July 7, 2026 – Ohio – It’s the people you meet along the way that really make all the miles in between so worth it. Stella and her sister RuthAnn were an early morning hoot after a storm the night before drove me into a small corner Post Office in Rudolph, Ohio. It ended up being my Hilton for the night. I was safe from the lightning and the down pour. The Post Office celebrated its Rudolph ties with strands of Christmas lights, reindeer images, and a huge reindeer statue. The the aroma of a recent visit from a skunk made it memorable.
Left my accommodations around 6:30 a.m. The only thing I needed was water and the next town was 10 miles away. Keeping an eye open I spotted Stella checking on her flowers. “Come on in hun,” she said, friendly like. “We’ve got water.”
Stella, 81, and her younger sister RuthAnn, 79, were all smiles. Stella flipped on the kitchen tap and started showing off her treasured flowers.
“These are all hybrid lilies,” Stella said, gesturing across the garden. “Those are tree lilies because they get so tall and this one smells like cinnamon.”
While their flowers are flourishing today, the conversation quickly turned to the sisters’ younger years.
The ladies were enthusiastic participants in the international Volkssport movement, earning stamps, pins and patches for completing organized fitness events.. “We would bike, swim, and walk,” said MaryAnn. “We weren’t runners… and we’re still not,” bellowed Stella… patting her belly like she was thumping a drum.
“We were insane,” said RuthAnn.
One memorable weekend took them to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, another favorite was crossing the Mackinac Bridge.Â
“We only did like three,” RuthAnn said, smiling. “But this one guy had done it every year.”
“It was fun,” Stella added. “Back in the day.”
Not every ride went according to plan.
RuthAnn recalled one Michigan bike ride that turned into quite an adventure after her bicycle began falling apart on a remote rail trail.
“I realized I was losing my derailleur. It was falling apart,” she said. “I stopped. I’m in the middle of nowhere.”
After walking her bike across a four-lane highway, she knocked on the door of a nearby house.
“I woke this poor kid up,” she laughed. “I said, ‘I’ve got to get back to town and get my husband.’ He said, ‘I can’t take your bike because I’ve got a sports car.’ I said, ‘That’s okay, just take me.'”
Stella couldn’t resist chiming in.
“That was a disaster,” she said.
Then came another unforgettable story from the sisters’ cycling days during a charity ride from Toledo to Put-in-Bay.
“We started biking in Toledo,” RuthAnn said. “We took the ferry over, rode around the island and then it started storming.”
With no tents or shelter, riders huddled beneath semi-trailers waiting out the weather.
“It was hilarious,” she said.
The next day brought even more rain, crashes and difficult riding conditions.
“A few of us hardy, insane souls decided, ‘No, we’re going to bike,'” RuthAnn recalled. “I finally said, ‘RuthAnn, you’re frigging insane. You need to stop now.'”
When a support vehicle offered one last ride, she accepted.
“They said, ‘We’ve got room for one more.’ They put my bike up, put me in, and I was asleep before we got to Toledo. It was horrible.”
Looking back now, the sisters simply laugh about the adventures.
Now the pair live a simple life. “I’m not really on the Internet. Just enough to do Facebook,” said RuthAnn. “I have a SmartPhone but dumb fingers.”
Earlier in the tour…Â
Got an early start out of Union City, Mi and found myself on a lonely county road deep in Amish territory. The faint white lines from the wheels of the horse-drawn buggies mark the edge of the black pavement.
In a blink I was out of Amish country and according to Siri went from Michigan to “Welcome to Indiana” and then within a mile it was back to “Welcome to Michigan” and after a race along a busy highway it was “Welcome to Ohio.”
From Union City into Archibald, Ohio. A lovely small town with rich history painted on the side of a red brick building.
Hat tip to Jess and Mia at Archibald Fire Department for finding me a cool place to stay for the night.
A quick rest and another day of 90-degree adventure until Mother Nature was in my rear-view mirror. The rich dark skies were fine to the north, but when the system skirted south the winds whipped and an open garage door was my safe spot for the next two hours.
Jenny and Todd Brown were welcomed hosts. We were like fast friends who hadn’t seen each other for years but caught up quickly on their triplet sons, their youngest son and his baseball adventures, and how the next generation of Browns was keeping them busy with another on the way.
On a paved trail headed through Fremont, Ohio – home of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, I ran into someone from my tribe. Wen was from China and bicycling around the world… and he had a lot of stuff.
“I know… too much,” he said. Wen’s English wasn’t the best and my Chinese was for shit, but you know… now there’s an APP for that. We went back and forth on the weather, miles, and you gotta love playing the guitar to be pedaling it cross country.
On a side note:
-The rainbow from the Rudolph Post Office after the storm.
-Pedaling into Rudolph with the onset of Round 2 of storms I quickly found a church. The cleaning crew was just leaving. It was a teenage boy. The wind was picking up and dark skies looming. There were rumbles of thunder. “I’m told NOT to let anybody in,” said the kid. He was great at following directions. “How about you call your boss and we just explain the situation….” He cut me off. “I’m not giving you my boss’s phone number,” said the kid. He was the perfect employee. “How about YOU call him and then we could…” Cut off again by the kid from the church who said, “I’m not going to help.” And with that he got into his car and sped away with the crack of a lightning strike in his wake.
-John, Linda, and Amy from St. Peter Lutheran Church in Norwalk, Ohio were a great help in finding a place to stay. At first it was going to be a home under renovation but that changed and I was well cared for that night with a big meal and a cool place to stay.
-A quick mileage summary – Milw – Lake Express Ferry- Muskegon, Mi to Holland, Mi – 53 mi.
Holland to Richland, Mi – 61.32 mi
Richland to Union City, Mi – 36 mi (very hot)
Union City to Archibald, MI – 80 mi
Archibald to Rudolph, Mi – 52.26 mi
Rudolph to Norwalk, Mi – 64.25 mi
Norwalk, Mi to Lodi, OH – 49.04 mi (storms)
Lodi, OH to Alliance, OH – 55 mi (storms again)
Starting to find the hills of Pennsylvania, so I must be getting close to Pittsburgh and my destination of Bicycle Heaven.
