Day 41. June 4th Monday. Eaton to Celina

Wow. Another memorable day.  Left early as usual with a full tummy of my sister-in-law’s best cheesy eggs ever.  Many thanks to my brother, Phil and his wife, Stef, for all the good food and time together.

Forgot to mention that yesterday when I was helping my brother with farm chores, I almost stepped on a 6 ft long Black Snake that had to be 2 inches in diameter.  He was bigger than the big one I saw on the Katy Trail.  And my brother said, “Wish I had a sack, I’d take him home and put him in the corn crib.”  I tho’t to myself that I wasn’t riding in the van with a snake.  Thank God we didn’t have a sack.  We were over at his son’s place doing chores since his son and family were on vacation.

So back to today.  First 10 miles were relatively calm, wind wise.  But I have to say, Preble County’s shoulders leave a lot to be desired.  There was an 18 inch shoulder but all broken up with alligator cracks and really rough surface.  I was cussing the road people.  It was less than fun.

Then the wind picked up, NW wind and I was heading north so it was more of a head wind than I wanted.  But the shoulder was awesome at the new county line so I felt better.

However, between Greenville and Celina was a MAJOR semi truck thorough fare.  It was ok until the last 10 miles when the wind became almost unbearable.  I was struggling to stay upright and the draft from the trucks was really strong.  So I decided to stop and stand on the side of the road every time a truck was coming.  21 times in the last 10 miles I got off my bike.  And often, there were 3-5 trucks at a time that passed me while standing there.  It was not fun.  I couldn’t wait to get off that road.  Thank goodness the shoulder was decent.  If it had been twice as wide, it wouldn’t have been so bad.

So I went to a restaurant-bar and picked the locals brains about an alternate route tomorrow.  Got one so hopefully with the forecasted rain, it will be safer.  Apparently, in the next 20 miles, most of the trucks will take other routes so then I can get back on my route and not be so threatened.  Geez, today about did me in.

At the bar, a fellow named Alan, was hysterical.  He is sure I’m gonna end up on TV.  He took my picture and my blog info and was really excited and awestruck about my trip.  Made me feel good.

My knees need to rest.  They are really tired today.  This was a hard day with all that wind, but, hey, we persevered.

59.5miles today.   1574.3 total

Author: bikeral2000

Retired musician, now gardener and cyclist. View all posts by bikeral2000