Hello everyone! It’s been a while!
You might be wondering where I’m at now.
I’m in Columbus, the Heart of Ohio!
After riding through the Erie Canal, we went down to our school, SUNY FREDONIA, and then went to Erie PA, Geneva-on-the-lake OH, Cleveland OH, Kent OH, Millersburg OH and now we are in Columbus OH.
We’ve been meeting lots of kind people and learning lots of histories, cultures and ways of life.
From Cleveland OH, we rode by another canal called Ohio & Erie Canal which is a biking/jogging trail.
In Ohio, there are lots of biking/hiking trails.
In fact, Ohio has the longest loop trail in the country.
When we first got into Ohio from Pennsylvania, very first advertisement we saw was saying “Life is better in Ohio.” However the street back there was really bad so we were saying like “Come on Ohio! life was better in Pennsylvania!”.
I still think Ohio’s streets are pretty rough for bicycles. However, life is better with these trails for sure. You don’t have to worry about any cars and you can ride at night time as well!
There are many different ways to go through Ohio State.
Many people told us “Ohio is flat!” Now our response for that is “No it’s not”
We’ve been finding Ohio State has some of the steepest hills. Certainly not the longest climbs we had so far but we’ve faced one of the steepest climbs so far and just lots of steep climbs in Ohio over all.
Later we found out that if we went through west side of the state, it would had been mostly flat.
However, we are happy that we went through the north east side trail because we could see lots of nature and see the Amish country.
There is a county called Holmes which is known as an Amish county.
What surprised me was that Amish societies are existing within and among other societies.
I was imagining more like completely separated world.
What made me even more surprised is that nowadays some of the Amish people have started to use electric bicycles!! Which makes me wonder “what’s the point of being Amish if they can use those electric bikes?” I thought the idea of being Amish is not using any electricity. However, it seems like that’s depending on what churches they decided to go to, whether you can use an electric bike or not.
However, people still use horses and it was really beautiful scenery to see those lifestyles on our way.
I’ve been finding my English accent is becoming a little more of a problem for people to understand than when we were in western New York.
Adam : ”Where are you from”
Me: ”From Boston!!”
Adam: ”what did he say?”
David: “Boston with an heavy accent”
That was one of our conversations earlier when we met Adam and David who hosted us in Kent.
Later on I asked Jay, what is wrong with my “Boston?” He said all my letter sounds are different... damn! Really?? Like how??
It’s just “Boston” I’d never have thought “Boston” is that hard a word to pronounce.
Anyway, I’m trying my best to improve my pronunciation and emphasises so that I can communicate much much better.
Kent has a University called Kent State Univerisity. They are mostly known for the shootings there on May 4th, 1970.
The University is now known as one of the best journalism schools. We were lucky enough to meet one of their students who is in a band and happened to have a house show on the next night, which they invited us to play at. We stayed 2 nights in Kent, Ohio and met lots of students at the show.
They said because they are known for studying journalism, many newscasters had graduated from here as well. Therefore, they are very proud to say their American English pronounciation is one of the best in the United States!
It’s a very beautiful town, too.
Now we are in Columbus, Ohio for the third night. Originally we were going to leave Columbus today and we were riding earlier today as we planned. However, Jay accidentally slipped and fell to the ground with his bicycle and landed on his hand pretty badly.
He went to see doctor today to see if his hand got broken or not. Lucky enough it wasn’t broken, however we thought it’d be better if we don’t ride more for today.
Hyper-lucky enough, we managed to find a person who could pick us up and let us stay at their place for a night in Columbus. She travelled by bicycle from Florida to Ohio about 7 years ago within 2 weeks or so and rode more than 100 miles per day. She says she owes the world because she got lots of help during those times.
She loves David Bowie and her dogs are named David Bowie & Ziggy!
We really really appreciate that she picked us up from where we were to get rest for a night. Hopefully Jay’s hand is okay to ride his bicycle tomorrow.
We will keep our eyes on that.
Well then!
...2 days later
Too hot Ohio.
Well then.
