Ken's Bike Trip in Ohio

June 7-17th, Ken and friends went on their annual bike adventure- this time in the state of Ohio.  This year, just seven people (6 riders and one support van driver) went, a much smaller group than usual.  They had a great time, at least until they tried to get home.  I will let Ken tell you about it.  A man post!!!

This is Ken. The six riders this year were made up of 4 of our regular group: myself, Greg Last, & Jeff and Derena Adamson; and 2 new riders, Steve Jurca and his wife, Beverly. Greg's wife, Patsy Last was our support van driver. She certainly makes the lives of us riders much easier because of the service she provides us along the way. She normally simply drives all our luggage from one hotel to the next one; however, she sometimes will bring us a meal somewhere along the trail if she senses that there aren't any lunch options on that day's ride. She will also drive us to whereever we need in between our rides, such as to the restaurant for our evening meal. She is a God-send to us. Although small, this year's group was similar to most year's groups in that everyone was fun, easy-going, and very enjoyable to be with. We drove from Hurricane/St. George to McCarren International Airport in Las Vegas, and flew on American Airlines from Las Vegas to Dallas/Fort Worth and then to Cincinnati, Ohio. Actually, the Cincinnati airport is NOT in Cincinnati. In fact it isn't even in Ohio. It is across the Ohio River in Lexington, Kentucky. We stayed the first night in a hotel near the airport and then drove to the bike rental shop, picked up our  bikes, and they ferried us to the southern end of the Lesser Miami River Trail in northeast Cincinnati. We had a delightful 60+ mile ride to Xenia, Ohio that day. The weather was cool and nice. The next day was Sunday, and so we all went to  church with the Xenia Ward for Sacrament Meeting before getting on the trail to ride the 40 miles to Urbana, Ohio. This day was relatively wet, right from the start, but it wasn't so cool that it made the ride too uncomfortable. Thus, the ride wasn't as nice as the previous day, but it was still an enjoyable ride on a beautiful trail. Monday we rode from Urbana to Piqua, Ohio, which was about 42 miles. This was clearly our toughest day because we had to ride on the road, along with regular vehicular traffic. I always dread to ride on the roads because of the risk associated with cars and especially trucks. They provide a danger to bike riders that I would prefer to avoid. However, the people that established the biking trails in Ohio had set up the trail to use back roads so as to minimize those risks for us. Two other things that made this day our most difficult were a consistent, stiff head-wind, and plenty of hills to climb. Usually we ride on railroad beds that have been converted into walking/biking paths, and so the grade is usually very level, with periodic grades of 1 or 2 %. However, when we ride on roads, there are inevitably numerous hills to climb along the way. None of them were too steep or long; however, when riding into a stiff head-wind, any hill climb is made that much more onerous. We were all glad to reach our motel in Piqua that evening at about 5:00 pm.

