Today was a shorter day as we are delaying our rest day an extra day. We'll have another shorter day tomorrow going into Bowling Green, OH for our rest day.
Our cyclists hostel last night was a good place to stay except it was their annual Harvest Festival complete with fund-raising dinners, a local band, demolition derby and a beer tent. The festivities were still going on at 10pm when we finally turned out the lights and crawled into our cots. Sleep came easy to all of us after the long right yesterday.
There were thunderstorms about 4am this morning and I still heard soft rain falling about 6am. By the time we started getting up the rain had moved on and it was a beautiful morning. The first order of business was breakfast at the Blueberry Pancake House on the way out of town. We weren't in a rush since we knew we had a short day.
We were only 4 miles from Ohio and we wanted to make sure we found a welcome sign for Ohio. We didn't get a welcome sign from Indiana when we entered Indiana 4 days ago so we were looking for that as well. We found both signs as we left Indiana and entered Ohio.
As we rolled down the road, we felt raindrops falling. We stopped to put the rain covers on the bikes, figuring if we did that it wouldn't rain. We were wrong! A few miles further and we could hear the thunder in the distance. We knew we only had about 4 miles to the next town and some shelter so we picked up the pace. We could see the line of heavy rain headed towards us that we hoped to mostly outrun. Then a local lady drove up to us and told us her house was right there and we could take shelter there. We put our bikes in the barn and sat out the storm in their house. Linda and Jean were wonderful trail angels today!
After the rain passed we hit the road again. The bike shop in Defiance was only open until 1pm and Rhonda wanted to get a new rear tire put on. They are running tubeless tires and need a compressor to properly seat the tire. A compressor is one of the few things Jon isn't carrying in his tool kit! We were only about 14 miles out and we made it to the bike shop about 12:45pm. Riley said he was more than happy to stay a little late to install the tire for us. He even provided a great recommendation for lunch down the street.
Random scenery pictures from today. We've seen a lot of windmills the last two days in Indiana and now Ohio. Old building standing all alone at the crossroads of two county roads. Courthouse in downtown Defiance.
There weren't any good camping options again tonight so we are in another hotel. After our rest day, we again have some good camping and Warmshowers hosts set up.
I was really tired this afternoon even though it was a shorter ride today. I felt really good riding today, like I finally have my touring legs under me. It is just the accumulation of days and miles. I had a good nap before dinner and am ready to head to bed early tonight. That should get me ready for another day tomorrow.
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