as we were riding.

The trail parallels an active rail line. We were sorry that there was no action on it while we were riding along this afternoon.

We were glad to be on a flat railroad grade through these hills. They had to move a lot of rock to build this rail line!

The rail and trail are well above the surrounding roads.

The ride ended in Newark, the 15th largest city in Ohio, population 50,000. Newark has a thriving and attractive city center.

This is the former Longaberger company headquarters. It has been vacant since the company closed in 2016 and for sale since 2017. Want to buy a seven story basket, complete with handles, for 6.5 million?

Downtown Newark features a traditional courthouse square.

The downtown area seems prosperous and busy.

We stopped at a bike shop on the courthouse square because we saw this tandem in the window. We had nice chat with one of the employees, Jesse, about cycling and touring. He was regretting how much his working cut into his cycling time. His day will come!

Jesse says having this bike in the window draws a lot of people into the shop.

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 3,147 miles (5,065 km)

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