Day 40 – From Richmond, Indiana to Marysville, Ohio – 106 miles

First of all - I am off on my days - today is day 40 but I am off by a day somehow... I'll figure out how at some point .. but for now...Today was a fantastic day – I hardly even noticed that we did over 100 miles. We crossed into yet another state… we are passing states left and right.. yahoo! We are now in Ohio. I tried to do a headstand at the Ohio sign with Skip but it turned out really bad… so, I decided to put show you my decent photo!

The weather today was very pleasant – in the 70s and not very humid at all. I rode along at a comfortable pace by myself for awhile and then caught up with a large group at the Ohio stateline. I decided to ride back a bit since the large riding groups aren’t my favorite – around 3-4 other people is good… beyond that I feel like its too chaotic to ride in. I ended up meeting up at a bathroom break with Tom, Sue, and Dan and rode with them until I heard a funny sound on my bike… not sure what it was.. I thought I had a flat… but in fact, my back tire wouldn’t move or go anywhere. Sarge was riding by and helped me out but we just learned that I had broken a spoke. So much for that! I called the Sag Wagon and the mechanic, Gerard, came and brought me a spare wheel to ride on until we fix my wheel tonight at mechanics hour. I arrived at the first sag stop significantly behind everyone but Dan was still there talking to his grandfather, who was sagging today. Dan and I rode the rest of the way together… which was very nice. It was Dan’s first century… he joined the trip with his grandfather in St. Joseph, Missouri and this was the first time I had really spoken with him. He is going to be a senior in high school so we talked about his college choices, etc… it was nice to get to know him a bit. He did excellent on his first century – no complaints – like a pro!

We did met up with the other riders at a bakery/lunch stop in St. Helena, Ohio – it was nice to have lunch and catch up with the other riders. We also met the mayor of this town (pictured we me on the right) – his wife owns the shop and he says they do well there. The town is mainly a bedroom community where the residents live but work farther away in the main cities of Ohio. We passed by a lot of homes today and some small towns… we continue to have many cornfields and I even saw some wheat for the first time today. I rode with the other few riders until the second sag stop and spent too long there so Dan and I rode the rest of the way in … Marysville is a nice town so far.

I found out at mechanics hour that my relatively new Specialized tire got a crack in the rim… no more riding that tire for me! Major Bummer! Gerard, our mechanic, is going to let me borrow a wheel while I finish out my ride and then I can return the wheel to Spokeman in Santa Cruz and hopefully it will be covered by my warranty – so that all worked out.
I met a local guy who did the ride with Michelle, our tour leader, and he took George and I to a bike shop about 15 miles down the road… I looked for shorts but they didn’t have what I wanted. He also drove us to dinner and I enjoy a nice dinner talking with him… he has lived here for quite a long time, almost since boyhood, and had a lot of good riding stories too. You never know what a day will hold… so great!