Finally, we are into the Midwest! Today we are in Yellow Springs, Ohio, a wonderful small town west of Columbus and neighboring Xenia, where my mom grew up! Tomorrow we will actually ride through Xenia and I'll hopefully post some pictures.
The Midwest has been extremely hospitable and friendly, and it's been a treat to stay in some great towns. From Pittsburgh we traveled to Cadiz, OH--via Steubenville! A couple of friends and I took a quick detour up the hill to visit the campus/chapel. The next day, the 4th of July, took us into Coschoctan. I spent the day riding with a group that is a little bit faster than myself (including Matt), and had a great time pushing myself to keep up instead of plodding along by myself. I'm not one of the slowest riders, but I tend to go at my own pace because I don't want to hold others back. I found out on that ride that hanging with others makes the ride much more fun. We stopped for a good part of the afternoon at a car show/carnival in Gnadenhutten where we were treated to free food by a couple that we didn't even have a chance to meet--they met some of our friends earlier and then left money at the fair for any riders that came along after. What a blessing!
The next day we rode into Columbus and I had a chance to visit with Shane (a friend from college) who just got back from a year in Switzerland! We have 3 Ohio State students on the trip, so the whole group went out for a relaxing night on the town, and we got our 11 pm riding curfew extended to 1 am in anticipation of an easy ride the next day. It was great to see Shane and also to get to know everyone in the group a bit better.
The next day's ride (this morning's) was an easy 60-miler along a smooth, flat, beautiful bike path to Yellow Springs. It was such a nice change, we could ride alongside each other and talk the whole way, something we haven't been able to do. At lunch we stopped at a picnic pavilion along the bike path and were swarmed by the local media--3 different people came out to interview us and take pictures! We got into Yellow Springs early and were shuttled to showers at the homes of members of the United Methodist Church--such a treat! In addition to hot showers and real, fluffy towels, our hosts (mine were Roger and Macy) provided fresh coffee, cookies, and internet access! They were excited to see us and we were privileged to be treated so well! Tonight we are going to the world-famous Young's Dairy, on the church. It's so cool to be going places that Mom showed us when we visited Xenia maybe ten years ago.
Still enjoying the road, more soon!
Love
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