Hospitality on the Road

My second day on the trail was spent battling hills and reassessing everything about my timeline for the next few weeks. While I planned on 50 miles a day, I had barely managed more than 30! I was worried that I was going to continue to fall behind schedule. I had to wait that morning until Dick’s called me to say my bike was ready and I didn’t get moving until after 11

I stopped for coffee at a donut shop in Rochester and headed for the Ohio River Scenic Byway. This was one of my better choices. Suddenly the hills were much less intense. I was biking under the shade of trees with a beautiful view of the river, only obstructed by the occasional power plant. I even found a patch of grass where I could take a nice lunch break. I continued down this route all day. I barely noticed when I passed over the Ohio Border.  It wound up being a three state day. I ended in West Virginia.

Again, I couldn’t bike up the hills. They were so steep I could feel my panniers dragging me backward or holding me in place. My body was exhausted. I expected to work my legs hard, but dragging my bag uphill wore out every muscle I had.

At one point I wound up flopping on the ground to recuperate. A man saw me near the end of his driveway and came down to see if I was alright. He saw the scrape on my knee and offered to let me clean myself up in his house. I refused, though I was so tired I was tempted to ask if I could camp in his yard. I didn’t. I was so darn close to the campground!

After that hill I’d made it to the top of the ridge and it was remarkably easier. I coasted into the campground sometime after seven, biked around the whole thing looking for who was in charge. I wound up asking a couple who were standing by their RV and they directed me to the owner.

I set up my tent, made myself mac and cheese, and basically drank it, I was so hungry. It was an RV campground, meant for self contained campers. I was too tired to even notice the dilemma. I couldn’t even figure out how to use the water spigot. Fortunately the couple I had spoken to had. Lisa and Solon came by and offered me a hot shower. They let me fill up my water in their camper, fed me chicken and dumplings, chatted with me for a while. They were the first people I’d had an in person conversation with since I’d left my mom in Pittsburgh. They wound up leaving their RV unlocked in case I needed the restroom in the night. I was completely blown away by their generosity.

I woke up early, and worried I’d leave before they got up, I scribbled a thank you with some contact info onto one of the postcards I’d purchased and went to leave it at their RV before I left. I wound up saying goodbye to them and heading out.

I passed by a house with some found object art on my way out of town. I decided to look at my trip differently that day. I wanted to feel like I could stop and experience things. I made sure to pause for lunch at the Historic Fort Steuben. I visited the museum, thrilled that there was reference to the Lewis and Clark Expedition inside, despite no direct connection to the fort, and I found out about the murals in Steubenville, OH. I decided to make my day about public art and made a small detour to take pictures.

I chose to end my day in Moundsville, WV. I explicitly wanted to visit Grave Creek Burial Mound. It was the first destination I was set in seeing because Meriwether Lewis wrote about it extensively on his trip down the Ohio. By the time I got there the museum was closed, so I found a place to stay the night. The nearby campgrounds were RV campgrounds again. Both of them had sites lined with chunky gravel I couldn’t imagine sleeping on, so reluctantly I reserved a hotel room.

I hadn’t gotten to my hotel room yet when I smelled meat and stopped in front of Ruttenbuck’s Bar and Grill. Tuesday night was their rib special. I remembered reading that the men on the Lewis and Clark Expedition ate eight pounds of meat a day, and I was beginning to understand how. For the second night in a row, I inhaled my dinner. The meat was practically falling off the bone.