6/25 Jill's Bike Log

6/25 Fri-Destination, Delaware, OH (Biked 65 miles; 621 total) Rode 10 miles from the campground to the Erie/Ohio bike trail. The trail was straight and flat, with minimal shade. Large farms with mostly corn fields bordered each side of the trail. The grain elevators were huge. I find riding on back, twisty winding country roads, with gently rolling hills more interesting then flat, straight routes.

Wildlife on the trail today was cottontails and chipmunks. Bryce said he almost ran over one. Mal sagged today. Bryce and Trevor decided to take a highway instead of following the TA route after the trail ended. The Trans America routes zigzags you through back street and roads, which requires frequently looking at the map and reading the directions so you won’t miss a turn. I still preferred doing that than riding on a busy highway.

We were on our own for lunch. I was having my usual chocolate malt craving, but when I inquired where I could find ice-cream in West Jefferson, there was a Dairy Queen on the edge of town which was the opposite direction from where I had to ride. Ended up eating at a “mom & pop” restaurant. Ate a chicken salad sandwich and watermelon. Tasty. My ice cream fix would have to wait.

I could see why Trevor and Bryce didn’t want to follow the TA map as it took a lot of staring at the map and conferring with the directions to make sure I was following the back roads. I had to go off the TA route and ask for directions to Plain City as one road I thought would take meet them ended up being closed due to road repairs. My phone battery was just abut depleted so I asked if there was more than one pizza joint in town as I knew Trevor and Bryce were hanging out at one. Fortunately there was only one off of Rte. 42, so figured that’s where they were. I ended up biking about 1 mile on Rte. 42, which was a very busy highway. I preferred biking on back roads and conferring with the map. It ended up that T & B were content hanging out at the pizza joint for several hours with air conditioning and a big screen TV waiting for the van and me to arrive.

We drove to the Alum Creek State Park. It was huge. We had a decent site with electricity. I made my follow up phone call with the newspaper reporter back home to make sure he didn’t have any questions about the article which was going to be printed tomorrow. Apparently the pictures Karen sent weren’t action shots, which is what they usually want, so we road up and down the street trying to get an action shot. The kids took off on the bikes to go swimming. Karen and I went up to the registration office where there is Wi-Fi. We took up residence on the sidewalk outside of the office. Took a while to figure out how to down-load and choose the photos. Bryce came by on his bike, so we had him take over, which he expedited within 10 minutes.

Made dinner; and Trevor started his compulsory fire in the fire pit from down fall. Had an electrical hook-up so we plugged in all of our electronics to charge. Bryce dragged out the light up Frisbee which they played in the street for a while before heading to bed. Unfortunately we were camped adjacent to partiers. Fortunately it didn’t keep me awake all night. The last several nights, it’s been reasonably cool for sleeping.