Holmes County is hilly, as is most of Knox County. But while heading southwest toward Delaware County, the terrain noticeably transitioned into gently rolling flatland.
To understand what happened in Knox County, I downloaded a map from https://www.bfro.net/avevid/mjm/ohsket.asp and added small circles marking the end of each day’s ride. Knox County has a red circle identifying Mt Vernon
From the ‘net I learned there is a landmass called the Allegheny Plateau that extends from western Pennsylvania into eastern Ohio. Ice Age glaciers moving down from the North Pole and then retreating north again tended to smooth out the land that they touched. These glaciers covered most of the Lake and Till Plains, as well as the light green portions of the plateau, but not the dark green portions of the plateau.
Thus, the geological explanation for what I experienced is that the ride from Holmes County, through Knox County, and into Delaware County started on the unglaciated plateau, passed through the glacier-smoothed plateau, and ended in the Till Plains
Jeopardy Topic: Cities in Ohio
Answer: Centerburg
Question: What did a group of engineers and mathematicians come up with when tasked with creating a name for the city indicated by the star in the map below?
Here are some details: A group of engineers and mathematicians met for dinner and to come up with a name for this city. As a motivation, they agreed to not order dinner until they had reached consensus on a name.
The mathematicians coalesced around the name “CentroidVille”, while, with one exception, the engineers pushed for “CenterOfMassTown”. The dissenter, a mechanical engineer, recommended COG – that’s it, just COG as in COG, Ohio.
The discussion continued for a while until the dissenting mechanical engineer’s husband (who was neither a mathematician nor an engineer, but who was hungry), suggested that they all compromise on “Centerburg” and get on to dinner. The suggestion was approved unanimously.
(Full disclosure: While the details provided above may be a plausible explanation for the origin of the city name, it is actually just idle speculation on my part.)
I rode the Heart of Ohio Trail from Mt Vernon through Centerburg. After Centerburg the OTET follows county roads. There’s gently rolling flat land and corn as far as the eye can see in almost all directions.
Along the side of a road is what appears to me to be a squash plant that is flourishing among weeds and brush. There is not a house nearby, but it looks like someone planted the seed
An old friend. In 2014, I stopped in Sunbury on my bike trip from Cleveland to visit my son Manny when he lived in Columbus. I had taken a western route on that trip through Ashland and made it to Sunbury on Day 2.
(I’m currently on Day 5 of this trip. Maybe I stop and take too many pictures?)
Religion and politics: two things everyone can agree on.
I eventually picked up the Alum Creek Trail heading into Columbus
The Alum Creek Trail routed me to the I-670 Bikeway, which unexpectedly ended here. The challenge was not that the trail is temporarily closed; the challenge was that no detour was posted.
Google Maps eventually guided me to my motel on South High Street.
Due to the pandemic, both the McDonald’s and Taco Bell shops near my motel on were only open for drive-through (car required) so I stopped at a Wendy’s, a place where I usually don’t. I didn’t have a taste for a greasy burger so I tried the Strawberry Fields Chicken Salad with Champaign dressing.
I’ve had better Champaign, but overall the salad hit the mark. After the 55-mile ride on another hot day I was hungry and I had two salads with pink lemonade for lunch. I later came back and had a salad for dinner, and took another one back to the motel as I did not see any nearby alternatives available for tomorrow’s breakfast.