Day 25 Marysville,Ohio to Wooster, Ohio 105 miles @ 16.4 mph

We woke to rain this morning...and it was cold! Breakfast at Waffle House...our first. I enjoyed it as I had been doing some "food training" at the Waffle House across the street from my office in the week's leading up to this ride. Everyone seemed to want to take it easy today....even the boys in Team Europe. I think they stopped for coffee in every town we passed thru! Judd, Rob and I rode with Iain most of the day. The route took us down Ohio Rt. 602, which is now my favorite section of road we have ridden. Absolutely beautiful farmland and big, long rolling hills...similar to Sugarloaf Mountain back home (only spread over 40+ miles!!). The rain let up by noon, but it stayed pretty cold! I've been trying to get photos of sheep for Sheepman. Today a spotted a beautiful flock off to my right about 30 feet from the road. The grass is really thick and green up here and there was (what I thought) a great little patch of lawn that I could roll onto...right up to the fence for a photo. About 15 feet into my side trip...I realized the grass looked a little different, longer perhaps and maybe disguise a....HOLE!! Just that instant the alarms went off in my head! The next thing I knew my front wheel dropped completely into the hole and I did what Mountain Bikers refer to as a "full end-o"! Over the bars and crashing on my left shoulder. I could here the sound of cartilege and instant pain in my shoulder as I piled into the grass....bike on top of me!! Fortunately...it was a grass landing! The rest of the ride was pretty painful. I was more mad at myself than anything. Got back to the hotel and Rob took a look (he's a PT so he know's his stuff). Nothing broken...full range of motion. It's gonna hurt like crazy for a few days. I've started a Fosters and ibuprofen campaign to battle the pain. It seems to be working so please forgive any typo's.

I have really enjoyed seeing these old farm homes...and thinking of how tough (and adventurous) the early settlers had to be.
Lot's more horse and dairy farms here as well.

Today's rain and mud mean I need to get to "mechanic's"...our scheduled time with Shane and Mike to go over any maintenance or preventitive maintenance issue on our bikes. Mine needs a thorough cleaning of the drivetrain tonight!

I sure do miss Katie!


These historic homes dot the countryside along our route


Judd sporting some improvised rain gear for his helmet from the hotel "amenity packet"


Red Barn # 3004


Judd pointing out that the road drops off to the right


Llama