Newport, KY to Xenia, OH
May 30, 2023
69 miles
Tour total: 978 miles; Personal miles achieved: 893 miles

We crossed over the Ohio River for what I think may be the last time. And with it we traded lots of steep hills for lots of flat rail trails … miles and miles and miles of flat rail trails. But they were, for the most part shady, and given that the temperature got into the 80s, all that shade was welcome.

As I think on the past week or so since we've been crisscrossing back and forth across the Ohio River … from Kentucky (former enslavement state) to Indiana (former free state) to Kentucky (former enslavement state) to Ohio (former free state) to Kentucky (former enslavement state) … my mind keeps dwelling on the freedom seekers and the struggles they faced and the fear they must have felt. Some of them succeeded in their goal to take and attain their freedom, but some were found and, against their will, taken back to an enslavement state … and many times "sold down the river" further south where it was harder to find one's way back to freedom.

The hills were certainly a burden that we bore as rode our bikes through Kentucky … and Tennessee… and Mississippi before that. I'm not suggesting that our hill climbing challenges compare with the burdens of being enslaved … not at all … but I do see a parallel. Riding a flat trail for hours on end also has its challenges. And similarly, free Blacks had their challenges as well, in that they were often restricted in where they could live and what kinds of work they could do … and often paid much less than their white co-workers, if they worked alongside each other.

And yet … even amidst the miles of flat earth rail trail riding, there were moments that made it fun and memorable.

At our first rest stop, there was a bike shop that not only was open, but available to our riders on a moment's notice. One tour sister needed new brake pads on her e-bike. I had been wondering about mine as well. I had noticed that with all the hills we had ridden, combined with the fact that I was cautious going downhill, my brake handles were pretty close to my handlebars when I pulled on them. I asked the bike mechanic to check my brake pads. When he said they were fine, I asked if he could adjust the throw to give me a quicker grip on the brakes. In about five or ten minutes, I was in and out and back on the trail.

At mile 39, there was Miranda's Ice Cream Shop that opened up at noon … just a mere two minutes before I arrived. Trail magic, for sure! At home, when my husband and I go out on our bikes, we often focus on where we might find an ice cream shop. So … even though I hadn't eaten my sandwich yet, there was no way I would pass up a good ice cream shop.

Not only was the moose tracks ice cream amazing, but the owner, presumably Miranda, was super nice and pointed out that there were shady tables in back of the shop and a very nice public bathroom. What more could one ask for from a trailside ice cream shop?

Just a few more miles down the road at our second SAG rest stop at around mile 48, two very kind women, who run the Little Miami River House Airbnb, came out to greet our SAG van and my tour sisters and me. They graciously offered to allow us to use the bathroom in their little Airbnb house. When I walked in to take them up on their kindness, it was like opening up a present. The risers on the staircase were decorated with little cobalt blue tiles … all bright and shiny. Everywhere I looked there was something cheerful and whimsical to see. The bathroom had a handsome ceramic frog attending the sink as one washed one's hands. The kitchen and dining area looked out over the Little Miami River through large plate glass windows. Moreover, in front of those beautiful windows was an old bicycle fashioned into a plant stand. They snapped a couple of pictures of me looking out of the windows with that bicycle in the background. We had a nice conversation about WomanTours and about the region local to their home. I would have liked to have spent more time with them, but I needed to get back on my bike for the final 20 miles of the day's ride.

All of the pictures, except for the daily bike route, were taken by others … either by the women at the Little Miami River House or by my tour sisters.

68 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Xenia, OH to Columbus, OH
May 31, 2023
60 miles
Tour total: 1038 miles; Personal miles achieved: 954 miles

The day's route from Xenia, OH to Columbus was filled with riding from one bike trail in Ohio to another:
Little Miami Scenic Trail;
Prairie Grass Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail;
Ohio Bicycle Route 1;
back to Prairie Grass Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail;
Roberts Pass Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail;
Camp Chase Trail / Ohio Bicycle Route 1 / Ohio to Erie Trail;
Darby Creek Trail;
Camp Chase Trail;
Lower Scioto Greenway.

Such a variety of scenery ... riding alongside fields that had newly sprouted crops of corn and soy (? maybe ?), into and through little towns. Much of the ride was shady ... most welcome because the temperature climbed into the 80s again. Most of the time the trails were empty. I chose to ride by myself again because I can go at my own pace and not worry about slowing down or pushing myself to stay with the group.

