Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
traffic is mostly limited to tractors, the mailman, and an occasional FedEx truck. They're
good roads to ride, though they do have a propensity to turn to dirt for stretches of a
mile or so, a bit sluggish in sodden weather. Horses and cows and even the occasional
llama, grazing just an arm's length or two from the roadside, nosed up close to me behind
their fences and shied away when I stopped to say hello.
The scenery has been bucolic—lanes with overarching trees, farms with tall corn-
fields, yellowing pea patches, and gardens of pumpkins or melons. Leaves are beginning
to turn—they seem to be a bit behind schedule this year—but in the dank air and
against the battleship skies, the yellows and reds are muted. The roads are littered with
twigs, leaves, buckeyes, and fallen apples, a genuine cycling hazard that I hadn't con-
sidered. But the quiet is more than worth it.
This is territory I'm familiar with only from behind the wheel of a car. When my GPS
threw me a curve on Wednesday and sent me a few miles out of the way, I ended up
crossing the Ohio Turnpike three different times on three different overpasses. It's a road
