If you’re reading this, you probably know that I have been doing a long distance bike ride each year since 2010. This year’s big ride is from my home in Lexington, KY to Lake Erie in Cleveland, OH. As with the last few years, my riding buddies are JB, Zubby, and Billy.
Our route is using less travelled roads through Kentucky up to Cincinnati. Once we reach Cincinnati, we will use the well established route across Ohio called the Ohio To Erie Trail. I’ve done this route before.
We decided to meet up at my house and roll at 8AM. The weather today was just about perfect for cycling. It was overcast and very cloudy all day, with temperatures in the 60s-70s. Although I enjoy blue skies, the clouds kept the sun from making us too hot. There’s a sweet spot for weather that we call an ‘epic day’. We decided that today was slightly below epic, but fantastic. The grey skies took a few points off of epic.
A few days ago, JB surprised all of us with a handlebar mounted jet plane to mount to our bikes. We each found a way to put them on our bikes. I mounted mine under my trusty GPS on the front of the bike. I don’t think the airplanes are a ride mascot, but they sort of are. Can an airplane be a mascot?
The route I plotted is fairly direct while trying to stay off busy roads as much as possible. There were a few miles into Cynthiana, out of Cynthiana, and into Falmouth. The rest of the route was quiet and great cycling.
As we rolled away, we took some well trodden roads from Lexington to Paris, KY. After a short break, we picked up some rural roads to carry us to Cynthiana, where we stopped for a break to eat and hydrate. The last leg took us from Cynthiana to Falmouth mostly using back-country roads.
Today’s ride was uneventful. No cramping, no mechanical issues, no problems. We rolled into Falmouth a little after 2PM and settled in at the Smoking Pig for some late lunch. We all ate well, then walked over to our B&B to get checked in and cleaned up.
The B&B is over an old bank in the old downtown of Falmouth. I’ve stayed here before and the host does a nice job of making it a clean and comfy place to stay.
Tomorrow’s route will take us from the Licking Valley up over to the Ohio Valley. We’ll then follow the Mary Ingalls highway into Newport,KY before crossing into Cincinnati. Tomorrow’s destination is just south of Loveland, OH.
I’m really sleepy, however 5:30PM is not a reasonable bed time. A great day of riding and now I am going to try to stay awake until a reasonable bed time.
Peace,
– Dcn. Matt
Deacon Matt's Blog 