I’m going to keep today’s blog on the shorter side despite meeting so many wonderful people today.  The team is a little tired and we are looking forward to some much needed rest.  Once I am back home and I’ve had a chance to recover I will write a summary of our trip.

For the first day in almost a week we did not have rain, or as Dr. B calls it “spheres of dihydrogen monoxide.”  We started our ride today in Centerburg, OH.  As the name suggests, it is the geographical center of the state.  Dr. B wanted to search the town for a plaque of some sort to get a picture, but I told him “no, we’ve got to get moving.”  We rode along very nice, well maintained trails for almost the entire route toady.  There were a few sections where we needed to exit a trail, take some roads and sidewalks to get to the next trail, but for the most part the navigation was straight forward.

The first twenty miles of today were bittersweet.  We knew we were on the last day, and these twenty miles would be the last for Jimmy, Dr. B, and me, just three of us.  We have so much fun being on the trail together and relying on one another for support, humor, and motivation.  About twenty miles into the ride we were met on the trail by a hand cyclist, Rick Haller who is a member of The Adaptive Sports Connection.  Rick is from the area and has a lot of local knowledge of the trails and how they all connect and intersect.  We asked him to guide us to where other members from his club would begin riding with us, at Alum Creek Park, or as Dr. B calls it “Potassium Aluminum Sulfate Creek Park.”

As we left Alum Creek Park we rode along the creek.  It was hella beautiful.  We switched from one side of the creek to another multiple times over beautiful bridges.  A few miles down the trail, still being guided thankfully by Rick we were joined by Eric Oberg from Rails to Trails Conservancy who rode with us until about a mile from the finish line, where he would ride ahead to get the finish line set up.   As we were riding Eric would talk about specific parts of the trail and the work it took to get much of this trail developed.  You could tell he was proud of the work he’s done and hopeful for development of more trails making the current trail system even more fluid.

As we approached downtown we found ourselves on sidewalks and roads (with sharrows).  For the most part traffic was not bad, but there were certain intersections where we needed to be extra careful due to the speed at which cars were traveling.  At these intersection Jimmy, Dr. B, Simon (Rick’s son), and another cyclist, Dave were very helpful making us all visible.  We were now a group of 10 – 15 cyclists and wheel chairs.  Sometimes it takes more time that the crosswalk allows when you have that many in your group.

As downtown approached we were met by Jody Dzuranin, the Executive Director of the Ohio to Erie Trail.  She would guide us to the finish line and we could celebrate our accomplishment.  We made one final turn onto a nice path that rolls along the Scioto River into the heart of downtown.  As we made this turn we were joined by a fellow wheelchair user, Jenny Border the local United Spinal contact who rode with us for the final mile.

After crossing the finish line, we were able to celebrate and just breath.  There were a lot of people that rode with us today and it was nice to get a chance to talk to them and look them in the eye.  Sometimes on the trail this can be difficult.  I want to talk to all of the wonderful people who are here to support us and get outside, and sometimes riding on the trail makes it too difficult to see everyone.  After I had a chance to talk to everyone and share a special moment with my team we were ready to go get some beer.

My team and I, joined by Jenny went to Hoof Hearted Brewing because whoever named this placed must be as immature as we are and probably likes the same stuff we do.  The beer was good, much better than the beer we have been drinking along the way.  Jimmy had a big smile on his face.  We were even able to eat some deep-fried alligator, expect for Dr. B of course.

In total, we road over 440 miles.  We started in Washington DC and ended in Columbus, OH.  We encountered just about every terrain we could think of.  From the first day to the last day we experienced a temperature range of nearly fifty degrees.  We had a number of days of rain.  All along the way we were intrigued by the history we were riding through.  We were unable to spend the time reading and learning about all these historical sites we were passing because of the schedule we were trying to keep.  We are thankful for everyone we met along the way, and all the beauty we were able to see along the way.  It’s amazing what can be accomplished when you have the support I have, and when you get outside.