Up at 6 am and feeling well for first time in weeks. Sore and stiff muscles but in a good way.
The
Quality Inn Dry Ridge has a great breakfast and with time to kill I made use of
oatmeal and the waffle maker before others arrived. Tom was glad for first sag as it had the only
climbs of the day. Bob, Ross and I set off away from busy interstate traffic
and were quickly on a beautiful rural road that ran along the ridge from which
the town got its name. Traffic was very light and mostly in the other
direction. There were two steep dips into a heavily wooded valley with
accompanying steep climbs. Maybe because
they were early in the ride they were not has difficult as yesterday’s climbs.
From the rural road we by needs had to get on a more trafficked main road into civilization. My meandering pace picked up so we were quickly to Tom and my sag turn.
I’d set my phone’s RideWithGPS app to give voice prompts for turns back at the motel to no benefit as she’d uttered not a peep the entire way. Ross had set his Garmin Nuvi to direct me to the next regroup point. RideWithGPS woke up and began giving instructions for following the cycle route as Garmin was giving me vehicle instructions. I had to pull off and shut off my phone.
After that it was an easy drive to the next stop, a Trek bicycle store. There I bought a new spare tire to replace the one cut by glass in Bardstown, and a spare set of gloves to replace the ones that did not get packed.
Ross took over sag for the day. We were now in a truly urban area where traffic is sometimes heavy but not going nearly as fast as on suburban roads. It’s a feature of any long distance tour. Rural is ok, urban is ok, suburbs suck.
We regrouped at the Hofbräuhaus a German restaurant in Covington just before the Purple People mover bridge. We all ate too much. Then it was over the Ohio river into downtown Cincinnati where we had greenways or marked bicycle lanes the whole way to the Little Miami Scenic rail trail.
Exiting the trail was a bit dicey with a steep downhill to the busy street. For once the button to stop traffic for pedestrians worked and we followed Tom and his Garmin to what should have been our day’s end. It was not there.
Ross phoned to let us know the coordinates were off and we were across an impassable rail line with trees obscuring our motel. My bad. We had to backtrack about a half mile to cross the tracks to the road leading to our motel. My position as route planner is now under review.
After settling in we went to the unique Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant about a mile from our motel. We ate lighter in anticipation of a visit to the well remembered United Dairy Farmers convenience store a bit further up the road. Bob and Tom got large shakes. Ross and I split a half gallon of butter pecan ice cream. Ours was better. The ever resourceful Ross even produced an ice cream scoop and a couple of spoons. We’re likely to make another ice cream run.
Tomorrow is laundry day. The motel has a guest laundry and Ross has the supplies, including quarters. Other than laundry and more ice cream, tomorrow is for loafing.
Bruce
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