On Tuesday, we had a delightful, mostly sunny day to ride from Piqua, south to Dayton, Ohio, along the Greater Miami River Trail. Today's ride was 40+ miles. On this day's ride, we went through some areas that had been hit by a tornado or two approximately a week before and we found the devastation to be impressive, amazing and scary. On Wednesday, we took a break from our bikes and rode in the van to visit various historical sites. We visited the Wright Brothers' Bike Shop Museum/Visitor Center, Huffman Prairie, and the National Air Force Museum. I found each site very interesting and informative; however, at the end of the day, I was probably more tired than any of the biking days. On Thursday, we had another windy ride of about 40 miles. However, the wind was not consistently stiff and in our face. At the end of the ride, we had to leave the trail and ride on some pretty narrow, busy, frightening roads in order to reach our motel. There were simply no places to stay near the trail. On Friday, we had a short ride of 5 to 10 miles before the bike shop picked up our bikes and we road in the support van back to our hotel near the Cincinnati Airport. That evening, the other riders went downtown to watch a Cincinnati Reds baseball game, but I didn't like the $100+ price tag and so I just read my brother, Jim's, personal history and then explored the neighborhood. Despite forgetting to take my binoculars, I got a great look at a Yellow-throated Warbler along the bank of the Ohio River. It was an enjoyable evening for me, even though I spent it alone. Saturday morning, we went to downtown Cincinnati to walk around and explore and to visit the "Underground Railroad Museum", which told about the black people trying to escape from the terrors of slavery during the Civil War period. We then made our way to the airport to begin our saga of trying to get home.We were flying United Airlines home to Las Vegas, via a stop in Denver. However, the plane we were supposed to fly to Denver on had mechanical problems that delayed the flight time after time. We finally boarded the plane at about 1:00 AM, eight hours late, only to sit for about an hour on the tarmac in the plane, waiting for the weather to clear enough for us to take off. Finally, the pilot came on the intercom to inform us that he and the copilot had "timed out" and they were taking us back to the gate. There was only one United Airlines gate attendant to take care of a couple hundred angry customers and so we ended up finding a nearby hotel on our own and eventually got a few hours of sleep there before returning to the airport on Sunday for a scheduled noon takeoff. Well, noon came and went, as the flight was again delayed, this time due to a late-arriving flight crew. (It was Father's Day and Kay's birthday) At about 1:00 or 2:00 PM, they loaded us on the plane again and taxied away from the gate, but then sat on the tarmac for about 45 minutes once more, before the pilot informed us that the plane a problem with its navigational equipment and we had to return to the gate once more. Naturally, we began to fear that this airport had become the legendary Hotel California in that "You could check in, but you can't check out". However, after an hour or two more of delay, they said the plane was fixed and we again boarded it. I found it interesting that each time we boarded that plane, there were fewer of us boarding it. Thus, I got my whole row of 3 seats all to myself as this time the plane really did take off and we made it safely to Denver. When we arrived in Denver, of course we were late and so we barely missed our connecting flight to Las Vegas. United had 2 more flights to Denver that night, one at about 7:00 PM and one at about 11:00 PM. We were able to finagle getting a seat assignment on both flights (pretty amazing, huh!), however, it was all to no avail because both flights ended up being delayed multiple times and then both were cancelled at about 2:00 AM Monday morning. During the various flight delays on both flights, we found ourselves moving from one gate to the other multiple times as each delay was announced and it looked like the other flight would be the next plane to leave. Alas, we finally gave up at 2:00 AM, and decided to rent a large SUV to drive us all home and then to Las Vegas to pick up our cars. We had to wait in line for an hour at the car rental place in order to get the car, but that gave me a chance to catch a half-hour nap or so. Thus, I was rested enough to take the first shift and drive us from Denver Airport across the Rocky Mountains in the dark to about Glenwood Springs. At that point, my nap had worn off and I needed to turn the wheel over to other drivers, who got us to Hurricane, Utah safely. I then drove Jeff Adamson and myself to McCarren Airport, where we turned in the rental SUV and then picked up our cars and drove home. I arrived home at about 7:00 PM, almost 2 days later than we had planned. It was an airport nightmare that I will not soon forget.

This was the Google-map route from our hotel in Xenia, to the LDS church.

Between Cincinnati and Xenia, the trail went through a number of cute, quaint little towns. This one was having a festival of some sort. We stopped at a cute, trailside restaurant near this Cincinnati Reds ballplayer for a delicious lunch. 

Enjoying lunch at the trailside restaurant.

We found this old, abandoned ammunition manufacturing plant fascinating.

One of the few covered bridges we passed on this year's ride. Notice the trail is wet from one of the several small rain storms we experienced the first day.

An historic small college campus building along the trail.

A shot of the Greater Miami River in Piqua, OH area.

A beautiful local government building in the Troy, OH area, which we found along the trail.

Two trains passing each other, right along the trail.

Greater Miami River.

One of our trailside lunch stops. This one was in the Troy, OH area between Piqua and Dayton.

This and the following pics show some of the tornado damage we found along the trail. It was truly impressive.

In a park near downtown Dayton, Ohio.

More tornado damage

This and the following pictures show some of the tornado devastation done to homes in a Dayton subdivision we drove through as we went to a laundromat to do our laundry.

Huffman Prairie, where the Wright Brothers did much of their early flights in the Dayton area.

The site of the Wright Brothers' 4th or 5th bike shop.

The museum/visitor center associated with the Wright Brothers' bike shop museum.

Air Force missiles in the museum.

One of MANY incredibly awesome airplanes in the museum.

Space Shuttle

Front view of the SR-71

Side view of the SR-71 spy plane. (Blackbird?)

Side view of the flying wing (U-2?)

Front view of the stealth flying wing.

Ferry site along the Ohio River where I saw the Yellow-throated Warbler.

My life-long friend, Greg and his wife, Patsy Last

Cincinnati Bengal's stadium

Downtown Cincinnati as seen from the Kentucky Side of the Ohio River

This picture and the several following are murals painted on the Ohio River's levee walls on the Kentucky side of the river across from downtown Cincinnati. These murals depicted important historical events/times in the area's history. This particular mural is of the Lexington Kentucky's professional baseball team, the Blue Socks.

As you can see, I took a number pictures of this bridge over the Ohio River. It was designed by a very famous man, whose name I cannot now remember. It is beautiful and connects downtown Cincinnati to the Kentucky side of the downtown area.

The Cincinnati Red's baseball stadium, which is just a ways east of the Cincinnati Bengal's football stadium.

The underground railroad museum in downtown Cincinnati.