The route was Wilmington Ohio to Liberty Indiana. Liberty is just across the border, but we are finally entering our 7th state! If you count DC: Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana! Whoo Hooo!
I had wanted to go to the US Air Force museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. It wasn’t too far from our campsite, only about 25 miles, but how to get there? Well, Deb’s daughter just happens to work there, and her son-in-law Lee volunteered to drive me up there in the morning, and then come pick me up in the early afternoon and deposit me back on our route in Middletown, Ohio, which was about the half-way point. Really nice of him. So I spent all morning looking at airplanes- what a great museum! Well laid out in 4 hangars, progressing from Wright Brothers- pre World War 1, World War II, Korean/Vietnam, Cold War and then research/development aircraft. They had great stories behind some of the aircraft, with descriptions of pilots who had flown them and their stories. They had a Stiletto X3! Only one was made- I made that model when I was a kid, thought it was sooooo cool. Interesting stories about the Douglas Skyraiders that were used during the Vietnam war to help locate downed pilots and coordinate rescues with helicopter crews. I got to actually sit in the pilot seat of an F4 Phantom! Roomier than I would have imagined! All in all really cool museum. Lee picked me up at 1:45 PM and I was back on our route at Middletown around 3 PM. So I only did half the route, clocking 35 miles and 2000 ft of elevation gain. It was raining in Dayton and still raining in Middletown when I started out. Ugh, cold and rainy. But about half way through it stopped, although remaining cloudy and cool. Got in to camp just in time for dinner, around 6 PM. There’s were no signs welcoming us to Indiana, I guess the road we were on is so minor it doesn’t deserve a big sign, but Liberty is just a couple miles from the border.
Some of the other guys had had an interesting time. Tom’s rear derailleur stuck and he had to take it to a bike shop to get the cable replaced. That was quite an adventure. Some guy passing by on his bike stopped while they were trying to figure out what to do, and he offered to drive home to a bike shop about 10 miles away to get it fixed. The bike shop was able to replace the cable and he was back on the road, but it was getting late in the day and it was his turn to cook, so Dennis, the ride leader, drove the van over and picked him up en route so he could get back in time. Nice to have a van supporting us!
Below are the RidewithGPS stats:
Biking across the USA with Mike 
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