After cross the Michigan / Ohio border, heading south, I take I-75 to get around Toledo. I get off at the exit for US 23 South which is the road I could have taken from Fostoria on the first day of my trip. So, this will take me south to Fostoria.

As I expected, US 23 is flat, and farmland.

Yup, straight as an arrow. Dig my cool Baghira shadow.

As it turns out, I do stop at the same Circle K filling station I stopped on the way up, where US 23 meets Ohio 199.

So, I now find myself on Ohio 199 South. I figure I'll take this as far south as it goes, or when it gets dark, whatever comes first. I do want to head south before heading east, after all (not that it will make much difference, ha!)

A wonderful photo-op comes next to this well-kept farm, with the long shadow of my bike cast over the field.

It's My Baghira and I from a slightly different vantage point :-)

As I continue along Ohio 199 south, I pass by endless fields, noticing the cool shadow my Baghira casts upon, so I decide to stop for yet another photo op, while I still have some sunlight, which by now is rapidly disappearing.

A closeup of Man and Machine

Man on Machine

Well that's as good as it got. The sun was soon gone, and now I was looking for a place to stay. I continue south on Ohio 199 until I meet up with US 23 again, at Upper Sandusky, which seems to be a large enough city to have a hotel. I find a Days Inn off US 23, where I spend the night, and I sure needed the rest.

They were nice enough to let me park my bike right under the alcove.
That way, the morning frost landed on their roof, rather than on my Baghira.

That's not to say I won't freeze my ass off.
Look at that frost, and I do want to leave pretty early in order to get a good start on the day as I am still a ways from home.

After breakfast, I get back on US 23 heading south, and it's cold. Definitely in the low 30s, I'm all bundled up and brrr!. Hopefully with the nice sunny weather it will get warmer. And I'm heading south, I remind myself. Meanwhile I'm probably riding in the coldest weather ever on my Baghira. This bike has little (or make that no!) wind protection, no fancy things like heated grips, so every bit of the cold weather gets transferred to me.

US 23 takes me to Delaware, which is evidentally a University town. With a nice train depot.

Grain silos (and ugly cellphone towers) can be seen on the other side.

I then ride Ohio 37 out of Delaware which takes me through several small town until I reach Lancaster.
I should note that this is close to the elections, and most Ohio small towns seem to be littered with campaign signs.

At Lancaster, I stop for Lunch at yet another Tim Horton's for my usual (Chili, Raspberry Bran Muffin Coffee combo).

(And usual, I love my Baghira shadow!)

Next, it's a short jaunt to New Lexington where the terrain starts getting hilly once again.
New Lexington is the county seat of Perry, and they have quite a stately courthouse.

With a county jail out back that is more impressive than many West Virginia Courthouses I've seen.
(That's not to say the inmates get a better treatment there!)

Shortly after New Lexington, continuing on Ohio 37, I come across Ohio Route 555. This is dubbed the Triple Nickel and has been raved about in all the biker magazines and forums. So I figure it must be twisty. I've crossed it several times but never actually ridden it, and this looks like a great day to do it.

It's starts out pretty tame, so at first you wonder what the big fuss is all about (and there's that Baghira shadow again!)

But soon after the numerous twists and turns ensue, that keep you on your toes. I stop at one of many.

All this twisty riding has me mesmerized, then I suddenly realize I haven't filled up in a while. So, I flip my bike on reserve, hoping I'll have enough as I have quite a bit of Ohio 555 to cover before I descend back into civilization.

I stop to get a photo of the straightest part of this highway at this point.

Of course the scenery is great, and even better, there's no traffic today, a Tuesday around noon.

So here's another curve

And yet another glimpse of my cool Baghira shadow :-)

As you can imagine I was relieved to find this simple one-pump station.

As I put about 2.75 gallons into my Baghira, I figure I probably had enough to get to West Virginia after all, since by now I was not far from the border.

Ohio 555 descends to US50 which is an easy jaunt over to Parkersburg. Here's a nice view of the Ohio River from the West Virginia side.

And now I descend upon the city. By now the weather had warmed up considerably and I was relieved that I no longer needed to worry about freezing. It was actually very nice (though I didn't wonder how warm it might have been up in Michigan).

A historic marker of the city, which I found downtown.

I stopped to walk around and relax a bit downtown. There was a rail system in a park next to the Ohio river.

Quick, can you spot my Baghira in this photo?

I found no further photos in my camera, which means I must have taken the boring way home, which is to say, US 50 to I-79 and then back to home base.