Onward to Cincinnati

Before leaving Madison Lake State Park on day 11 I called my friend Adam to ask him to give his parents a heads up that I would be crashing at their house in the next day or two. I thought I would take a scenic route along the Ohio River to get to Cinci and it would take me a day or two, but then Adam told me about a rail trail that will eventually go all the way from Cleveland to Cincinnati that I could take instead.

I headed out and ran into another biker named Gary. He had done some touring and had all sorts of questions for me and stories to tell. He showed me where the Loveland rail trail started in London, OH and took me to the bike shop (Young's Cycles, if I remember correctly) to get my chain lubed up and my handlebar fixed from my fall the day before. Gary was a great conversationalist and we talked about everything from immigration policy and NAFTA to a cruise he'd taken with his wife in Alaska and what his kids do for a living. It made the 20 or so miles he rode with me to South Charleston go by a whole lot faster and more pleasant.

The next stop I made on the rail trail was Xenia, OH where I met up with Phil--yet another fellow biker who had done a lot of touring. He didn't know how many times he had crisscrossed the country but he had plenty of stories to tell and we bonded over out mutual interest and experience with Jewish film festivals. Then he bought me ice cream, and we also talked about immigration policy--I didn't even bring it up!! These rail trail bikers have a one-track mind!

So I continued on the rail trail and realized I'd be able to make it to Cincinnati that very day. Though I had to bike about 87 miles or so, it wasn't so bad since it was a flat, straight shot on the trail. That was the most I had biked in a day up until that point. I called Adam's dad and we planned for him to pick me up at Milford, OH.

Adam's House
Meeting Adam's parents and staying at his house was many things: hilarious, wonderful, revealing...it's funny to meet one of your friends' parents when your friend isn't there. Adam's dad, Al, did a cross country tour two years ago and we immediately bonded over our mutual fascination with country roads and eating as much food as you could ever possibly want to eat in one sitting. Al encouraged me to find more back roads to ride on, rather than the bigger roads I was choosing because they're more clearly labeled on the maps I'm using. And he had plenty of stories I couldn't yet relate to like drinking lots of beer every night and cresting steep mountain passes in the middle of snowstorms...but I'm sure I'll get to that.

Another great thing about Adam's house was the shampoo in the guest bathroom. It was called Wash 'n' Clean and the directions and ingredients were all in Russian. Where it would say, on an American brand shampoo, "moisturizing" or "for normal to oily hair" it said only "Greasy" in English. I thought the Russian manufacturer could use a lesson or two in marketing. But it made me laugh because it was a full bottle and I'm sure it's just there for show.

Skyline and Graeter's
The Gerhardstein's took me to Cincinnati staples Skyline Chili and Graeter's homemade ice cream. I'm not sure if I'm spelling Graeter's correctly...but anyway. The chili is an old Greek recipe and they put it on top of spaghetti noodles which I thought was CRAZY at first, but then got over it pretty quickly and thought it was great. I ordered the chili "5-way" with a layer of onions and a layer of beans along with the chili, noodles, and cheese. Graeter's was delicious of course, but I did work in an ice cream store for 3 and a half years in high school so it's hard for me not to love ice cream in all its forms.

Megan Joiner's parents joined us at Skyline and so I got a great update on Megan's seminary career. Megan's mom, Mary, also told us all about her trip along the Silk Road through China, Mongolia, Turkey, et al and that was particularly fascinating. If you're reading this Megan--it was great to be reunited with you at least spiritually at that point!

I got to see the Cincinnati skyline at night, and see the very steep church steps on Mt. Adam's where devout Catholics crawl on their knees to the top for Easter or some other holy day.

More on Cincinnati
I spent the next day in downtown Cinci at the Underground Railroad Freedom Center which is a great museum dedicated to the people and routes that made up the Underground Railroad. I'll have to write more about this in a subsequent "blog" or maybe just in my own journal, but it definitely got me thinking about the economic impact of slavery in a way I hadn't really thought of before--that our country's wealth was basically built on slavery and as an industry it was far more profitable for individuals than other industries of the time.

Since Al is a civil rights attorney and both he and Mimi, Adam's mom, have been involved in humanitarian and social justice causes for forever, they gave me a good social history of the city as well. Learning the history of racism in the city and the recent riots in 2001 that came out of police brutality towards African-Americans, made that history seem glaringly absent when there was no real mention of it, or ways Cincinnati is dealing with the effects of racism, at the Underground Railroad museum...I guess no one would want to got to a museum that hit you over the head with that much reality...but still. The museum included sections that were supposed to make you think critically about current social issues like immigration, gender and racial stereotypes, racial profiling, gay rights, the environment--it kind of went all over the place--but it still felt like there were elephants in the room that weren't being dealt with in a constructive way.

Enough about that for now. After the museum I had dinner with neighbors of the Gerhardsteins, Jen Thompson and her parents. They were hilarious, warm, and laughed at everything I said--basically they immediately made me feel part of the family by being just as eccentric as I am. They took me to Putz's Creamy Whip (soft serve ice cream) --and I will now only refer to ice cream as Creamy Whip because it's such a ridiculous thing to say. They also had a beautiful old house built in the 1850s with a backyard gazebo-type shelter built in the 1930s and two pretty little ponds for fish.

So then the next day, after deciding on a good route along the Ohio River with Al and having him replenish my supply of energy bars (Luna Bars are still my favorite, and the Snickers one is terrible, though it is "fortified for women"), I left Cincinnati and headed to Bloomington, IN to stay with my cousin Rachel. Al also gave me "Energy Gu" which is the most terrible, disgusting pudding-y substance that you will grow to actually love--I used it the next day when I was totally burnt out of energy--one pocket shot of Gu and I was full steam ahead for the next couple hours.