The Back Roads of Ohio

An Ohio cornfield bordered by rust colored grasses.

It is a crisp blue-sky morning. I’m heading to Milan, Ohio seventy-seven miles down the road. I turn onto US 6 to begin my journey. Rodge and Bailey will meet me at my first stop in twenty miles. As I spin my pedals my legs protest and my buns ache. It will take a couple of miles to get my body in sync to ride. By mile ten I will be cycling in overdrive, ready to take on thirty more miles before I refuel. I will become an extension of my bike.  

The morning dew sparkles on tall grasses along the side of the road. I watch a wooly bear caterpillar crawl out in front of me. Its black furry body striped with an orange band undulates across the pavement. I enter and leave Weston, Ohio all in one breath. I see wind turbines spinning in the distance. When I get close to them, I hear a whooshing sound as they slice through the air.

I am riding south of Bowling Green on a four-lane road. Traffic picks up and I go into my high alert mode. My bike thumps over cracked pavement and jars me into submission. This too shall pass. I hook up with Rodge and we pick the town of Fremont, twenty-three miles away, as our next rendezvous point.

I ride by an alpaca farm, where the young look like spitting images of their Mom. Fields of rustling corn line the road and lead me to a golf course. I have hackers and duffers on both sides of me. I listen for the F word (fore) and pray. I enter the small town of Fremont, Ohio, the home of President Rutherford B. Hayes.

I jump on the North Coast Inland Trail, a 12-foot wide, asphalt paved trail, built over the abandoned Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad. This rail to trail will take me seven miles to the small town of Clyde. Along the way, I pass by joggers, cyclists, skaters and  a young boy with curly red hair cycling in his bare feet. I finally arrive in Milan after a wonderful day of riding along the back roads of Ohio.

God Bless,

Kathy

Psalm 3:3

An Ohio farmscape.

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