First Day - June 12

It doesn't seem possible that we are on the road again. For the uninitiated among you, one can tell our journey south has begun because of the rain and sodden skies. Actually the weather could have been much worse than is was. We left South Haven with it threatening rain and made it all the way to Route 31 south of Benton Harbor before getting under our first underpass to put on the rain gear. For the rest of the day it spat rain on and off but nothing really serious. It was however warm and quite humid. Enough about the weather!

We did more "highway" travel today than I had hoped for. This, however, allowed us to make good time. For at least part of the day we had no idea of where we were or where we'd end up but we did know that wherever it was we were heading, we were making good time getting there. For a while the little guy in the "Garmin Box" seemed to forsake us, but we ultimately put ourselves in his hands and all worked out well.

Indiana and western Ohio are not the most thrilling locations on the planet, but once we got east of Mt. Vernon, Ohio the roads began to get twisty with a little variation in elevation as well. One of the roads I put on our itinery was a winding two lane ribbon off route 36 along the Walhonding River (strangely enough, near the little burg of Walhonding). When we came to the road there were signs across it saying, "closed due to high water". Well, the road went up hill and everyone knows that there can't be any flooding on a hill... that would be silly. Sooo, there seemed no reason at all not to follow our original plan and run this winding two lane, which we did. Along the way we came upon a group of 6 or 8 off roaders and asked them if they knew of any water across the road ahead. Why "no", they said. Those beggars are no doubt still snickering. In any case we forged ahead gaining more confidence with each bend in the road. This was the place of course that the mighty Walhonding wended its way lazily across the road to an unkown depth. I, being the first to encounter the water barrier, began applying the binders as vigorously as I dared. Through the headset I heard Charlie uttering a few words of encouragement; something like, "Aw shit!" Suffice it to say, both machines were brought to a safe stop without so much as a drop of water being displaced by our tires. With that diversion behind us we returned to route 36 and an uneventful ride into Coshocton, Oh where we are now settled in and spending the night.

It turns out that Coshocton and its neighboring community are steeped in history; most of it related to a canal system dating back to the 1800's. It also hosts a balloon festival on this weekend in June. We later found out that it "always rains during the balloon festival. Only through a stroke of good fortune were we able to get a room at the Village Inn & Suites. We both look forward to a good night's sleep.

Alas, no pictures today. Regretably we were so relieved to escape the flood waters were forgot to get the camera in gear. Oh, as an afterthought, in case anyone is keeping score, today we logged in 361 miles.