Ohio’s Best Roads Recap
Here's a question for you...if 15 bikes and 17 people rode for 263 miles, but no one took a single picture did the ride actually happen? In the case of Ohio's Best Roads 2023, the answer is a resounding YES! We were too busy RIDING to take pictures!
No one seemed to mind rescheduling to Sunday and rolling out a little earlier to make sure we got to our lunch stop in time to eat before they closed. The day started overcast, but for the most part we remained dry all day. The morning half of the ride brought back a couple of the favorite roads from the original Ohio's Best Road ride, plus some nice county roads including a ride by the infamous Flag Rock outside of Stone Creek. We weren't sure what condition the roads would be in after the storms that moved through on Saturday (causing the rescheduling), but as luck would have it, there was only one tree down on the whole ride, and the crew was just finishing clearing the road when we got to it! What timing! And speaking of timing, with only one quick comfort stop and a fast pace, we actually got to Patty's Place 45 minutes earlier than expected, with 3 tables ready and waiting for us.
The second half of the ride was a little more eventful as the group got split up going through Caldwell. The route called for a loop south out of Caldwell on 564/145/821 back up to Caldwell; somehow the two groups completed the loop in opposite directions, one clockwise and one counterclockwise, passing each other not once, but twice. We were a little confused, but regrouped at our gas stop in Caldwell (we split that too at the Pilot and the Sunoco across the street). I guess you could say we were a little out of sync😃. After leaving Caldwell up 285 to its end in Winterset, the ride turned to the roads less taken, i.e. COUNTY ROADS almost all the way back. Most were pretty with very little traffic, some were not in the best shape, and then there was the skills practice on County Road 252...a mile and a half of all manner of gravel and cinder due to a poorly placed waypoint in route planning. OOPS! Everyone passed, though, and ice cream at Just Ice Cream and A Bit More was the perfect reward. And still no one thought to take any pictures, but I can tell you the banana split looked AMAZING!
