Day 41 - July 18 - Marysville, OH to Wooster, OH - 105 miles

We're officially at mile 2994, but I'm already over.

We've been very lucky with the weather so far. It wasn't too hot when we were in the desert, and we haven't gotten rained on yet. Twice it rained on rest days, once in the evening after dinner, and today while we were having lunch. We were out of the main path of the storm anyway, so it didn't rain very hard or very long. There was a bit of water on the road afterwards, but it soon dried up, and returned to hot and humid.

We're heading back into the rolling hills. They're not as frequent or regular as in Missouri, so let's just call them hills. The worst case is when there's a long descent, but with a long flat at the bottom, then several small climbs to sap any remaining momentum, then finally the long climb back to the same elevation that you started at.

Around mile 90, there was a place where a bridge was out, and Neil painted a large detour arrow in the road. But Bruce had told us that Daco walked across, and anything Daco could do, we could do. We got there, went around the "Road Closed" signs and the chains across the road, and found a bridge composed entirely of steel I-beams, open to the stream below. No problem.

I've been riding without sunscreen about every other day. I'm getting a pretty good tan, and my arm hairs have gone blond. But my fingertips look like they've been stained with iodine.

Dinner was in the "conference room" of the Econo Lodge, catered by the Country Kitchen restaurant, which is just next door. Same with breakfast tomorrow. I can't fathom why they don't just have us go to the restaurant. Usually dinner is a half-mile walk, and frequently breakfast is several miles away, along the route (except when it's several miles off-route, which has happened a couple times).

Laundry. Some hotels have no guest laundry facilities. Most have just one washer and dryer for the whole guest community. Since we're travelling with only about four changes of clothes, we all have to do laundry every four days. The only time there wasn't a line for the laundry was on the first day, when everyone else was fresh, but I had been in town for a few days. I spent most of the evening in the laundry area, doing my (and Andy's) laundry, and reading more the Harry Potter novel.