Day 66: Hillsboro, OH to Chillicothe, OH

Today's Mileage: 36
Total Mileage: 3333

We awoke at dawn and it was very cold and hard to get out of bed. Karin decided she was sufficiently tired to sleep a few more hours, so Debbie and I decided to go on without her, taking advantage of the cool morning air. The morning air was actually pretty chilly, which made the uphills more enjoyable than the downs, because I could warm up a little.

I wasn't feeling great on the bike and was VERY ready for lunch and a rest by the time we arrived in Chillicothe. I had just had a bunch of work done on the bike the day before, but now there was some new obnoxious squeaking going on. My body felt stiff and my butt was sore.

Luckily, we were in Chillicothe (our intended midpoint) nice and early, and we were able to enjoy a leisurely lunch. The waiter even gave us some free buckeyes, which were neither nuts off a tree (as I had presumed) nor a deer's eyeballs (Debbie's literal interpretation) but tasty chocolate-covered peanut butter balls.

I spent a long time in the library trying to figure out a new plan. We had covered more miles than planned a couple days before, which had put us about a half-day ahead of schedule. Ideally, we could make up some more miles along the way and arrive in Washington, DC a day earlier than planned. Unfortunately, this was not to be. Sometimes, the geography and placement of towns decides your fate for you. There weren't enough camping and lodging options to cover a couple stretches over mountains, so we decided to revert to our original plan. This meant that we would stay the night in Chillicothe, making it a very short day. We napped for a while in the park, then approached a police officer about camping there. He wasn't sure what to tell us, but suggested that we might get away with camping in the woods at the edge of the park... would have to risk possible drug dealers and vagrants bothering us. We weren't thrilled, but decided we didn't have much of a choice.

Once Karin arrived, we did some laundry and I went back to the library for more internet time. Debbie roamed around town and found her way to a coffee shop. It turned out that Lee, our waiter from lunch at Grinders, also worked at the coffee shop. Fortunately for us, he offered to let us crash in his living room.
We ate dinner at a lively bar, and waited around for Lee to get off work. We arrived at his house, and were relieved to have a roof over our heads, as it was scheduled to rain overnight.