29 July 2010

The day started with a jaunt over to Wheeling, WV (on the little piece that sticks up next to Pennsylvania) where there was purported to be a stamp commemorating a Historic Area. As we approached the city, there were warnings that I-70 was closed about where we were supposed to leave it; it happened just before, so we wandered around a bit more than we should have before parking downtown near where it was supposed to be.

There were no signs of any kind indicating a National Whatever; we asked some passers-by who said there was a visitor center in the institutional-looking building across the street. Sure enough, she had a stamp, among all the other CoC paraphernalia on her desk. A quick picture, and we wended our way back onto I-70, only to stop for gas once we'd cleared the city.

 

It looked like that tank of gas would probably get us to Dayton, so we stopped to rest about half way; at the rest stop a couple of ladies thanked us for a bit of traffic control we'd undertaken about 50 miles back at a merge where cars were rushing up the right lane to cut in front of the patient left-laners--I'd blocked the right lane, smoothing the transition. Probably stupid, but nobody ran over me.

There are a bunch of sites in the Dayton area commemorating the Wright Brothers; we'd picked the one that had a replica of their bicycle shop and the original flyer. We parked in a commercial lot and headed over to where we saw a National Park shield; we wandered through the replica of the bike shop, and saw the flyer, but no sign of a stamp station anywhere. After a docent had finished her spiel, Boyd asked and she said it was at the desk where we'd paid to enter. Hmmm, where are your stickers? (Showing that we'd paid admission.) Ooops! So we snuck back to the (under renovation) building we'd walked around on our way in, and found the kiosk, and, sure enough, they had a stamp. Time to go.



Filled up with gas again after we'd cleared Dayton, after more than 200 miles at mostly freeway speeds--there's seemingly no way to tell what kind of mileage we're going to get from stop to stop. Sometimes the light comes on at 160; this time it still hadn't at 200. Stay flexible.

The William H Taft site is in urban Cincinnati, and it looked like parking might be a problem; it was, but just because the little lot serving it was severely sloped, so balancing the bikes was an iffy proposition. Another park given short shrift, although we were tempted to watch the 15 minute video just to soak up the air conditioning.



I'd set a motel in Louisville as a possible destination, and it looked like we'd get there just after 1630, which is a good stopping time; but when we got there--no motel, or any sign there'd ever been one! Punch in 'lodging' again, and head down the road to where there was a cluster of 'em. But instead of turning in to the driveway, I went 20 feet farther, and turned onto the onramp of I-64, and into a rush-hour traffic jam! So a six mile loop to get back again, and into the correct driveway of a bunch of motels. We picked a Days Inn, and headed across the busy access road to a Kroger for dinner fixings.

States: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky

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