The time off, that I used to rest in Tipp City, was wonderful. My relatives Tom and Anne Rettig, were the consummate hosts. Besides eating at several great restaur ants, they also helped me take care of some unfinished business: a haircut (it has been growing for over 60 days), a bike tune up, laundry, etc.
Interestingly, I weighed myself when I arrived. 185 pounds. About ten less than when I started. The next morning, I weighed myself aga in: 190 pounds. What? I knew I ate a big dinner last night, but not that big! Anne probably hit the market when she reminded me of all the liquids that I drank. Most of te gain was likely the fluids.
My niece, Emily Kregor, and her family, husband Jon and their 7 and 5 year olds, Isaac and Luke, came up from Cincinnati to visit yesterday. This is a BIG deal, not only because I dearly wanted to see them, but I had originally planned to ride to Cincinnati, and spend an extra day there. By them coming to the Rettig's house in Tipp City, they shaved three days off of my trip, a precious gift when I am anxious to see Karen again. Their visit was very pleasant, and the kids were so cute and well behaved.
The local newscasts are all a twitter over this heat wave that has settled in for a couple of days. Rarely do they broadcast the temperature. Instead they talk about the heat index, a combination of temperature and humidity. The higher the humidity, the higher the heat index. All the forecasters were speaking about the heat index being over 100. Events were being cancelled.
I was scratching my head. Having grown up in Indiana with this weather, I did not think it was a big deal to have hot weather. Even my 2008 bicycle trip, during its last 30 days, rarely had a high temperature daily of less than 90 degrees.
So today, I slathered on the sunblock, loaded up with water and Gatorade (and food that Anne provided), and set out for Marysville, Ohio. The first 8-10 miles were on a bike trail. The rest were lower traffic roads. The area is very pretty, whether in town or in the country.
Lunch was a nice town called Urbana, 35-40 miles into the ride. Besides drinking multiple glasses of tea, I added more sun block. By the time I left town after lunch, I probably had asked 10-12 people for help with directions, either to verify that I was indeed on track, or else because I didn't have a clue. People are always willing to help.
The afternoon was just like the morning except that the traffic was lighter still. When you are riding a bicycle, the air moves past the body, thus providing some cooling. It is sort of like having a fan on you. So even though a bicycler is generating heat, the rider tends to be cooler than if they were standing still. The difference, however, is that the bicycler has to hydrate far more than normal. In my case I hydrate a lot, and continue at dinner, and in the motel room until bedtime.
After 68 miles, I reached my motel in Marysville. What a terrific day! A fantastic breakfast and send-off by Tom and Anne. They even drove up, and found me, to make sure I was okay, and gave me a cold water. A great route, scenic, safe, polite drivers. It made the day seem to go quickly.
Tomorrow will, hopefully, be more of the same (except for the send-off☺). The ever present question is where will I worship? It seems that the Lord always has something in mind.
Blessings.
