Day 14 - May 17 - Deer Creek State Park, OH to Caesar Creek State Park, OH - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

May 17, 2023

Day 14 - May 17 - Deer Creek State Park, OH to Caesar Creek State Park, OH

Where Have All the Showers Gone?

John’s Story

This morning dawned with a clear blue sky after yesterday’s rain and overcast. Not a cloud in sight. Yesterday’s rain showers (to put it mildly) are long gone.

Oh, and we found Deer Creek as we left. Nice to know they didn’t just pull the name of the park out of the air.

About 48 degrees with a stiff north wind. This turned out to be the nicest riding day so far. There were a few stretches where we had to ride straight into that north headwind, but after yesterday it didn’t seem like a problem at all. Most of the time it was a crosswind, but for the last 20 miles it was either a quartering tailwind or a full tailwind. Glorious compared to yesterday!

The early part of the day was a barely perceptible but persistent uphill climb at an average of probably less than 1% grade. The grade wasn’t apparent to the eye, but you could feel it in your legs. For a number of miles the hill-less-ness continued.

See that tower in the left distance? We thought it might be a fire tower, but there didn’t seem to be a place up top for a Ranger to observe, or stairs to climb up there. If it had been a fire tower, it only protected the trees within about 200 yards. No trees anywhere else to be seen. We thought it might be some sort of cell tower or radar for the Columbus airport, but we didn’t see any antennas on it. Perhaps it’s a deer stand built by a retired sniper. Still trying to puzzle this one out.

We found some evidence of civilization when we crossed I-71 and entered Jeffersonville. It was the first population center of any size at all in about 40 miles.

We stopped for lunch at the market in Jamestown. It’s turning out that the best places to stop for lunch are grocery stores, not cafés or restaurants or fast food places. Even convenience stores sell ready-made sandwiches.

If I owned the Hemlock Cafe the bartender would be trained to ask anyone who entered, “Name your poison”.

This picture is for my wife. She has a gargantuan snowball bush in the backyard in Oklahoma City which by now is probably way past its springtime prime.

We pressed on to Caeser Creek State Park from Jamestown. This is where the tailwind came in and the rollers appeared. It was a fun 20 miles getting to the end of the day.

Checking in. Could you please have the porter take our bags up to the room, please?

We have a lovely spot with lots of grass for pitching a tent. And I guess it’s karma that the site number is 66. I worked for Philips Petrolum (Phillips 66) for 25 years. I live on Route 66. The only short sleeve jersey I brought is my Route 66 jersey. I used to be 66 years old.

Hatching the Beer Plot

In about a week we will be staying at my wife’s cousin’s house in Saint Charles, Missouri. My wife will be up in Saint Charles this weekend for her uncle Jack’s 90th birthday celebration, and staying with her cousin. I thought, if there’s anything we need that we can’t buy along the way perhaps we could get Carol to take it up to Saint Charles this weekend and leave it at her cousin’s house. At first we couldn’t think of anything we really needed.

That’s when the Beer Plot hatched. I love the beers from Maplewood brewery in Chicago. I usually find them at a bottle shop in Joplin, Missouri, when I’m visiting my daughter. My wife will be spending the night in Joplin on Thursday on her way to Saint Charles. I called my daughter this morning and asked her to go to the bottle shop and buy some particular beers that my wife can bring with her up to Saint Charles. As of this writing the beer is in hand at my daughters house. It should come to Saint Charles this weekend, and be left in the fridge for a week for our later arrival. We will be blessed with two bottles each of Juice Pants IPA, Mosaic Juice Pants IPA and Obese Pug stout.

The beer has been picked up from the bottle shop.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Beer Poetry

I tried talking Ed into trying the Maplewood IPAs but he is a staunch IPA hater. He broke into verse to express his IPA contempt.

“I hate IPA. I do not want it in a can. I do not want it in my hand. I do not drink it in a car. I do not drink it in a bar. I do not want it any day. I do not drink it anyway.”

Amazing how cycling primes the creative juices.

Buckeye Trees

Where are they? We’ve been in the Buckeye State for 5 days. I’ve seen one buckeye tree. It’s like the orioles in Maryland. Mostly rumor.

Hobo Heirarchy

Considering our itinerant program, we most nearly fall into the Tramp category. We travel but do not work.

