Athens OH & Harrisville, WV

Hi all! Sunday morning we rode out of Columbus & headed to Athens, OH. So we went from OSU to OU. The ride started for a short while on a bike path in Columbus. The first 20-30 miles were pretty flat, then the hills started rolling in & rolling by. Except for a few steep climbs, nothing too bad & the scenery was pretty lush.

We've also picked up some more portion riders, including Chris & Ming, 2 riders from R4WH 2007 & Hadley's mom, Beth & her friend Julie. Julie's husband Rich is also with us for extra support. Andrew Suchocki, 1 of the founders of R4WH also joined us for a day.

When we arrived in Athens, we stopped at the Ohio University for a lecture before heading to the home of one of the students who lives on a beautiful farm & made dinner for us all. After dinner they lit a bonfire & a few of us got to ride ziplines out back of their home. We stayed with several folks around Athens. Below is picture of the 4 of us that stayed with Mr & Mrs Keys.

As for today.... a little out of the ordinary. We delayed our start to enjoy a breakfast at the "best place in Athens." It was really good food & let us miss the cooler AM weather, but we didn't ride until noon. Much of the road in the early going was totally gravel with some hills to-boot. There are 2 things I just don't want to do in gravel, brake & turn. No choice today. Then after the 1st rest stop, we discovered a tunnel we needed to go through was flooded with contaminated water. So we racked & drove a few miles to a lunch stop & picked up again just as we crossed the state line into West Virginia. Now, only Virginia remains between us & DC.

Things didn't change much. The highway we were on was really busy, there was little to no shoulder & it was closing in on rush hour. Many of us racked to the next rest stop on a better piece of road. Then another highway was being repaved & we rode on milled road for about 2 miles. Like I said, out of the ordinary.

Tonight we're at a 4-H club that has wireless internet but no cell phone service. So it goes. Tomorrow we head more deeply into the Appalachians & end up in Elkins, WV. See you then. The pictures here & others can be seen here on Facebook --Steve