Day 16, Tuesday, May 6

This may have been the most mentally challenging day of the trip so far. Distance was about average, and I believe it was the most we have climbed climbed in one day. But the problem was the traffic. 

The first 800 miles off the trip spoiled us. We traveled from DC to Pittsburgh exclusively in a towpath and a rail-trail. After a challenging day on the roads of the West Virginia panhandle and eastern Ohio, we were able to cross almost the entirety of Ohio on their fantastic bicycle trail network.

That all ended in Cincinnati. We traveled city streets to get out of the downtown area, which were not too bad, but we had to bike a good stretch on US 50, which, as people in the region are fond of telling you, runs coast to coast. It is quite busy through Cincinnati, but at least there is a decent shoulder.

Fortunately, we were able to get on roads running parallel to 50 for most of the way out of the city. That was fortunate because it took us through a beautiful, and obviously affluent neighborhood of Cincinnati called Sayler Park. There we stopped at a buddy little coffee shop where, for some reason, J.D. Vance's younger half brother, Cory Bowman, was hanging out. It was primary day and he was running for mayor. 

This was a non-partisan primary, with the top two vote getters moving to the November election. Bowman managed to take second, but won just 13% of the vote. Democratic incumbent Aftab Pureval took took 82%.

Something tells me little brother Cory is going to need some serious Republican shenanigans to have a chance in November.

We left Sayler Park, crossed the Greater Miami River, and two miles later we were finally out of Ohio. It took us a little over seven days to cross it.

The fun really began in Indiana. After a couple of big climbs on relatively sedate roads, we were in Indiana farmland. The hills were rolling, with more ascent than descent over all, and the wind was mostly in our face. On top of that, the roads had very little shoulder and were quite busy. Let's just say it was not fun. 

We like to take a short break every 10 to 15 miles, preferably someplace we can get something cold to drink and use the bathroom. After what seemed like hours -- actually, it was hours -- we finally found a convenience store. It's a mystery to me where people in Eastern Indiana buy their gas and snacks, because we saw no stores 

Unfortunately, the shop owner had no bathroom. He told us to use the woods. Which we did. 

He also told John "No food" when he started looking at the menu behind their counter. That led us to theorize he had to stop serving hot food because he had no bathroom.

There was a baseball park next door, so we sat at a picnic table there and had our snacks. It seems baseball is very much alive in the midwest because there are small parks like this everywhere. 

We pressed on, and it never got better. Thankfully we had another Warm Showers host lined up in Osgood. Conrad Reichert is a deputy sheriff who stopped to help some cyclists once. They ended up staying with him that night and told him about Warm Showers. Though he does not tour, he still joined and has now hosted half a dozen times.