On The Road Again

Let's set the scene and have a look at what can possibly go wrong.

• Have I been up until half 2 drinking? Of course I have (great evening with my couchsurfing host, Iva.).
• Have I woken up early resulting in very little sleep? About 6, and unable to get back to sleep.
• Are my energy levels at their peak? Not quite, but getting there at last. Good enough for a 40 mile ride easily.
• Do I have enough energy? Maybe not. The ridiculous temperatures suppress appetite so I've not been eating quite as much as I should.
• Are there any conditions that may make cycling difficult? Only some massive hills, temperatures in the high 30s, and a new fear / caution of picking up too much speed and the abundance of potholes, rocks, tree debris and roadkill littering the roads.
• Are there any holidays coming up that may make hotels more full than usual? It's only the Saturday before 4th July.
• Have there been any natural phenomenon in the area that could cause people to seek refuge in hotels? There's been a massive storm that's knocked out power for millions, so, yes.

I left Pittsburgh and took things easy knowing that I had loads of time to get to Steubenville. I left Pennsylvania, crossed West Virginia and made it into Steubenville Ohio for about 7, so later than I'd have liked. Cycling up and down some serious hills in really high temperatures is tough. I'm taking on 6 or 7 litres of water everyday to keep hydrated. Every single room in Steubenville and neighbouring Weirton was taken due to some university event. Every single one. So what to do? After a bit of looking on the internet the best option seemed to be cycle 25 miles or so south down to Wheeling where there are more hotels.

Left Steubenville looking for the scary Market Street bridge (metal grid surface, slippy as hell, not fun on a bike) which I completely missed leaving me on a busy duel carriageway. It got dark, and then the roadworks began. Lanes filtered into a barricaded single lane surrounded with concrete only just wide enough for these stupid sized trucks they have over here. There is no way I'm cycling along that so resort to something that I've had to do before: use the hard shoulder of the other carriageway going against the traffic. This worked out for a little bit, until that too became a concrete encased single lane. Well, back to the last turn off and see if I could follow the road. Brilliant. That's right, Brilliant Ohio. From what I saw of the town it was anything but, however it did get me back onto the right road. Only a mile or two further down the road, more roadworks. With things even darker, these roadworks aren't going to be cycled. As ever, if you don't ask, you don't get, and after asking I got a lift past all the roadworks. Cycling in the dark is not fun. I've done it before and I ran over a squirrel (kind of like a squidgy speed bump). As you cycle along and see something in the spotlight ahead of you, you only have an instant to figure out if it's a rock or a bear and how to avoid it and the pothole on the other side of it (assuming you see the pothole, but best just to assume it's there because it probably is). Fortunately I only ran over an opossum (crunchy) so made it to Wheeling safely. First hotel I came to, I didn't even make it to the door before I was told that it was full, and that all the other hotels are probably full too due to a major baseball event going on. At half 10, this is not news you want to hear. Next hotel, and they were full too. However, give the story of cycling 2200 miles and they can check a couple of rooms as one may have checked in and then checked out again making it available. Half 11, and I have a bed. Result!

Evidence of the storm - more and more common across Ohio

Getting further from the East coast, I can begin to see more signs of the America we all know and love (to take the piss out of), especially as I partook in what must be a Sunday (if not daily) tradition for the elderly, the obese, and the elderly obese: the KFC buffet. I broke with tradition and even had some of the vegetables on offer. Struggling through my third piece of deep fried chicken, I saw a guy load up a plate with nothing but chicken. There must have been 6 pieces. And as I was leaving, he'd loaded up a second plate, again with nothing but chicken. Nothing has made me crave Mum's cooking like this before. In fact, nothing has made me crave Mum's cooking before. But, this reminds me of a conversation I was listening in to in Harrisburg (I was just in no fit state to make a coherent argument at the time). Someone was saying that they didn't want a socialised health care because they didn't want to pay for some obese person's medication. That is forgetting one simple thing though - economics. Surely, in a country with over 50% obesity, any insurance company must generate money by ensuring that the payments from every two policies covers all the usual costs for accidents etc for 2 people, and the diabetes and dialysis treatments associated with obesity for 1 person. As there's so many fat people, everyone's paying for the crippling rates of obesity anyway.

On my travels I've been reunited with an old friend - the humble Mars Bar. Before I've bemoaned the lack of the Mars Bar because it's just so full of sugar which is essential for cycling, but it's been found again: the Milky Way. Those in the UK will know how confusing this is and why I couldn't find the Mars Bar; while the Milky Way is related to the Mars Bar, it's just not adequate enough for a serious sugar fix.

The benefits of getting lost in Ohio

Back on the road, I missed a turning. Getting lost can have its benefits because the scenery is awesome, however the roads suck. Several miles of gravel pathway, not too unlike a certain picnic area I was at not too long ago. Got horrifically lost, but eventually made it to Cambridge to find that all the hotels were full thanks to the recent storm knocking out the power everywhere, apart from 1 hotel charging $150 plus tax, and there wasn't even a breakfast! I'm going to be well happy once the power's back up and everyone stops staying in motels. And when it cools down a little.