I left the McDonalds and headed west. I quickly found that US50 was boring and after about an hour of straight road, two lanes either direction, I pulled off and took a detour through Wayne National Forest. I stuck to smaller roads after that, no more than one lane in either direction.
Ohio can be beautiful. Some rolling hills that eventually flattened out into farm land. Miles and miles of little houses and farms, surrounded by the new growth of corn, just a foot or so high, shades of green varying from a deep verdant green to lighter greens verging on yellow to the golden color of wheat. Indiana was much the same. Small towns are much the same all over. Main streets that stretch a block or two, populations of a couple thousand people if that, with just a couple places to eat and a gas station or two. I’m going to need to plan to pass through some larger sized towns when I want to take an extended break, if I want to find better food and more interesting places to hang out.
I traveled 9 hours on the bike, 11 hours total. I did better than I expected. My lower back was sore, and surprisingly, my right knee began to ache towards the end. But I didn’t feel raw and was mostly comfortable all day. I’ve learned I need to stop every 30 to 45 minutes just to stretch my legs and clean my visor. And my phone can’t go all day using the GPS and bluetooth audio even while charging on the bike. So I’m going to need to conserve the battery if I want to keep it active.
The bike has handled well, and the roads have been pretty good all throughout. Though, when you’re riding on roads that aren’t even or that have a lot of lines that have been sealed, the feeling of the changing road can sometimes make the tires feel weird, like their soft or going flat.
I stopped just outside of Fort Wayne, Indiana, got a room and enjoyed a shower and a soft bed. Today I go to church just down the road and head towards Chicago. I have about 3 hours left before I finish the first leg of the road trip.