And they said that was a hilly route?

Last summer we made plans to go to Columbus, OH to celebrate my Father-In-Law's 80th Birthday with his family for Thanksgiving. Will, my Brother-In-Law, riding occasional riding partner, said he was going to drive out so he could bring his bike and I said I would, too. Originally, my youngest son said he was going to go with me but then backed out a few months prior. 

Two weeks prior to my departure I researched routes on Ride With GPS and chatted with a few folks from the area via Facebook to get the lay of the land.  When I left on Monday night my plan was to drive to State College, PA, stay the night, get up early and get in a 20 mile ride before driving the rest of the way. The next morning, however, it was wet from the overnight rain and was snowing, so I figured I would just drive to my Sister-In-Law's house in Bexley, Oh, and go for a ride from her place. After 5 hours in the car, I nice 20 mile ride would do just the trick to wake me up after sitting on my butt for that amount of time. I had a route pre-selected, which I had found on Ride With GPS, that was some local bike shop's weekly ride and was supposed to be hilly? I modified it a little bit because I only wanted to ride 20 miles instead of the 30 I would have to do from my start point.

 

Was it ever flat! I rode from Bexley out to point between Gahana and Jersey and I was in the big ring the whole time. Not one to follow a scripted route I called my own audible and went out looking for some incline. Never found any. One thing I did notice was how all the cars passing me were so courteous and always gave me at least 3 feet clearance while passing. It was a nice temperature, 35 degrees and the same weather I had just left in CT. Only, back home they were getting hit with a cold snap with temperatures well below 20 degrees this week.

I was surprised to not see any other cyclists. Seeing that Columbus seemed to be a big cycling community I figured I would see someone out on two wheels but there was no one.  Maybe it was the temperature or the fact that it was midday on a Tuesday. Never-the-less it felt great to be riding after being cooped up in the car for five hours.