my future in law

To say that it was foggy when we left Burton would be the understatement of the year. It was so foggy, in fact, that several riders decided to wait it out rather than try and tackle the overzealous humidity.



A few notes from Daria on today...
We headed out of Burton and rode into Middlefield, one of the largest Amish communities in the world. It was a quiet Saturday morning and there wasn’t much car or buggy traffic. It was an easy day of riding today, only about 60 miles, not too hilly and no wind issues. The fog kept the temperature quite pleasant.

I rode the morning’s misty ride with Caitlin, and about 20 miles in, we stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast sandwich and coffee. A lady eating there saw our jerseys that have the route map on it and asked us about our trip. Once we told her what we were doing, she handed us each $5 – without provocation! Seriously… law school, here I come.

Interestingly, I have seen a lot of signs advertising on the road side that maple syrup is for sale – it’s news to me that maple syrup is produced in Ohio.

Today’s ride was pretty easy at only 60 miles, and we arrived at the campground quite early. In hind sight, we should probably have stopped at the really cute town of Columbiana that we passed through about 12 miles back.

When we got to the campground, things looked a bit shady. There was a charred building and a woman sitting in a lawn chair outside of a trailer with a beer in hand. She was the campground manager and informed us that the campground office had burned down a few weeks ago. Also, the water was out and would be for several hours. It was really hot out, and despite the area being pretty remote, Caitlin and I decided to go exploring. It was early in the afternoon, and we didn’t have anything better to do.

We went begging for shelter at a local church, and they said they’d call us back. Then we went a mile back up the road to an Amish sandwich shop, got snacks, and just hung out inside enjoying the air conditioning. We went back to the campground and more riders had arrived by then and were just lazing around waiting for the water to be turned back on.

We had pizza and salad for dinner. I had passed by a small green rubber (don’t worry, I ensured this before picking it up) snake on the road today, and couldn’t resist stopping for it. Brian had previously disclosed his extreme fear of snakes, so naturally, his was the tent in which I chose to hide the snake. He wouldn’t leave his tent, so I had to enlist James’ help to distract him. James requested a “cone of silence” (his words, not mine :o)) conversation with Brian and got him away from the tent long enough for me to hide it. We weren’t able to see his reaction immediately because I hid it in such a way that he wouldn’t see it right away – hopefully it would be more like the middle of the night when he noticed it. :o)

Oh, on a random note... seriously, this is the most exciting thing to have happened in this town since 1985? They should really get out and do a bit more in Mineral Ridge!