Tuesday, August 21

Urban riding in DC. The body is still recovering, but felt good to spin till the rain chased me back to the hotel.

Day 2, Monday, August 20

After much consideration and trying to understand what my body was telling me made the difficult decision to abort the ride. I will keep it short here, but did to much on day 1 and the body needs time to recover.

In hindsight we probably planned more per day than we should have, 30 miles per day doesn't sound like much, but with the climbs it is probably the correct number.

Heading to DC for a couple of days, hoping to do some urban riding.

Day 1 Summary

Rode a total of 50.96 miles. The scenery was amazing and the climbs just kept coming. When I finally made camp at around 6:30pm my average speed was 7.5 mph, with a maximum speed of 34.9 mph. Spent most of the day riding at 4.2 mph.

Pictures from Day 1

Some random pictures.

Sunday, August 19

Blue Ridge Parkway 2018

Will start in Ashville, NC on Sunday, August 19th and ride 7-days. Ending 311-miles later at the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.

A few random pictures.

Day 6 Muncie IN to Huntington IN

51-miles today, which have us 308 for the trip. It was a gray day to be on a bike. Had breakfast at Chick- Fill-A, the chicken biscuit is awesome. First 11- miles was on the Cardinal Greenway, followed by another 11- miles before lunch at Ivanhoes in Upland. That last 5- miles into Upland were the hardest of the day, guess there is a reason the town is called Upland.

After a German Chocolate Cake Sundae it was a 29- mile ride home with a slight tailwind. The first time in six days!

It was a great 6- days of riding with good friends and visited some really cool places.

Day 5 Richmond IN to Muncie IN

Sunday is suppose to be a day of rest, so a short day was just the thing. 38- miles with 34 of them on the Cardinal Greenway.

Had a lazy morning visiting with Leighanne and Cali and still made Muncie in time to watch the 2 nd half of the Bengals /Steelers game, which Brooks enjoyed a lot more than me.

Here is a picture of Cali enjoying the attention.

Day 4 Dayton OH to Richmond In

Did some sight seeing in Dayton and didn't head out of town till noon. Ended up with 51- miles, mostly into the wind (go figure). Most of them were also in the rain, for the most part the rain was light, but there was a couple times it came down pretty strong. At one point we hung out with the fireman in Lewistown OH for about 30- minutes watching Michigan play Oklahoma. .

The last 7- miles was dry and no wind, but we found some real hills. Didn't think I would get to try the climbing gears on this trip, but I was wrong. 

Tomorrow should be an easy day. Shortest day of the trip and ask on the Cardinal Greenway.

Here is a picture of the Wright Brothers plane.

Day 3 Sydney OH to Dayton OH

Somebody should have changed the batteries in their computer. I think we rode 45- miles today. Of course we still had a head wind, but most of the day was on trails so we were kind of blocked from it.

Had to fix our own breakfast this morning and we killed it! 3- eggs over easy (cooked in bacon grease), half pound of bacon, toast, coffee cake, Orange juice and coffee. A real man's breakfast! No lunch was needed.

Weather was wonderful, mid 80's with plenty of sun.

Waco Airfield &Museum

Day 2 Celina OH to Sydney OH

44- miles mostly with a headwind, when we finally turned it was rollers the rest of the way. But a beautiful day to ride with temps in the mid 70's.

Stopped in New Breman at the bicycle museum, highly recommended. Had a Salmon BELT sandwich for lunch (bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato) and a peach barrel ale at the restaurant next door. Both highly recommended.

Now roughing it at a cabin in the middle of no-where. But at least the pizza delivery guy knew how to find us.

Bicycle Museum of America

Day 1 Huntington In to Celina Oh

76.6 miles with a threat of rain all day, but got nothing except a few very light sprinkles. Weather guy definitely led this morning, he said we would have a west wind, but it was Northeast, ride into out most of the day.  Not much to see in Indiana except corn and bean fields.

Did ride thru the middle of Amish country as school was getting out. Brooks thought the buggies should have been yellow.

Nice view of St Mary's lake if we climb a hill, but the pond out of our back door doesn't look to bad.

2016 Tour

On Wednesday, September 14, we will ride from Huntington thru St Mary's Ohio to Dayton. Then head to Richmond Indiana so we can pick up the Cardinal Greenery on our way back home. Will be a six day tour with approx 300- miles of riding and a lot of historical places to visit along the way.

Trip will include Brooks Fetters, Royce Rickman, and of course yours truly.

Natchez Trace Complete

What an enjoyable week of biking with a couple of great friends. Weather was great, a few cool days and a few days of challenging heat. Some long mileage days and some shorter days with a lot of hills. Saw the hills go from moderate to really long to steep and long. Plus we saw some really cool sites and learned a few things along the way.

Stats: 7- days of riding with a total of 485- miles. An average of 69.3- miles per day. It was more of a challenging ride than I had expected, but extremely enjoyable.

Scenic View

5- miles to go!

1812 Memorial

Honoring the soldiers buried along the Natchez Trace.

Fly General Store

Famous sandwich stop along the Trace on Fly Tennessee. Notice the old adding machine with the meat slicer beside it.