The reason I am racing is so that I might have some chance of getting a room in town, and the closer I got, the more resigned I became to staying out by the interstate (my old friend, I-90), some six miles distant. I had a more pressing reason to hurry along on this day, as I have been worried that hurricane Fran would catch up with me.
As I travelled up the eastern side of Ohio, toward Lake Erie, the roads did indeed straighten out, but instead of finding corn appearing in the flat fields, I find housing developments. I should not be surprised, with Cleveland and Youngstown on either side of my route. Considering the size those metropolitan areas, I felt lucky to find a route that had tolerable traffic.
In due course I determined that I would be out by the freeway, and that was fine. There are only two possible places to stay in Jefferson, and both were temporarily closed. My entry was "unannounced", whereas Babcock and Turner were treated to a hero's welcome:
From Goshen, Ind., where we remained five days, to Jefferson, Ohio, we had fine wheeling with no incidents worthy of mention. From Oberlin to Cleveland, a distance of twenty-five miles, we found an excellent cinder path, of which more will be said further on in connection with roads in the East.
At Cleveland a Jefferson wheelman called to inform us that a party of wheelmen from his town desired to form an escort for us and would meet us at Geneva at noon. Before reaching that place we were met by eight wheelmen and at Geneva twenty others joined us. At Austinburg, five miles out, eight ladies completed our party, and when we rolled into the charming little village of Jefferson, our escort numbered just forty, among whom were many old friends who had watched our progress across the continent with interest, and the sincerity of whose hand grasps there could be no mistaking.
I had originally intended to stay in Jefferson a whole extra day, to give me some time to walk around the town and do some research. It seems certain that there is going to be some big time rain, especially on Saturday, so I scheduled an interview for Saturday, and I will not ride until Sunday at the earliest.
The miles today were 88 and there was not too much to report.
The road is still being good to me.
Staying loose.
Dennis
P.S.
Today is the anniversary of my marriage to the granddaughter of William Babcock's brother Charles. After 20 years of marriage it is easy to take companionship for granted. Anyone who would allow her husband to go out on such a crazy endeavor as this, is indeed a special person. So here's to more happy years together, and more crazy endeavors.