Day 31: Kent, OH – Tiffin, OH (5.6.24)

Hello everyone, let’s go into the second stage after the long forced break. Let’s hope that things go better with my bike today, because if not, it won’t be long before I’ll throw everything away. Under slightly cloudy skies and a spring-like 24 degrees, I pedaled on from my Days Inn in Kent, Ohio. Right at the beginning came the hills and with them the worry about whether my bike could handle it. Today I adopted a different strategy: drive 25km, then take at least a 15-minute break. During this time, I hoped the engine would cool down enough. In Akron, the first major city, things got busy again, but my bike was well behaved. Then one hill after another, but not quite as steep. Akron is much larger than I thought and so it took me almost 1.5 hours to get through there. After that it became more tranquil and the small towns passed me by. Medina, New London and Attica for example. Between the last two it suddenly became pitch black within a few minutes and a thunderstorm at its finest released a torrent of water that I lived off of for the rest of the journey. The last 30km were initially sunny, but then the next storm came and brought rain from all sides, so that I was standing in the lobby of the Days Inn Tiffin at half past seven in the evening, dripping wet and shivering. By the way, my bike held up great.