I've been putting this journal (more of a review, I suppose?) for a while now, because at first I was merely processing the idea that the tour even happened, and then I got busy at work and couldn't have any time to myself to write it all out. Anyway, here's my first true day off since the tour...so let's get into it.
On August 28th, 2021, I greeted Vega's Velo Bicycle Transport at my dad's house in Mentor, Ohio, and along with two co-workers, we headed down to the Hampton Inn in downtown Cincinnati. Jim and Jacqui have done the OTET before and were able to recommend some restaurants and provide other tips for our journey.
Here's a rather unflattering picture of yours truly in the middle, with my two co-workers who would be completing the journey with me.
Since they don't know about this article, I won't use their full names. Instead, I'll use their first initials and introduce you to L on the left, and B on the right.
Of course, our trip down was full of the requisite Ohio scenery...
We arrived in Cincinnati early on Saturday afternoon and checked into the Hampton Inn. We were credit card touring, and while the girls were sharing a room all week, I had a hotel room to myself. I splurged and got the king bed most nights.
Early Sunday morning, we pushed off from Smale Riverfront Park after doing the requisite tire dip in the Ohio River.
The riverfront was beautiful in the 6 o'clock hour.
We made good time getting through Cincinnati proper as the path is rather clear. Here we are looping around Lucius Cincinnatus, a Roman politician.
In no time at all, we were at Sunken Lunken Airport. Again, signage was good. Though this stretch required considerable road riding, we had no issues due to it being an early Sunday morning.
After zipping through the ritzy neighborhood of Mariemont and down an AWESOME hill where I sustained over 30mph for at least a quarter mile (seriously!), we were off the road and on the Little Miami Scenic Trail.
We were thinking the road riding would be the most harrowing part of the day, but we were sorely mistaken, as my '21 Kona Sutra decided to suffer from mechanicals. We had been enjoying the LMST quite fine for about 15 miles when I heard a metallic ping noise and knew I'd busted a spoke. We stopped in Loveland so I could inspect. I carry spare spokes but I don't have the chops to replace them, so we were roadside looking for an open bike shop. Go figure, there were plenty around but none were open.
Well, there was ONE open, a bike rental place near Loveland who shall go unnamed since they were less than helpful. They flat out said NO when I asked if I could stop by with spokes and have their mechanic get me trued. Guess they only work on THEIR bikes and don't care about goodwill with other bike tourists. Oh well. Screw them.
(more coming in subsequent posts; I am limited to 10 images per post)