It’s the second day of our summer travels and we wake up in Berea, Kentucky.  

We are at breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express and the television is on the Weather Channel.  It’s at this moment that we learn about the huge storms that have gone through Illinois, Indiana and Central Ohio.  This occurrence of straight line winds (70 to 90 mph and 150,000 without power in the area) and relentless rain has had a huge impact on Ohio’s Amish country, where we are headed for the better part of a week.  

It’s about way more than us!  Yes, there were sticks and trees down on the bike paths, and we weren’t able to do any of the rides as Roger had planned.  Most of the bakeries, and restaurants we wanted to visit were without electricity (and the temps were in the high 90’s). Our HIE in Millersburg (miraculously) did have power which was the most important thing.  The rest was a great big work-around. We still did three rides, we did not go hungry and our hearts go out to those people and businesses who still didn’t have power when we left 4 days later.

Our first work around was a 50-mile round trip visit to Coshocton for our dinner. They had power and restaurants that were open, so it was worth the drive.

Our first ride was on the Holmes County trail. Parts of the trail were not passable because trees were down, but parts had already been expertly cleaned up with a chain saw and a blower. Anyone got a machete?

Our final ride in Millersburg took us back to the Holmes County Trail and the bridge of dreams.

We made it work even though the circumstances weren’t optimal. By our last night, some of the restaurants had gotten their power back. Vegetarians, skip this part. The rest of you can check out the Friday night prime rib special at an Amish restaurant in Berlin. It was only $23 for a big slab of beef.

What could possibly top that? Ice cream! We visited Miller’s Creamery on our last night in Millersburg. Ever had Lake Erie flavored ice cream?

Now we have driven across the state of Pennsylvania and we are in Lancaster for four days of riding ahead of the Eastern Tandem Rally. Spoiler alert: the first day was great! We’ll check in again later in the week.

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