Prairie flowers

July 30, 2016

July 29 was a peaceful rest day spent with Alain's family in Columbus. Marty is a fantastic cook, so it's important to stay on her good side so she will make yummy food when you visit Columbus. We enjoyed some great meals and excellent company.

Geoff and Marty are happy to have guests.

Show respect to those who have not yet retired when they go to work.

Part of the down time in Columbus was spent getting a new saddle at Roll bike shop. While there we got new brake pads - just in case we run into any hills in Kentucky or Tennessee. We also put new tires on the team A tandem. Hey, these new tires don't have any wear marks???

Team S, which uses the foldable version of Continental Gator Hardshell tires does have wear marks in their tires. Their tires were still fine, so they just rotated the front and rear.

The birdie approved of the new seat. That's important. With time we will find out if the humans approve as well.

Another useful activity on our day off was mailing home some extra items that after 2 months we have realized we don't need. If we didn't use arm warmers or long pants in Canada, is it likely they will prove essential in Mississippi and Alabama in August? Freeing up even a little space in our panniers makes it easier to pack. Also, every once of weight that can be shed makes the cycling easier.

Another fun activity during our Columbus lay over was watching it rain while we were going indoors. They had 1 and 1/2 inches of rain while we were there. When we left on the morning of July 30 a few more drops were falling. Team S has discovered that they can reliably prevent rainfall by putting on their rain gear. As we mentioned, saving weight is critical, so many items we carry are dual use. The rain gear not only prevents rain, it also can be used for 70s retro disco nights - the helmet covers look amazing with a mirror ball and black lights.

Fashion statement and rain protection rolled into one.

Columbus traffic was very light on a Saturday morning, so getting out if the city was no problem. Ohio gas some excellent bike trails and we spent most of the day enjoying Ohio bike route 1.

Most of our readers assume Two Far travels with a dedicated camera crew. Not so!!! We are operating on a shoestring budget and take all our own pictures. Here we can see one of the team members leaving the safety of the tandem to take an action shot of soy beans and some rolling stock next to the bike trail.

Ohio bike route 1 will take you all the way from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.

There was some excitement when we reached the town of London. A large bang turned out to be a tire blow out, not a gun shot. The wear marks on the tire proved the tread was still fine, apparently the sidewall was another story. Fortunately team S was carrying two brand new folding tires and in less than half an hour we were back in action with 2 new tires. It helps to have someone as handy with bike maintenance as Kerry on a long tour.

This might have something to do with that loud bang we heard.

Amazing how little space a foldable tire takes.

Might as well change both tires while we have a comfortable sidewalk with a McDonald's around the corner to wash up when we finish.

London has free camping along the bike trail. How cool is that?

Gene is one of the many dedicated volunteers we met who maintain the trail. Thanks Gene!

The trail is known as the Prairie Grass trail because of the beautiful flowers that line the trail.

A bit past London we were scheduled to meet some more trail volunteers near Cederville. Somehow someone had read our blog and told someone else who passed it along to some trail volunteers. All we knew was someone named Gary might be waiting to meet us along the trail. Since no one has ever had any issues with total strangers met on the internet, this seemed like an ideal arrangement. If he did happen to have an axe or a chainsaw with him, it would certainly be for trail maintenance.

As it turned out, when we met up with Gary and Steve on the trail, they were two of the nicest people you could hope to meet. Three, when we were soon joined by Ted, another trail volunteer. We loved their Trail Sentinel jerseys and name tags.

Gary, Steve and Ted help make Ohio route 1 a great place to cycle.

Our tandem chains, front and rear, had stretched to the point where they needed to be replaced. We wanted to swap out the cassette at the same time we changed the rear chain, but the shop in Columbus didn't have an SRAM cassette. Steve and Gary recommend a shop in Xenia and even escorted us over to the K&G bike center to make sure we would find it.

K&G did have the cassette we needed and Elli and Brian took good care of us. Seeing that we were travelling through, they changed the chains and cassette right away while we waited. Elli was so fast there wasn't even time to properly investigate the ice cream store 2 doors down.

When we got on our way again with a new drive train, it was mid afternoon and getting hot. Not to worry, the trail below Xenia is well shaded by trees and comfortable even on a hot afternoon.

Nothing better than tree cover to block the wind and the sun.

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