Some of our newer readers may not be aware that we rode our tandem from San Diego to St Augustine in 2017.  We blogged the entire adventure and you can hit this link to see the photos and read all about it.

Bubba is no longer leading this trip, but there have been nostalgia-filled reunion tours for the past few years.  We joined the fun for a week of cycling and visiting in Xenia, Ohio, the largest city in the US that begins with an “X”. Bubba’s Coast 2 Coast (C2C) ran ten and a third times (Covid) and all the “coasters” (as Bubba calls us) were invited to the party! We guesstimate that there are around 300 total members of the “Bubba Coasters Club”, and close to twenty percent were in attendance.

We had a terrific time. The camaraderie was enjoyable, the weather was quite cooperative (no heat dome over Ohio like we experienced one year ago), the riding averaged 35 miles a day and was mostly flat, except for that optional 13-17% hill on Day 3.

The routes came with sights. We visited the U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton.

We stopped to pay our respects at a 9/11 memorial. The steel beam is from ground zero, the granite obelisks are the twin towers and the marking shows where the plane hit the North Tower.

We spent most of our time in Greene County which boasts six covered bridges. During our week of riding, we visited four of them.

Most importantly, the ice cream from Young’s Dairy was a highlight! When we were given the option of a second visit later in the week, we lapped it right up!

We have remained close with Ed and Joyce who were on staff for our journey across the country. We loved spending time with them and being reminded why we had connected with them nine years ago.

A word about Xenia for our cycling friends: Xenia Station is a cycling hub, a central point where many lovely paved trails all come together. It’s a terrific place to come and ride out in each direction. Several of our rides were loop rides with a mixture of paths and seldom used country roads put together by a local Coaster named Mike. 

The night before the final ride, a big rain storm blew through the area. It was breezy so the roads and bike paths eventually dried, but there was still debris on our path of the day.

We had many encounters with sticks jumping up into our chain ring, and one pulled our timing chain off, requiring a roadside repair. After riding about 23 miles through the sticks, we picked up an unwelcome bit of thorn which caused a rare flat tire. Fortunately, it was the front wheel, which is much easier to change.

Bubba treated us to a fantastic banquet on the last night of our tour – the spread was so good we forgot to photograph it, but we will end with a shot of us from the first week of our Coast 2 Coast tour beside a picture of us from the reunion nine years later.

We all look great and haven’t aged one bit! A big thanks to Bubba and everyone who worked to make this week of visiting and cycling happen.

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