Day 95

So many trains
Not only was my sleeping bag causing me to slip down and bunch me up at the end of my tent, several trains went by, waking me up. I wasn't even very close- some trees and the highway separated us. Definitely not as close as I have been before. I had noticed before that there were two sets of tracks, and they sure used them. I'm pretty sure I felt the ground shake sometimes. Somehow I still got enough sleep. I got on the road and quickly saw some bicyclists going the other way. They asked where I was going. I yelled back "every state!" A half hour or so later, they had turned around and caught back up with me. They told me about how crossing West Virginia isn't that great- not a lot of bike friendly roads. It seemed great so far! They said Sunday was a good day to cross it, since there would be less traffic. Hopefully I can find an Ohio postcard quickly. I had some nice flat terrain for a bit, which was a nice break from the constant hills of the past few days, well, probably weeks. A coal train passed by. There was what I'm guessing was a coal processing plant or something. There were mountains of coal piled up. It seemed weird to see so much supposed environment killers right next to perfectly healthy trees. I had a nice hill to climb, with a big view overlooking the plant. Then I took the backroads into the city. It was a Sunday, so not a lot of places were open. I checked the visitors center. I'm sure they would have postcards, but they were closed. I figured today was just a bad day. I would have more opportunities later on. I found a new route. Instead of just popping into Ohio and then crossing West Virginia, I would go up the border of Ohio. I feel like just staying an hour in a state is kinda cheating. I headed to the bridge, still keeping my eyes open for little shops. After getting confused about all the different ramps and whatnot leading to the bridge, I finally found the right one and crossed into Ohio. Unfortunately there wasn't enough space to stop and take a picture. The route now was incredibly straightforward for about 90 miles. 500ft into it, I got another flat tire. I guess it's a new trend. I found the small hole in the tube, but I couldn't find what made it. I patched it up and was back on the road. I stopped every so often to check for postcards with no luck. The views were great- the road followed the Ohio river. I finally started listening to podcasts again- I can only stay in my head for so many weeks at a time! I passed through one city that had a bunch of cool monuments that would have been fun to check out, but I had to keep going. Google tried to take me down a non-existent trail through the woods, but I found another quick way around. Soon it was late and I needed to find camp. I had to pedal a little harder to get out of the city in time. I saw a few promising places but the road was really busy. I didn't want to stand there forever. I continued on. There was a patch of grass ahead that I figured I could just roll over. It was a gnarly pothole. Somehow I didn't flip or anything, but quite a few of the things in my basket were thrown into the road. I was so lucky that there was no one coming. I picked up my stuff and checked out my tires. I have no idea how they survived that. A bit later, I found a big forest between a factory and some crop land. I pulled over and tried going in, but the vegetation was pretty thick and there was somewhat of a drop off. I contemplated just setting up in plain view and just hoping that the owner didn't come by in the morning, but I decided that since there were tree, I should hide. I found a perfect spot in the little patch of woods separate from the main forest. It was in a dry creek bed, which meant it was quite flat. I worried about it filling up, but it was so full of leaves and sticks that I knew it had been dry for a while. As I laid in my tent, I realized that every once in a while, it really sounded like someone had pulled down this trail. I was very glad that I decided to hide.