May 17 -- Marysville OH to Wooster OH

Well, up again. This time, however, I'm sitting in the breakfast room because for some reason the wireless isn't working in my room -- it worked last night for a long time then went down and I didn't bother to chase down the issue. This a.m. it was still down so I went to the lobby where it works. Perhaps I'll have some breakfast ...

Today's ride promises to be cool and perhaps wet. We're expecting highs in the mid 50's -- quite a change from the ride to this point. It is not raining right now but we'll likely encounter something over the course of the day. I'll have to decide what to wear. Winds will be from the north at 20+ mph so the northbound legs will be tough and there will be drafting challenges when we're going east depending on how busy the roads are.

Oh - I forgot to mention one thing about the ride yesterday -- at one point we were overtaking another rider and talking among ourselves to the effect that we didn't think that anyone was ahead of us and this must be a "rogue rider" i.e. local rider. As we overtook this person it was obvious from the back that it was a lady rider -- I called out "on your left" and "good morning" as we passed -- then I looked back at her and realized that it was Barb ! -- it seems that Karen was doing first SAG duty and had dropped Barb off about 20 miles from the SAG so that she could get her first ride in of the trip.

We had dinner at a local restaurant about 100 yards away called Phillys. The food was ok but the service was a disaster. We overwhelmed them -- 16 of us. The spagetti was all-you-can-eat and a number of people opted for that -- Jeff Dodd-o had 5 or 6 plates and the restaurant just couldn't keep up. Most had 3-4 and then this mountainous ice cream desert. I was not that hungry and opted for the "checken brocolli smothered with cheese" -- without the cheese. It was good but not completely filling and it was not all-you-can-eat so I added chilli and skipped desert ... well, not quite since I had a chocolate milk and a package of oreos from the convenience store. One waitress kept her sense of humor and continued serving us the other waitress lost it -- commenting "we have other customers you know" ...

This a.m. we can either eat continental breakfast at the hotel or go to the Waffle Shoppe (or both) -- it looks like most will go to the Waffle Shoppe. Loading is at 6:15 ... then we're off.

It's another day like yesterday with a million turns (30+) on the route sheet. There was no one yesterday that did not miss at least one turn, but since we had detailed maps and the roads are in a rectangular grid pattern, it's easy to get back on track without back tracking. At one point we knew from the mileage that we had missed a turn, stopped to reconoiter and flagged down the UPS truck who directed us back on route.

I had to order another water bottle cage from Performance -- which has already been delivered to my hotel for tomorrow night. One of the tabs had broken off at the bottom -- rough roads and bouncing bottles. Aaron has had these carbon cages fail as well -- I should probably have put on a couple of steel cages for this trip but I like the look of the carbon cages. Roark has titanium cages ($40) that are light as a feather and of course would match my bike .... but I had already ordered the carbon.

I'll have to go back to my room soon to get ready ... later ...

.........

We're back in. It was a grueling day -- for a variety of reasons. First off it was raining, pelting large drops. Second it was cold. So -- I wore the rain pants, rain jacket along with the usual shorts and jersey, plus the long sleeved jersey.

There were four of us who set out early, not interested in the Waffle House breakfast -- me, Geoff & Jerry -- plus Jeff. His usualy riding companions -- Guenter and Steve -- were going to the waffle house.

When we got to the first SAG the rain had letup somewhat, but it was still cold -- Barb figured that we would get to the lunch SAG before her, so we said that we would find some food along the way and call her when we got to the hotel so that she knew that we were in safely. As it happened, we stopped at a convenience store 10 miles short of the SAG to get some food and Barb passed at that point, saw us, and waved.

So -- at that point it wasn't raining -- we were 63 miles into the ride; the SAG was going to be at 75; we had already had something to eat ... piece of cake for the rest of the day ? .... no. We were soaked from the inside; it was still cold out; and then the hills started.

Today's ride included about 4000 feet of climbing -- but most of those hills were between mile 63 and the end. They were mostly short hills, but quite steep. So ... downhill you were hampered by all the clothing; uphill you were gasping from the heat, in spite of the cold -- not fun.

We got to the lunch SAG and had a few things and were on our way again. We got the impression from Barb that the rest of the ride was "not as much fun" ( joking of course) -- but in fact it was hilly to almost the end.

We got to the end around 2pm -- elapsed time 7:30; miles 106; rolling time 6:54. That's a long time to do a little over a century -- we were having so much fun !!

The rooms at this econolodge are much, much -- emphasize the much -- better than last night's rooms. Clean and clean smelling; only problem is that I don't have a coffee maker or microwave. I'll check with the office.

Right now I have laundry in the machine. It should be ready for the dryer shortly. I was second in line ... not very quick off the mark.

We stopped at a convenience store by the motel and got a beer and chips -- ahh. The second group of riders came in about 1/2 hour later and Barb was about 1/2 hour after that. The first order of business -- after we sat and ate chips and drank beer -- was to wash our bikes; then laundry for me; then shower ...

There is nothing, repeat nothing, around here except for Mcdonalds. We are planning on ordering in pizza -- then McD if we're still hungry. There is also the convenience store if all else fails. Mike has offered to run a shuttle into town, but I don't think that we'll take him up on that -- at least from my perspective.

I don't know anything about tomorrow's ride yet -- have not checkd the weather (it's supposed to be cold) nor distance nor climbing. It will be what it will be. 7 more days ...

No pictures today ...