Day 21
Cincinnati, OH to Xenia, OH

Jenica and I had breakfast before we parted ways. Was so sad to say goodbye! I wish she could have been my sag wagon and followed me along the way! Ha!

I rode back to Milford to where I had departed from my cycling maps. From here I got to spend the entire day on bicycle trails. It was SO incredibly peaceful. 

I stopped off part way along the ride at Montgomery Cyclery and they helped me tighten up my stem. They were so helpful and chatty and didn’t even charge me to go through my bike and tighten things up since I was on a tour. It’s impressive to me that shops don’t charge me because I’m on tour. It’s counter intuitive because I will never be a repeat customer so they won’t ever get money back from me yet they do it because they want to support cyclists and their adventures. It’s pretty cool. I left there and pedaled on. It was a pretty flat day, slightly uphill which isn’t really as great as one may think. When it’s flat, you have to keep pedaling! I almost prefer rolling hills at this point. About 10 minutes or so after leaving the shop and hitting the trail one of the employees from Montgomery Cyclery caught up to me and she and I chatted for about half an hour as we pedaled down the trail before she split off to go home. Was nice to have company and made the time go by faster though I pitied her for having to go so slow and go my pace! Ha!

Almost to Xenia and a couple going the other direction on a tandem bike stopped me to chat about where I was going. They later caught up to me in Xenia where I was taking a break on a bench and we chatted further. Xenia is interesting, it’s where a number of bike trails all come together. Ohio is full of bicycle trails, it’s quite impressive and they continue to expand their cycling offerings. I planned to camp out at a fairgrounds tonight. I didn’t know much about camping there but did know that camping was permitted. I rolled out there but the office was closed. There was no drop slot to pay so I cornered a guy camping in an RV who stays there for half the year. He said there is no way to pay unless you come M-F before noon. Bah, I told him he was my witness that I was trying to pay so hopefully I don’t get arrested. Ha! 

After pitching my tent (notice my super sweet mini Louisville Slugger bat that I’ve been carrying for hundreds of miles, it doubles at my homeland security bat!) and darkness setting in, I realized…doh! The building next to my tent was hosting a high school prom! 

Car after car started flooding in and the DJ pumped up the music. I thought, oh man, another great night of sleep! I remembered the mini bottle of wine I had left in my pack from the visit with Shiela and Ron and decided to self medicate, this would be perfect. I put it in my travel mug that happened to have some ice left and chilled it a bit. 

And actually…it was. I knocked out after that and didn’t even hear the prom!! Disaster averted.