Long, Hot Day

Miles today: 337

Hours in the saddle: 6:04

Long haul day today after setting another record by leaving at 9:45. Suburban sprawl between Pittsburgh and Cleveland took over our route. It was hot and all we were doing was sitting at lights. We saw an ice cream place and stopped there and decided we were better off on the interstate today so that we could spend more of our time at our destination. 

We were thinking about camping tonight in Ohio and keeping an eye on the weather. There was some rain in the forecast at 2am, which is not a deal breaker. Throughout the day it kept creeping earlier and earlier. Then we saw a road sign about a storm warning so we decided not to camp. 

The Ohio turnpike was long, hot, and windy. It got up to 95 and we had a bitch of a headwind (18 mph). We both got terrible gas mileage, Jaron got 33 mpg instead of 48. We are definitely not taking this way home! 

Last night we both put our hydration bladders in the freezer since the fridge was not very cold. This morning they were frozen solid. The last time I let this happen by accidentally leaving it in the freezer for too long, it took a while before I was able to drink out of it. Well, today it worked out because we both blew thru what was in them and topped everything off with another gallon in the afternoon. Mine is only 1L and I kept topping it off all day and had nice cold water in the heat. 

At one of the service stations we got talking with a guy from Anne Arbor, which was one of our options for overnight. He recommended a place to stay which sounded perfect. When we got there, there was some price escalation and we didn't feel like shooting our wad on it so we found another place with an onsite restaurant that looked pretty good. Especially if there was going to be a storm, we thought it would be best to not have to leave for dinner. 

When we checked in at the hotel, we found out that the restaurant was closed, which was annoying. But, fret not! Our sister hotel has a restaurant. We were so hungry from having only a meh breakfast and ice cream for lunch. Jaron insisted on showering before dinner bc we were so sweaty from the heat and fighting the wind. Ok, fine. I guess he knows how to motivate me to not take a long shower. Turns out the sister hotel was across the parking lot, which is alright. And then we find out that the "restaurant" was more of a counter grill with 5 choices. To top it off, the fire alarm started going off right after Julie got her flatbread and Jaron did not have his burger yet. I picked up the serving dish in preparation for evacuating, because I was that hungry. My decibel meter app on my phone said that the fire alarm was 80 db. Jaron's burger came up so we just rode it out, because we were so hungry. Such sweet relief when it quit. I love how no one takes fire alarms seriously anymore. 

It was drizzling already when we walked back. Sigh. Not really the dinner experience we were looking for. Better luck tomorrow!