Day 39: Back Out There

Newark, Ohio to Hartville, Ohio – Comfort Suites

Jennie and Jose got up early to send me off. They made me another amazing omelet, and set me up with a couple of sandwiches for the road. I even commissioned one of my water bottles to serve as a beef stew to-go container for dinner tonight. Jose drove me back to the route, and I was off! Another huge thank you to Jenni, Jose, Nando, and Evie. I had such a good rest day in Newark. I had great food, and an awesome place to sleep. It was so much fun catching-up, and playing with the kids.

With my new headlight, I was out riding before sunrise again. I started the day on the bike path, and did some community service by clearing the entire 10-mile stretch of hundreds of spider webs. I hit my first gravel road soon after leaving the bike path. I was in the middle of nowhere, so luckily, the gavel part was very short. The “Pavement Ends Here” sign wasn’t as ominous as it seemed. At 7:35 a.m., and 26.16 miles into the day’s ride, I hit 3,000 total miles for my trip! Another milestone. I’m about 3/4 of the way through!

I hit another gravel road soon after that milestone. Ugh. Thankfully, it was just another short stretch of road, just a half mile long, but straight down a big hill. This was starting to get really frustrating, because of my skinny tires and heavy load, I had to walk my bike through all the loose gravel areas. I ate my first sandwich on the Tuscarawas River, and soon after that, I hit my THIRD loose stone road. I had no choice, but to take it. Turning back was not an option, and this one was terrible! It went straight up a steep incline for a mile, and I struggled to lug my heavy bike up the road. Eventually, I got back to pavement. I had to reevaluate. If I kept hitting gravel, I’d never make it to my destination.

I stopped at the Pearl Valley Cheese Factory to snack on some food, and plan a new route. For some reason my bike GPS app is not longer reliable at keeping me off gravel roads. First, I decided to stay on the main road to Akron, but quickly was convinced to ride back towards my original route, staying on the main roads. Not only was this a less direct route, but the hills became especially steep. I stopped for lunch, and to refill my water bottles at Cafe 93 in Dundee. I bought a (not so good) egg sandwich, and when I asked to refill my water bottles the woman at the counter said: “Probably not. We sell our water here.” Okay lady….thanks for that! I pressed on, forging my own path, just looking at my GPS as if I was using a paper map. I decided on a hotel as a target, and pressed on toward it. Almost there, and once again, I had to deal with one last road closure. However, when I finally did arrive, I was rewarded with a bag of M&M’s and an AHA watermelon for free from the hotel desk clerk. It was a rough day, made even longer than the time appears, due to walking my bike for an additional 2 miles on hills. I settled in, ate my leftover stew for dinner, and planned on a good night’s sleep and a better day tomorrow. VIEW PHOTOS

Distance: 101.5(3075.34 total miles)
Time: 8:03:02
Ascent: 4652
Descent: 4452

Scroll Down to leave a comment…