I've been trying to let go of goings-on at home and in the world, but as the saying goes ... people plan and God laughs. Yesterday began the federal trial of the person who is accused of murduring 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. Their rabbi, Jeff Myers, is a colleague of mine on one of the cantorial listservs I belong to. He is the first federal witness, and while he knows it will be difficult emotionally to testify as he is asked to review that horrific day, he is determined to do whatever he can to help put the perpetrator in jail for as long as possible.

Hate is a terrible emotion, and just as there was no shortage of it against Blacks during the time of slavery and in the aftermath of the Civil War, during the genocide of the Armenians by the Turks, by Hitler and the Third Reich against the Jews, and on and on and on throughout history, it still lives on today. The waste laid bare when people act on its influences can be offset by more positive feelings and deeds, but it is so hard. I wish great peace and strength to Rabbi Myers as he testifies and then attends the rest of the trial.

And yet, even as I lament the challenges of turning hate into something more positive and helpful, my tour sister MP just sent a text to our tour sisters with a link to a wonderful bike shirt she wore the other day. On the back of the shirt is a meaningful and poignant quote from Albert Camus: "peace is the only battle worth waging". Just what I needed to ease my mind. It seems that trail magic can happen even off the bike.

The trail magic I found on today's ride came around mile 32 when I stopped to admire a long row of murals being installed on a building alongside the bike trail. I had the pleasure of chatting with Bill Smith and his daughter, Hannah, who were not painting the murals, but rather sticking the huge pre-printed vinyl panels to the bricks on the building with heat guns. It was a fascinating process and fun to take a few minutes to watch and learn about this fascinating project. I told them about WomanTours and more specifically about the focus of our Underground Railroad tour. They let me take pictures of the murals and of them working on the installations. A nice break before I set off again to the next rest stop at mile 45.

A bunch of us went out for drinks before dinner and on the way back to the hotel found a very cool bike rack, where we posed for a quick photo. A nice end to a nice day.

60 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Columbus, OH to Mt. Vernon, OH
June 1, 2023
54 miles
Tour total: 1092 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1008 miles

Peloton ride out of downtown Columbus to get to the rail trail - lots of fun to ride with almost all of the tour membership.

Ohio rail trails traveled:
Interstate 670 Bikeway
Alum Creek Trail
Alum Creek Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail
County Line Schrock Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail
Westerville Bikeway / Ohio to Erie Trail
Towers Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail
Hoover Scenic Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail
Galena Brick Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail
Sandel Legacy Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail
Heart of Ohio Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail

Big tower at former glass factory - in the pictures, look for my tour sister Sue on the landing of each loop of the stairway.

Leigh Anne's story about how kind our tour leader, Cindi, was to wait for her and keep track of her whereabouts without hovering (not waiting, just sightseeing).

Walked into town after washing dishes to look at the amazing dog fountain at night.

54 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Mt. Vernon, OH to Millersburg, OH
June 2, 2023
41 miles
Tour total: 1133 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1049 miles

The entire tour membership visited the dog fountain for a group picture before heading out for the day's ride. This place seems to make everyone smile when they visit. It certainly makes me smile.

Long stretches of beautiful rail trails wide enough for two Amish buggies to pass each other. Good thing about that because we were deep into Amish country.

Saw four or five deer, including one with twin fawns, which as they ran down the trail away from me, the fawns went into the woods on the left and their mother went into the woods on the right. I trust that they all found each other in the minutes after I passed.

Crossed the Bridge of Dreams covered bridge with my tour sister Leigh Anne. We stopped long enough for a little break and then for her to take a staged photo of me emerging from it. We've become good friends and it was sweet of her to offer to do this.

My tour sister Ethel found a great ice cream shop on our route shortly before I caught up with her to see her with her cone in hand and happily standing in the shade under a tree across the street. I quickly joined her to enjoy one of my own.

