Amish hill country: Part 1

It is cool and partly cloudy this morning, a welcome change to the last few days. As we leave Millersburg and roll down to the trail, we have started to see the Amish. A family walking down Main Street.  A young girl on her bicycle.  A family in a buggy.  Once we hit the trail, […]

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Coffee in Fredericksburg

Its a busy Saturday morning in Fredericksburg. The day is heating up and so is the ball game in the field down by Salt Creek. Tractors, horse buggies, cars, trucks and electric bicycles are jockeying for space and taking their turn at the 4-way stop in the center of town. Lem’s pizza is  doing a […]

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Amish hill country: Part 2

After being fueled on coffee and carrot cake, we leave Fredericksburg to peddle the rural roads of Holmes county for the next 17 miles. But as we leave town, we encounter something that has been mostly foreign to us: hills. But for now that matters little as we pass directly though beautiful farmland. Though the […]

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Looking for Amish: Part 1

We had a wonderful breakfast at the Mt. Vernon Inn, which has a lovely internal garden. We lingered a bit but with cool morning temperatures and clear skies we made for an early start. I was excited and hopeful about today as we would be entering Amish country and share our bike path with families […]

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Divergent lives

As we dismount our bikes at the Glenmont tavern, a fellow long-distance biker stops by to speak with us. But he was very different than most bikers we see. His bike was an old steel 21 speed bike with standard tires. The bike had cheap plastic pedals, no lights and his helmet was  a green […]

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Looking for Amish: Part 2

After a filling lunch in Glenmont, we are on state road 520 for the next 8 miles. We turn on our safety lights and head for Killbuck. There is little traffic on the road and for the first 10 minutes or so, no cars pass in either direction. The route curves around the base of […]

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We eat more than a whit

As it was about noon on a hot day, I thought there would be no better place to take a rest than a local ice cream parlor. So while Ted was stretching his legs and reading a historical plaque, I Googled ice cream and struck pay dirt: A highly rated ice cream parlor just 500 […]

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A hot day on the road

As we exit the hotel at 9:30 in the morning, it is already in the mid 80s. We are going to have a hot ride today. We enter the Alum Creek Trail in Westerville and the water is still very high. That trail ends quickly and after a slight road detour we hop on another […]

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Country to city: Part 1

After a breakfast of waffles with fruit, we make for an early start. Like our first day, we have over 50 miles to bike and we will pass through Columbus, a major city interlaced with busy highways and interstates.  Leaving South Charleston, we pass the local grain co-op with its series of tall, silver cylindrical […]

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Country to city: Part 2

Just when you believe that you have been on the best maintained trail you have ever ridden on,  the Ohio to Erie Trail (OTET) surprises you. We enter Roberts Pass from London and its asphalt bed has been seal-coated within the last week or so and we are among the first to ride it. It […]

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