Columbus, Athens, now WV

Busy couple of days- I haven't exactly been up to blog speed. I've spent more hours per day on a bike recently than I have sleeping. So after arriving in Columbus, I shortly headed out unexpectedly to attend a funeral on my fiancee's side. This involved borrowing a nice outfit and a car, then driving to Pittsburgh on Friday to pick Lori up, then down to Morgantown, WV, for Friday night/Saturday, then back to Columbus Saturday night for the great cookout hosted by Clare's parents. In the whole fiasco, I think I left my digital cam in Clare's car, so my remaining blog entries may be pictureless- my apologies. Hopefully my writing can sustain you.

Our ride out of Columbus to Athens was a hilly 92 miler. We pushed it pretty good. I figure this is the best biking shape that I'll ever be in so I might as well enjoy sustaining a fast pace while I can. We still can't outrun dogs though. Jesson had a close encounter with a dog and actually kicked it by happenstance with his pedal just before it ran between his tires. This may be our biggest worry heading into WV, with the second being an obscene number of tick sightings. Athens, Ohio is home of Ohio University. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the town and the university. They had a brand new, ritzy union where we gave a lecture. Several of the D.O. (doctor of osteopathic medicine) students there were nice enough to put us up for the night. Westin and Bridgette, a first year, had us over to their log cabin for a cookout and bonfire. There cabin was amazing- reminded me so much of Boulder, Utah and Ace's place. (I drug this low resolution pic off another rider's facebook just to have some visual.) Both were OU grads. Westin is working on developing their farm with dreams of consuming only what he produces in crop, goat milk, honey from his bees, and whatever else he can put together for a 1 year period. I also had a conversation with Justin, a Ball State grad who circumstantially currently lives in the barn of Westin and Bridgette. The barn had a poster of the Appalachian Trial and I saw several similarities to my experience on the AT as Justin described how he has to coax his cat into catching the mice that scurry across his bed each night. All were very nice and interesting people.

Today we reached West Virginia! I was on support and it was a nightmare- gravel roads and a road that literally disappeared underwater. It was definitely our biggest hiccup so far logistically at least, but could not have been foreseen. The other roads we had the riders on today were under construction or had them on a busy highway with no shoulder and trucks at 60mph. It was not ideal riding at any point, but we made it. We are staying at a 4h campground in Harrisville tonight- pretty nice accommodation's actually: bunk beds, nice kitchen, and wifi, but no cell reception.