Rail trails visited today were: Kokosing Gap Trail
Mohican Valley Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail
Holmes County Trail / Ohio to Erie Trail

41 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Millersburg, OH to Massillon, OH
June 3, 2023
38 miles
Tour total: 1171 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1087 miles

We left the hotel in time to share the rail trails with the local Amish families traveling in their buggies drawn by their horses, who trotted forward in a most relaxed, confident manner, going to wherever they were going on a Saturday morning. Each one made my heart sing. I guess I miss my pony, Lucky.

The trails in and around this part of Ohio are wide enough for two Amish buggies to pass or for bicycles and buggies to share the rode and pass each other comfortably. The signs on the trail designate which side of the trail is for buggies and which side is for bicycles.

It was a relatively short riding day ( only 38 miles ) for which I was glad because it was HOT! The Ohio to Erie bike trail is, I'm learning, a network of rail trails and quiet streets. Most of the trails are paved and some are not, but the unpaved ones are still nice enough to ride a touring bicycle. We spent long stretches today on roads that were paved specifically for Amish buggies. The pavement was smooth so the wheels of the buggy could roll along easily, and there was a softer and rougher strip about four feet wide that one could tell provided good traction for a buggy horse to trot comfortably without slipping.

Around mile 25.8 there was a lovely landscaped and shady spot at the corner of the road on which we were riding and a small side street. I was riding with my tour sister Yolanda and we stopped because we saw our tour sisters Mo and Jacquie talking with a man, who looked like he might be the owner. Meet Larry, who with his wife, had created this lovely rest stop, specifically for bicyclists to enjoy and get refreshed with a drink of water from the cooler on the table or sit for a little break on the chairs and benches. There was also a covered, plastic container with a guest book that one could sign and write a short greeting, which I did.

This was trail magic at its best! There were two signs at the corner that read "Bicyclist Rest Area" and "Tent Sites Available", so I asked Larry is he was a Warmshowers host … yes, he answered. If you don't know what Warmshowers is, I invite you to look it up on Google. In short, it's a network of bicyclists who are at home helping bicyclists who are traveling. My friend Cindy Fuhs (who you can find also on Polarsteps) used their hospitality many times on her self-contained bicycle trips on the Atlantic Coast route and the Southern Tier route.

While Yolanda and I enjoyed Larry's rest stop, our tour sisters, Linda and Barb and Chanda and Elizabeth rolled in to enjoy this wonderful moment together before setting out again to finish the ride. After all, we still had 13 miles to go to reach Massillon, OH.

Yolanda and Linda and Barb and I set out together and stuck together for the rest of the ride. The last mile and a half was a bit of a contrast, to say the least, as we transitioned from the quiet Sippo Valley Trail to the streets of Massillon, complete with noisy traffic and tractor trailers rolling next to us as we negotiated a bridge with no shoulder. Fortunately, it didn't last long before we arrived at our hotel. Because our ride was so short, we showed up long before our rooms were ready, but they had a lovely waiting room in their lobby with chairs that were so comfy, I fell asleep for a short nap. I was grateful for that nap because I had been up the night before until 2PM, so had slept only 3.5 hours before today's ride. It had been one of those nights when I couldn't get my brain to shut down. I have no doubt I'll sleep well tonight.

Rail trails visited today were:
Holmes County Trail
Sippo Valley Trail
... and miles of beautiful, long country roads with rolling hills.

38 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Massillon, OH to Akron, OH
June 4, 2023
30 miles
Tour total: 1201 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1117 miles

Today's ride was all about memories. I started out this morning thinking ... it's only 30 miles to Akron ... our shortest ride so far ... and on more flat trails ... what will I find to write about? And then ... the day's route greeted me with two vivid memories and one even more powerful one at the end.

The first was the trail surface. Very little was paved with asphalt, but rather with a hard-packed, crushed sand-clay mixture ... very reminiscent of the trail surface in Holliston, MA, where I live. Instinctively, I slowed down a bit and rebalanced on my bike to adjust for this kind of surface that can shift ever so slightly underneath bike wheels.

The second thing that was familiar was the realization that I was on a towpath trail, not a rail trail. A towpath trail is always next to a canal ... or next to a region that used to be a canal. The canals of early 19th century America, beginning with the Erie Canal, which connected Albany to Buffalo, were built to accommodate barges that could transport cargo and people more quickly than over the existing roads of the day. The barges were towed by harnessed mules or horses attached to the barges with long tow lines. Hence, the path next to the canal was known as a towpath.

