Day 37 McArthur, OH to Marietta, OH (75 bike miles;2579 cumulative miles)

The weather continued to be beautiful for riding - cool, but not cold, with bright blue skies. We continued on Route 50 through Albany towards Athens. Foolishly we did not check the RAM route which advised getting OFF 50 before it became a Freeway. Suddenly we were in the middle of cars and trucks whizzing by with a terrible shoulder. Kriss was quite a bit ahead and Charlie was behind me. I waited for Charlie to catch up to me. Charlie was a bit shaken up, having been just run off the road and into a ditch by a truck. Fortunately he mangaged to stay upright!

We decided it was time to get off the highway and mangaged to find through Google maps an alternate route through the streets of Athens that took us right by and through Ohio University.

We eventually re-joined 50, which was more benign at this point. There even was a bike path for a bit. We eventually caught up with Kriss and Jay who were waiting for us about 5 miles east of Athens. After lunch, we continued on Route 50. We passed through great sounding towns like Guysville and Coolsville, and also Drag Strip Road!

But riding on shoulders on a 4 lane highway is just NOT fun bicycling. With cars and trucks whizzing by at 70 mph and higher, it is extremely noisy. And with the debris on the shoulders, it felt like a flat tire waiting to happen. Sure enough, I got 2 flat tires within an hour! There were also frequent sightings of road kill.

The prospect of continuing on Route 50 through West Virginia, per the RAM route, was not appealing. So we decided to take a more northerly route that would take us to Morgantown, where Jay was hoping to catch a bus to Pittsburgh and then to Philadelphia where he would meet a friend and head to Ocean City, Md for the Memorial Day weekend.

We eventually made it to Belpre and then headed up Route 7 to Marietta, Ohio, where we found a cool campsite at the Marietta Fairgrounds. This was our second opportunity to do some grilling.