Day 39 - Tuesday, June 17 - Wooster, OH to Niles, OH - 91 miles - 4600 feet climbing

Today was a cool and pleasant ride. Rain threatened most of the day but we never had more than sprinkles. There were many turns and several riders, including myself missed some. I and my riding companion for today, Meredith of Kentucky, missed four turns and our 91 mile ride grew to 98 miles - almost a century. The same happened yesterday when I rode with Randy and Paula. Our 98 mile ride grew to 100. Sunday's 103 mile ride was actually 107 miles. Essentially, I have done a century each of the last three days. It will be interesting to see what tomorrow's 89 mile ride turns in to.

One of first sights that we saw today was this huge dairy farm - The Stoll Dairy Farm of Marshallville, OH. The brick building in the photo is the milking parlor. Some of the other buildings are shown in the background.


More of the buildings belonging to the Stoll Dairy Farm. Searching on Google for Stoll Dairy Farm, I found that the farm is the largest dairy farm in Ohio and milks 2045 cows. It's total population is around 5000 dairy animals which includes young calves, heifers, and dry cows. The farm's employees are mostly Hispanic.


A reminder of my home state of Iowa.



Our destination for today - Niles, Ohio. I am blocking part of the sign but it reads "Welcome to Niles - Birthplace of President McKinley".

An interesting happening today was when the rear wheel of Achim and Alex's (from Germany) tandem bike literally disintegrated - most likely from the beating from the many rough roads we have ridden on. A guy in a pickup truck stopped and offered to take them to a local bike shop to have it fixed. When the local bike shop couldn't help them with the wheel, the good Samaritan offered to take them to Niles, almost 90 miles away to have it repaired. The offer was accepted and so Alex, Achim, and the bike were taken to Niles. The bike shop was just opening but the owner had a truck of freight waiting to be unloaded. Achim and Alex unloaded the heavy indoor exercise equipment while the wheel was being repaired. The pickup driver then took them the 90 miles back to where they had quit riding. Achim and Alex were able to continue their ride and finish it by around 7 pm this evening. Finishing today's ride was very important to them as they are two of the very few riders who have ridden every mile of the tour so far. We were so glad that everything worked out for them and are very thankful for the pickup driver who was kind enough to help them out.

Tomorrow, we will ride 89 miles to Erie, PA, where the following day will be a rest day. One of the riders has reported that the temperature in the morning is to be in the low 50's. Some riders have sent their cold weather clothes home and are already shivering while thinking about tomorrow morning.

Bye for now and thanks for the comments.

Bob