Grade vs Angle of Ascent

We’ve been talking about the percent grade of the climbs we’ve been riding. But how does the grade of a climb compared to the angle of the hillside relative to horizontal? The grade of a climb, expressed as a percent, is the amount of vertical change (called the rise) divided by the amount of horizontal change (called the run). The angle of the climb relative to horizontal is the arc tangent of grade. I know, I know, too much math and too long since high school trigonometry. But take the grade expressed as a decimal instead of a percent and look it up in a trig table or use a scientific calculator and you can figure out the angle of ascent. The angle of ascent is always less than a percent grade. For an extreme example, climbing 100 feet vertically over 100 feet of horizontal distance gives you a grade of 100%, but the angle whose tangent is 100÷100 is 45°. Sorry I had to put you through this, but I wanted to figure it out for myself.

Today’s Road Angel Award, or, The Tale of the Waterproof Gloves

To prepare for this trip this winter I bought some really nice waterproof gloves from a company in Oregon called Showers Pass. I used them a number of times this winter when it was cold, when it was sleeting, and when it was snowing. I never had the chance to use them when it was raining. They did splendidly in the cold and sleet and snow. I’ve had the chance to use them now several times on this trip in the rain, and they are not waterproof. After riding a few hours in the rain with these gloves on my fingers come out looking like they are from a corpse found in a lake.

I’ve been in contact for several days now with the company in Oregon trying to sort out the situation. They told me that I probably tore the waterproof membrane between the inner Merino wool lining and the outer knit covering by being too rough putting them on and taking them off. That’s probably true. But it’s not something they tell you about on their website, that the waterproof membrane isn’t as flexible as the inner and outer linings. After pointing this out to them, reminding them that their warranty is unconditional, and explaining that I was on a three month long bicycle tour, they agreed to replace the gloves for me. Just this evening I received an email from the company with the shipping information for the replacement gloves. They will be waiting for me at my wife’s cousin’s house in Saint Charles, Missouri along with those beers.

For her efforts on my part (for the company could easily have denied my warranty claim) I grant today’s Road Angel Award to Crystal at Showers Pass.

Ed’s Story

A disclaimer: if you’re looking at the total mileage at the end of each days’ journal entry, you’ll notice that the total doesn’t always add up to how many miles we’ve actually ridden. This was pointed out to us by both John‘s daughter and my daughter. The actual mileage ridden is shown on the front cover page where it says “Two Old Guys Take On A Continent”.

This was probably the best riding day to date. The blue-ness was everywhere. The air was fresh after yesterday‘s rain.

Imagine how fast I was going when I made that skid mark!

Besides Deer Creek, we stopped at another creek along the way. The water was pretty clear and you could almost see the bottom.

Just an unknown creek, but you can almost see the bottom.

We continued riding after Jeffersonville. We came across a highway overpass and saw the Ohio Highway Department hard at work fixing US 35. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the same thing when we cross I-75 tomorrow morning.

Road workers hard at work repaving US 35. At least it’s not 95° outside while they’re doing this.

The Methodist church steeple looms over the city of Jamestown. We thought it was a Catholic church due to a Knights of Columbus sign but we were mistaken.

As John noted, this is a great campsite with plenty of green grass. I put my tent in the sun to get it as warm as possible before going to bed. I am continuing to have sleeping bag problems and have a new bag ordered. It will arrive this week and will be ready for me when we reach Saint Charles, Missouri next week.

This site has not only electric but also water available. This is a first for us.

The sun is so warm it is drying the clothes I washed.

Tomorrow is going to be the longest day yet. We are riding 72 miles with 2600 feet of climbing anticipated. Unfortunately like the last two nights, there are no bars or breweries in vicinity, and since we are staying at a state park, we’re not allowed to bring any in. I guess we have to wait for Franklin, IN, the day after tomorrow.

Because of the location of the campground, we have to backtrack about 5 miles tomorrow to get back on our route. Oh well, what’s another 5 miles?

There really was no other way out of the site except for riding on a much busier road.

Until then I will close with my usual ending….happy biking!

Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 3,398 miles (5,469 km)

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George HallI think the problem with the mile counter is that you are doing the journal entries "backwards" as it were by placing each new entry at the beginning of the journal rather than at the end. It makes it easier for readers to get to the latest entry, but the algorithm assumes that each new entry is "Day 1" since it's the first entry with a mileage that you entered. The total shown on the title page will be correct because it simply adds up all the entries, but since each new day becomes a new "Day 1" to the mileage algorithm, the mileage will be counted only for that day at the page bottom. Hopefully that makes sense.
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