Day 23 
Delaware, OH to Findley State Park, OH

Last night looking at my map I decided it’s possible I may need to go off route into Cleveland and get my phone sorted out. Not having a phone with a map is problematic. I have missed a turn or two and sometimes I pedal off route for a mile or two before I decide I may be off track. My cycling maps show my route but do not show much detail outside my route so once you’re off route…you’re kind of on your own. I’ve been way more diligent about looking for street signs etc. but sometimes there aren’t street signs and without a phone I don’t always know if that is my place to turn. I stop people to ask when possible but sometimes there is not a soul around. A few people have mentioned I am more likely to get Verizon to help me out while I’m on tour vs at home and I think they’re right. So around Sparta, I made a call to Adventure Cycling to see if I could buy one of the Northern Tier Bicycle Route maps. This would take me from Cleveland and then route me back to meet up with the URR route. I would just be on my own from Owensboro to Cleveland. I ended up talking with Patrick at Adv Cycling. They don’t usually send scanned maps but usually can send them to a post office for general delivery for me to pick up but I didn’t have time. I planned to go off route tomorrow. He didn’t have any digital copies on hand but he went above and beyond and we were able to get the map I needed scanned so I wasn’t rolling blind. This was super! I went to a library in Fredericktown to print out the maps and check my email and post on my blog about not having a phone as I had been getting a bunch of emails with folks thinking I was missing. I couldn’t respond to text messages either so I had no idea who had tried to call/text. Bah. So incredibly reliant on phones, it’s a little ridiculous.

After Fredericktown I rolled thru Amish country. Lots and lots and lots of buggies on the roadway. Lots of Amish houses, noted by the lack of powerlines running to the houses, the copious amounts of clothing on clotheslines out front, no cars, etc. I have a funny video where I’m calling out “Passing on your left!!!”…I mean, I don’t know what you’re supposed to do on a bicycle when passing a buggy but I didn’t want to spook the horses. They looked at me just as crazy as I looked at them. I waved at all the Amish people I saw, they looked at me like I was from another planet and ever so slowly raised a hand to reciprocate a wave back. It was mentioned to me that there is a serious problem with the buggies and I can see what they mean. They are pretty much invisible after dusk. They have a tiny lantern they hang outside but it’s not bright, nothing reflective and they take the main roads. They have started taking a plastic bag and tying it around the wheels of the buggy so it’s something white that flips around the wheel to try and show up at night. I even came flying around a corner and almost crashed into a buggy. I didn’t really want to be in the news for that “Girls rear ends buggy on bicycle.” That is not how I want to go down. The buggies significantly wear the road down which as a bicycle, their tracks made for a very smooth ride so I started riding in their tracks. I’m told the Amish folks are actually very wealthy people. All of this is so interesting to me.

I called the state park I planned to stay at before I arrived. Their website said their showers may not be open. <gasp> But it turned out they were once again open. I asked if they had a washer and they said it wasn’t open and hooked up yet, it’s early in the season but they would send someone out there to hook it up before I got there. Wow. What awesome State Park staff! They said since I was on a bicycle, they for sure wanted to help me out and let me do laundry if I wanted to do laundry. I thanked them and assured them that everyone that I encountered in the next day or two would also be thanking them for letting me do laundry. 😉

104 miles since departing in the morning, I finally arrived at Findley. 

At Findley I camped nearest the shower, laundry and the camp host. Usually a safe place to camp and the campground was kind of a ghost town so it made me feel better to camp near the host. I met the hosts, Gary and Amanda. They were super! They for sure didn’t look grandparent age but they assured me they were grandparents. They had all their sons out of the house and decided to sell it all, sell the house, buy an RV and they are just going to travel. They are taking one year and staying at the campground and working at the campground (so they get to stay for free) and then they also have kept their normal day jobs and are saving their earnings for a year. After the year is up, then they’ll travel wherever the wind takes them till they get tired of doing it. I totally, completely admire them for this. Giving up the house and white picket fence for adventure! They were inspirations talking to them. We talked for quite a while. I actually had to go beg a quarter off them because I was short for my laundry load! (I tired to get change twice today to no avail) We chatted so long it was almost bedtime by the time we finished. I figured I’d just stick the stuff in the washer and then move it in the morning to the dryer. Chatting them was worth it. They were rad I want to be like them when I grow up!! Go Amanda and Gary!!!