The first day of the bike tour was also the longest mileage day - a 70 mile ride from Cincinnati to Xenia, Ohio. But it was not a hard ride, the terrain was flat and the bike
trails in excellent condition. Partway through this first day, I realized that I had not yet shifted gears on my rented bike, so I decided to see how far I could go on this tour before shifting. The answer
turned out to be: the entire bike tour. I didn't shift gears once. Most of the mileage on this tour is on rail-trails, and since train engines typically cannot climb more than a 3% grade, we encountered few
hills. Later in the ride, we did pedal on a few low-traffic country roads, and I had to work to crank up some slopes, but mostly this ride was incredibly level.
Our ride actually began in Kentucky, just over the border. After we left the hotel, in less than a mile we rode over the Ohio River and entered the state of Ohio via the pedestrian
Purple Bridge. Soon we were riding along the Miami River. We had excellent weather today, ideal for cycling. Not too hot, not too cold, and not wet. On this entire bike tour, we never encountered a headwind.
If there was any wind on this ride, it was a tailwind.
Sometimes I pedaled alone, and sometimes in the company of the other riders. No one seemed in a hurry to race to the hotel at day's end. I stopped to take pictures, and so I
would fall behind and then catch up. Somehow I missed the first water-stop - Cycle of Life Adventures (COLA) has a van that goes ahead to setup water stops and the lunch break, while a guide rides sweep behind
us all.
When I was growing up in Cleveland, I remember the terrible tragedy of tornadoes striking Xenia, Ohio and causing massive damage.
That was the first time I had heard of Xenia. I was living on the west coast when Xenia was struck again by a tornado in 2000. Xenia was known as
a hub for railroads. Ohio has converted many of those railroads into rail-trails, so now Xenia is a connector for bike trails, with trails leaving the city on all points of the compass.
