Day 26 - Circleville, OH to Parkersburg, WV

We made the transition from the flat lands of the Midwest to the the foothills of Appalachia today. What a start! Breakfast inside again, which was nice as the humidity was already quite high outside. We rolled out through Circleville and encountered a fair amount of traffic. Fortunately, most of it appeared to be people heading into town to work as we were heading out. About 8 miles in, the rain started, slowly at first and then with more vigor. I stopped to put on my rain jacket just as it really started to pour. The wind was fairly calm and the road surfaces good so we continued on, but then the skies darkened and the rain got even heavier. Lightning and thunder in the distance made me begin to think about options for cover, but I figured that if I kept going, perhaps I'd ride out of the rain and away from the lightning. Not the case. Soon lightning was crackling over our heads. I should have followed Gerry as he was the first to pull off to the other side of the rural road and seek shelter under the overhang of a barn. I kept going, but soon realized I too needed to seek shelter and ducked under the porch and carport of a house up the road with about seven other cyclists. The picture shows the rain cascading out of the sky and down the road.

I would find out later that lightning struck a telephone pole sending sparks over the road as one of my fellow cyclists passed the barn where Gerry wisely diverted to safety. The good news is that no one got hurt and the rain passed shortly after we stopped. We're hopeful that the system that has been soaking us for the last couple of days has moved on and that our heavy climbing days in West Virginia will be dry and maybe even a bit less humid...

The roads were good and the scenery more interesting as we headed into the hills for the first time in several days. The hills provided the opportunity to exercise our climbing legs and the descents were fun because the roads wandered through lush forests and in ways that left us to wonder what we'd find around the next bend. With the exception of a couple angry pickup drivers, traffic was light and drivers were courteous as we headed to the border with West Virginia.

Alas, I wish Dave was here to see the river we followed most of the day. It is, indeed, a brown river. Despite the rain today and yesterday, it seemed to barely move. What a difference from the rushing rapids of the rivers out west. I stopped on a bridge to snap the photo after lunch and then hurried on since the clouds looked to be forming up for another round of rain. Fortunately, we didn't get wet and the sun came out later.

Along the way today we rode on a very nice bike path between the river and Ohio University in Athens. The campus seemed larger than I expected and looked very nice. I'm guessing it is older than that other university in the state since its founding was in 1804. The picture is of the OU arena.

There was another scary moment on the ride today when I saw the sign in the picture! Sorry Ed, but I've really go no desire to go back there again... It is interesting though to see the same town names used over and over as we move from west to east. I guess the settlers were so tired after trudging over the country that they didn't have much energy left for coming up with interesting new names. I've also noticed some names, like Union Furnace, that suggest a role in our nation's civil war.

We made it to the bridge across the Ohio River and stopped for photos. I've got to remember to zip up... As we were riding across the bridge, we encountered a guy wearing an Ohio State t-shirt. I greeted him with a "how's it going?" and he looked at me like I had insulted him, responding with a grunt. I repeated myself and he defensively replied, "OK..." and huffed off. Not the most articulate person we've met on this trip, but perhaps we shouldn't be surprised.

We made it through Parkersburg and to our hotel, the Red Roof Inn, on the other end of town. Not the most picturesque city we've visited, but nice enough. The Red Roof Inn, however, is quite a step down from the Holiday Inn Expresses we stayed in the last two night. One might say that the Red Roof Inn is for the birds.