There was no obvious canal that I could see as I was riding, so I started looking through the foliage to see if I could find evidence of a wide ditch on either side of me. Sure enough! Not only was there a ditch on my right, but the width looked to be about 40 feet ... the same size as the original Erie Canal. My husband Richard and I were participants in the Erie Canal Bike Tour, run by Parks & Trails New York, in 2014 and 2017 and learned a great deal about the history of the Erie Canal, including the amazing and innovative engineering techniques used to build it.

The sight of that familiar depression in the woods to my right brought back those wonderful memories of riding with Richard ... and 500-700 of our newest best friends! ... on our Erie Canal bike tours. Those tours were just as well organized and supported as the WomanTours ride I'm on now.

Perhaps the Ohio-to-Erie canals were used to transport freedom seekers on their way to Canada. The confluence of all these memories …

And to top it all off was the fact that we were riding into Akron, Ohio. For the rest of my tour sisters, it was just a short day's ride to get to our next layover day. Of course, I was looking forward to a day off as well, but Akron meant way more to me than that. It's where my mother was born and where she lived in the same house until she graduated from the University of Akron, to which she walked because it was only a few blocks away from home.

I vaguely remember the small two-story home where I visited my grandparents. My grandfather passed away of cancer when I was ten years old. My grandmother passed away when I was in my early twenties. I saw them only a few times, but I have warm memories of their kindness and love.

As I got to the outskirts of Akron, still on the towpath, the road crossings were decorated with beautiful steel arches identifying the name of the trail and welcoming visitors to Akron.

My brother Dan, who has an amazing memory, reminded me before I left for this trip that Minnie Court was the name of the street of our mom's house. All of a sudden, as I was remembering that conversation, I got an overwhelming urge step off my bike to look on Google maps to see where I was in relation to Minnie Court. That point on the trail was as close as I could be without getting off the trail ... 1.4 miles!

My mom was 87 when she passed away on June 20, 2020 in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic before there were vaccines. She didn't die of Covid, but rather of pancreatic cancer. She had fond memories of living in Akron, but never regretted moving away and on to other chapters of her life. But here I was, in this city, with which I have no relationship other than it is part of my mother's roots. As I got back on my bike and got closer to the hotel, I could feel the emotion building inside me. As I stepped down off the bike in front of the streetside hotel entrance, the tears that never came when she passed in 2020 flooded in. One of our tour leaders, Cindi, was there at the entrance, and seeing my tears as I cupped my face in my hands thought something was wrong. It took me a few moments to catch my breath in order to tell her briefly that this was my mother's home town and for some reason, I was overwhelmed with these emotions. She was, as always, incredibly supportive, and shared an equally powerful memory about her mother, who also passed in 2020.

Thank you, Cindi, for your warmth and caring, and the help you give to each of the participants and other leaders. This tour has been an amazing experience from the start, and it is in large part due to the unwavering positive leadership you and Emily and Casey and Kristie have provided as the backdrop to our journey.

Even as I'm writing this journal entry, the tears are gently welling up again. I know that one of the reasons I chose this WomanTours bike ride was because it was going to stop in Akron. It was a plus, but certainly not the initial appeal of riding through and learning more about the history of the Underground Railroad. It was just a cool thought that I would visit this city that played a major role in my mother's early life. I wish I could articulate better why the tears here and why now, but I guess that's the mystery behind some emotions. Memories can often evoke the strongest ones. One can't always keep emotions from coming. All one can do is deal with them when they arrive ... and hopefully as constructively as possible.

So here's to you, Mom! This bike trip is nothing that you would have done yourself ... you never did learn to ride a bike ... but you would have enjoyed hearing about my trip and would have, no doubt, done lots of reading about the Underground Railroad and offered interesting tidbits and insights to me via email as I traveled. Thanks so much for everything!

Rail trails visited today were:
Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail
Congressman Ralph Regula Towpath Trail
back to Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail

30 miles EBI (every blessed inch)

Akron, OH - layover day
June 4, 2023
0 miles
Tour total: 1201 miles; Personal miles achieved: 1117 miles

A layover day in Akron, OH.

Visited the John Brown House.

Enjoyed seeing traffic lights specifically designed for bicycles.

Saw large whimsical creations across the street from our hotel.

Lots of walking today.