Distance: 17.1 mi, Climbed: 427 ft
Completed: 881.5 mi, 45,532 ft
Joanna and I decided to make a small change to our route today. We had been following the Adventure Cycling Association’s Underground Railroad route. That route heads back east from Milford, Ohio, to see the National Underground Railroad Museum in Maysville, Kentucky. Instead, we decided to continue west and skip the museum. While we will miss seeing the museum, heading west saves us two days of riding and gives us more flexibility to take rest days later in the ride. It also gives us the opportunity to have a short 17-mile ride today and gives us an afternoon and evening to spend in downtown Cincinnati.
We started our day by stopping in the bike store across the street from our Airbnb to get some extra tubes. Little did we know, we were walking into bicycle history. Bishop’s Bicycles in Milford opened in 1890 and is the oldest bicycle shop in America. Sydney helped us find the tubes we needed and showed us some very cool historical pictures of the shop.
I have been having some difficulty with my heart-rate monitor the last few days. About half way to Cincinnati, we passed another bicycle store and decided to stop in to see if they could help. Amazingly, we walked into what may be America’s newest bike store. The Hub at 50 West opened just three weeks ago.
Though the owner Josh was not able to troubleshoot my heart-rate monitor issue, we were happy to support the new shop by getting Gatorade and fig bars. Josh explained to us that the bridge we were about to use to go to Cincinnati was closed for maintenance. He hopped on his bike and led us through an alternate route to cross the river. Now that is service. We wish Josh and his new bike store well.
We arrived in Cincinnati in the early afternoon. We took the free trolley to Findlay Market and then walked over to the Over-the-Rhine for a nice Italian dinner. We ended the day by going to a show at Schwartz’s Point Jazz Club. Our luck, the band happened to be from New York City. All in all, a nice evening in Cincinnati.
