UGRR Tour Day 3

Little Miami Trail beginning in Milford, Ohio

Day 3 Thursday, April 12, 2012

The people in the room above ours finally settled down for the night at 11:30. They kept pacing around, going back and forth to the bathroom, which caused the floor above us to squeak. This didn't seem to bother Ed, my room mate, who lay down at 10:00 and promptly fell asleep.
After some tossing and turning I was finally able to drop off and managed to get a half decent night's sleep.

We got up at 7:00 and walked over to a nearby McDs for breakfast. It was sunny but quite cold. I think the temp was around 0 C or 32 F as there was still some frost on the grass and plants. I brought my laptop along with me so we could check the local weather forecast and see if there were any recent e-mails from home. Before leaving for breakfast I checked with Jim and Jack, who were in the room next to ours, to see if they were ready to go to breakfast. They had already been and were now waiting to call tech support at 8:00 AM to see if they could get the problem with one of the cell phones we purchased at WalMart sorted out. It keeps going automatically to the "Inbox". Two hours later and a change of number on the offending cell phone and the problem still hadn't been resolved. So it was decided we would stop at Xenia, OH, where there was a WalMart and see if they could resolve the "Inbox" problem and/or replace the offending phone.

It was my turn to be the DD (Designated Driver) so I went on ahead with the Jetta and after driving around for 10-15 minutes and asking for directions I finally managed to find Xenia Station where I planned to meet up with Jim, Jack and Ed who were cycling from Waynesville. Eventually they arrived at 11:30. Apparently Jim was having trouble with his saddle which was a bit loose. When he stopped and tried to tighten the bolt is sheared off. Fortunately he had a spare and was able to make the necessary repair. Ed volunteered to stay with the bikes while the three of us went off to WalMart to get the cellphone sorted out. It was a 3 mile hike to the nearest WalMart on the outskirts of town. I was thinking, gee it would have been great to have a support vehicle while I was touring on my own across France, England and Europe!!!

Xenia Station

It took a while but luckily we had a fairly knowledgeable sales assistant who was able to sort out the "Inbox" problem. It turned out it was set to "Do not allow Incoming Calls". It's a mystery as to how this came about. Nevertheless we were quite relieved that our cellphone problem had been resolved and that we didn't have to return the phone and exchange it for another one as this would have meant losing all our minutes which were non-refundable according to the sales assistant. So it was back to the Station where Ed was patiently waiting for our return. We went to a nearby Arby's for a quick lunch and the 3 cyclist continued their ride towards South Charleston where we planned to spend the night. I went on ahead to look for suitable lodgings.

I arrived in South Charleston around 2:00 PM. The only lodging available was a B&B with large king size beds in each room. No twin beds. And it was fairly expensive. I decided to go on to the next town which was London, OH, to see if I might have better luck. The UGRR guide listed two hotels. The hotel on Main St. had seen better days and looked more like a flop house than a hotel. The 2nd hotel turned out to be 5 miles outside of London near the I 70 along with a Motel 6. I chose the Motel 6 as we could park the car directly outside our rooms. This made it easier to load/unload our baggage, etc.

Just as I was about to start cycling back along the "trail" to meet up with the others I got a call from Jim asking me to come and pick them up as there had been an accident. Ed and Jack had taken a tumble and were not able to continue cycling. I put my bike in the motel room and drove back to South Charleston where Ed, Jim & Jack were waiting for me a mile or so on the outskirts of town at the side of the highway. Fortunately at this point the trail ran parallel to the highway. We loaded the 3 bikes on the rack and drove back to the Motel 6 outside of London.

Ed called his insurance company and after cleaning up we drove into London and dropped Ed off at the local hospital Emergency entrance. Jim, Jack and I went for dinner at a local pizza place. We got a call from a nurse saying that Ed would be quite a while at the hospital so we returned to the Motel 6 where I awaited a call from Ed to come and pick him up. We stopped at a pharmacy on the way back so Jack could buy a new pair of reading glasses and sun glasses as his bifocal/transition glasses had been broken in the crash. He also had a cut/nasty bruise below his left eye, abrassions on his upper wrist and lower leg.

Ed called at 10 PM. I drove to the hospital and picked him up. He had his arm in a sling. He had broken his clavical in the spill and it would take 5 - 6 weeks to mend. Ed had a couple Rxs to fill but both the pharmacy, along the main route, and at the WalMart were closed. He had some pain killers he could take and could wait until morning to get the Rxs filled.

Finally got to be at 11:30. It was Jack's turn to drive tomorrow. Prospects for cycling tomorrow didn't look to promising!!!

Ed's bruising from broken shoulder.