September 22: Morristown OH to Follansbee WV; 52 miles

Morning view over the Ohio River Valley

This morning fall was definitely in the air. After the light show last night (thunder and lightening and some decent rain) the temp had dropped considerably. Pete and I set off, leaving Betsy at our cool AirBnB loft, trying to make some final reservations for the end of our trip. 

The start was very similar to Betsy’s and my ride the day before, meaning lots of hills and dales, through fields and woods and (truth be told) lots of run-down houses with a plethora of junk cars in the yards. We were seeing the under-belly of the US. There is poverty here for sure. But lots of natural beauty as well. 

At one point, after seeing a “detour” sign, we cruised down a hill, and looked up – and up – and up – at the next (really BIG) hill, and Pete said “Wait a minute. That hill was not noted on the map.” So, we stopped and studied the map for a bit and tried to access Googlemaps (of course there was no coverage when we needed it!) In the end, we decided to go back UP that hill we just cruised down, to the last intersection with the detour sign. Sure enough, the detour was for us, but it would add an additional 20 miles to our ride (which was already supposed to be about 60!) That was definitely not an option! So, we ignored the detour and followed the normal route, only to find another sign that read, “Road closed 6 miles ahead. Open to residents” There had been another road closed earlier on our trip, that we could get around on bikes, so now our dilemma was if we should risk going 6 miles to see if we could get through. I said,” not unless someone who lives here says we can,” and started knocking on doors to ask! The first lady said she didn’t live there and didn’t know, so I flagged down a car and asked them if our bikes could pass. That just triggered a discussion between the guy and his wife, but didn’t really answer our question, so we flagged down the next car and asked them. They gave us the answer we wanted to hear. Yes! Off we went, with practically no traffic since the road was technically closed. Just before the six-mile mark we had a huge downhill – both of us hoping our info was correct and we wouldn’t have to go back UP that hill and then do the 20 mile detour. (Actually, we both confessed later, that we would have called Betsy to rescue us!) Anyway, we got to the construction, and the workmen didn’t even notice us passing through. Success! 

Soon thereafter, we met up with Betsy, who had had a bad sag day start. She’d gone ahead and discovered our bike route’s bridge was out and the only other bridge was closed to bikes. So, she’d had to put her bike back on the car and find another place to park to ride back to meet us. Sag driving can be really frustrating too! 

But the good news is, she’d passed a little store that read “Around the World Gourmet” which we decided to make our morning’s café stop. I don’t know what “around the world” means to you, but for me it congers up images like imported goods and interesting things to eat. Well, it was basically full of your run-of-the-mill American snack foods. But it did have a bathroom (which we needed after 25 miles!) and a nice little outdoor seating area, where we enjoyed a fresh (really good!) donut and coffee. 

Onwards to the car, where we had to rack the bikes to drive ahead to the beginning of a trail Pete and Betsy had found the night before. 

Let me digress a moment and tell you that Pete and Betsy spend at least ½ hour (and often a lot more than that) planning the next day’s route. They find back roads and trails and all kinds of cool stuff to see along the way. Not only that, they book places to overnight along the route. Yes, they got help (especially from Stef and Lauran) but this second half of the trip, they’ve done it all, since they know the routes and I don’t! They spent months (yes, I mean MONTHS) planning this trip. They thought of every detail (like starting in mid-July to avoid the heat and humidity and arriving in Ohio in mid-September.) They had to change plans I don’t know how many times, trying to figure out the support vehicle for the first ½ of the trip (including buying and then having to resell a trailer that wouldn’t work with Pete’s trailer hitch!) I’m telling you, they are logistics wizards! It’s amazing to watch them make things happen!

Back to today…we had a tailgate picnic before the 3 of us headed off on the trail along the Ohio River. Betsy road with us a bit and then turned around to pick up the car and head to our hotel to wait for us. Pete and I continued on until…wait for it…we saw the sign “Trail closed.” Well, that hadn’t stopped us this morning, so we went around the barrier and continued on down the trail, until it turned to dirt (well, mud actually) and we found ourselves in a big construction site below the highway. We were just inching our bikes around a crane when someone yelled down at us, “HEY! You can’t be here! The trail is closed! You have to go back!” Poop! Our Construction-site Angel had gone home for the day! Back we went and pushed our bikes up another really big dirt hill and onto the highway. There we found a stop light and waited to race through the one lane construction zone. Once through, we played stop and go, stopping to let the cars and trucks pass and then speeding ahead when we knew the light was red behind us. It was a busy highway, and when the shoulder disappeared completely, we both agreed it was time to throw in the towel and call our Sag Saviour Betsy! She had just arrived at our hotel and had to come all the way back to get us. 

Tonight, I’m taking them out for a much-deserved drink because they are celebrating the fact that they just made the VERY LAST lodging reservation for the entire trip! Thank you both for all your hard work! Vielen Dank, Grazie mille, Muchas gracias, Merci beaucoup, Muito obrigada!  

Viaduct in St. Clairsville Ohio