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08/08/2007 Entry: "Oakwood, OH to Berwick, OH and from Berwick on the way to ?"

While we were updating at the Oakwood library, the librarian received a phone call and then called over to us, "Hey, are you the kids biking? Charlene and Phil want to know if you have dinner plans." Charlene and Phil are the couple Marcia over in Scott put us in touch with, and they had us go over to the restaurant next to the library after we finished up there. The restaurant was a little place, and we chatted with the waitresses, who both knew we all were coming. After a few minutes, Charlene appeared and asked us to order whatever we wanted, saying that she had already eaten and needed to be at home to watch her granddaughter and friend.

Seager and Ariel set a good example for me and so I didn't order everything that I wanted because I didn't want to be greedy (I didn't order any pie). We had a nice greasy dinner. Fortunately we were the only customers because we giggled throughout the meal and were quite loud. Afterwards we rode over to Charlene and Phil's house, where we met the latter, and were introduced to our home for the evening, a little camper with electricity and plumbing. We all got a good shower in (Seager had to have his kneeling since the ceiling was so low) and Charlene even let us do our laundry which was moist and getting moldy from the hot, humid, and rainy weather. They had two other couples over and we all sat on the porch after dark and chatted, eating homemade ice cream. Phil even found a new screw to replace the one that had fallen out of my glasses sometime earlier in the day. I hung out with Shelby and her friend for awhile and was introduced to this video game where the object is to design theme parks.

We slept pretty well in our air conditioned camper and woke up at the usual time; around 6:30. Phil was already up sitting on the porch, asked us each if we wanted an egg sandwich, "...with toast?", "Sure...", "...tomato, cheese?", "Even better...", and we were each fixed up with an egg, cheese, and tomato sandwich on toast, with a glass of juice. They had even arranged to have someone from the local newspaper come and interview us, so we had a little interview and were seen off in grand style, including an ice cream bucket full of fresh garden tomatoes.

It was kind of rainy in the morning, but cool. We about 30 or 40 miles into Van Buren, a little town with a state park, and we stopped at a picnic table on one of those grassy islands in the middle of the road. The picnic table had a shelter. It had stopped raining, but the sun had come out and become hot, so the shelter was very nice. We ate lunch, took naps, and hit the road again. It was a muggy road, and less flat than the first miles into Oakwood, although still pretty flat. We probably got chased by a few more dogs. We rode into Forstoria and were at about 60 miles. We found a gas station, filled up on water, and looked at the map to decide what to do. We decided to head south into a mostly headwind and rode towards what we thought was a town but was really just a cluster of houses. Fortunately we found Rick, a guy who was sitting out by his house, and he offered us a lawn to pitch our tent and hang out for the evening, as well as water. We hung out by the road and were visited by some incredulous locals, who thought it was pretty funny that we were riding our bikes across the country.

Rick's place was thoughtfully decorated with US flags and other lawn ornaments. The garage was also painted like the flag. Later in the evening a storm snuck up on us and Rick came out and offered his garage for us to sleep in, since he had heard that there was a tornado watch in the next county over. So we packed up our stuff and moved it inside. Soon after we got the last of our things inside, the rain started coming down hard. But it didn't last long. Within an hour the rain had stopped and the sky cleared up, leaving us a dramatic sunset with beautiful cloud patterns and a cool evening.

There was a TV in the garage so we stayed up for awhile watching America's Top Talent or something like that and fell asleep with the nice breeze from a fan. All in all a good evening.

Started out early again this morning. It's supposed to get up to 97 degrees F today...I believe it. It's kind of disgusting riding in this weather; the humidity is so high it is like being sprayed continuously with a mister. Fortunately there is a nice air-conditioned library to sit in. We'll be heading back out in it soon since we still have more miles to put in today. We ate a nice lunch out on the lawn.

Replies: Leave us a note! (1)

I have enjoyed reading your journal. I'm glad the town of Oakwood welcomed you in style. I can tell that you have now made it to the part of the state the Mallory goes to college at. She goes over by the Amish in Wooster, Ohio. When we visit her, we love the hills since it is so flat in our part of the state. We will continue to watch your progress and hope that you continue to meet up with kind people as you travel.

Posted by Marcia Pond @ 08/09/2007 07:39 PM CST

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