Chicago to New York City – Days Seven/Eight

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Start: Xenia, Ohio
End: Columbus, Ohio
Mileage today/cumulative: 59 / 412
Elevation Ascended today/cumulative: 571′ / 5,804′
Weather: Sunny, 70° at start; Sunny, 92º at finish; Winds: calm, then a nice tailwind
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 0 / 1

It’s already been a week since we left Chicago and began this crazy adventure. As always, the days are flying by and the whole thing will be in the rear view mirror before we know it. Knowing that makes it even more important to live in the moment and take in everything that we experience along the way. We are learning to enjoy the slower pace of bike touring and appreciating all of the sights and sounds. Well, in my case, perhaps only the sights since I inherited notoriously bad hearing.

Day Seven took us from Xenia to Columbus, a distance of 59 miles with nearly all of it on a bike path. The bike is always a healthy escape from the mess in the world but this was an especially peaceful morning rolling along an automobile-free path for miles and miles, with only grassland and farms on either side. Nearly all of our route followed the Ohio to Erie trail, which connects multiple trails and spans the state of Ohio from Cincinnati in the south (the Ohio River) to Cleveland in the north (Lake Erie). Most of the path was repaved earlier in the summer, making the day just that much smoother.

The idiom “nothing to write home about” would apply to Xenia, Ohio. The town is connected by a few rails-to-trails and is in the “transportation triangle” of I-70, I-71, and I-75. Like many of the towns we’ve seen along our route, some entrepreneurs are trying to resuscitate the old downtown district with mixed success.  We did find a decent brewery, good Mexican food, and a respectable coffee shop, so bonus points for that.

There are a few small towns along the trail between Xenia and Columbus and some of them have figured out how to cater to cyclists. Along the way we saw rest stops with bike repair stands, water stops, and bike-friendly coffee shops. There was an inn that offered bike parking and “energy snacks” for cyclists who were just passing by. One of the most creative stops was the Cedarville Welcome Center, a replica scale model of Henry David Thoreau’s cabin, similar to one he lived in when he wrote “Walden”. The site, directly across from the Cedarville Community Library, also included large illustrations from a children’s book. We may return to this area on a future trip and would stay in Cedarville.

Columbus is the capital of Ohio and home to THE Ohio State University, which recently attempted, unsuccessfully, to trademark the word “the”. This made them the butt of many jokes but it’s hard to argue with academic excellence and college football domination. We were surprised to learn that Columbus is the largest city in Ohio, exceeding the number of people in Cincinnati and Cleveland combined.  Go figure. Columbus is a dynamic and interesting place that we never would have visited if not for cycling.

Seeing our country from the seat of a bicycle alongside each other is an amazing gift that neither of us take for granted. We are, to paraphrase our ride leader, getting the most out of the remaining tread on our tires of life.

Day Eight was a rest day in Columbus. That’s a good thing because the terrain is about to get a bit more challenging.