GOBA 2023

 I arrived in Jefferson, Ohio, today for the 2023 Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure.   I picked up my registration packet and talked to Penny briefly while buying a T-shirt.  

 I was wearing my Mid-Ohio Bikers jersey, and she mentioned that she really enjoyed riding the Fall'N'Leaf ride that the club has sponsored every year until this year.  She wondered if the drop in attendance might be due to the change of TOSRV from spring to fall.  Something to think about and discuss with the club.   

I set up my tent where I was directed by the Knight's Kingdom.  I subscribed to the lower-tier "bring your own tent" service.   The big benefit of this for me is the closeness of my designated spot to the Porta-Johns for middle of the night trips, and that they provide fresh towel service daily.  They also provide camp chairs and snacks, and a sitting area with a canopy for shade. 

One of the other members of our club subscribed to the top-tier service. Her rented tent was put up by the Boy Scouts before she arrived.  I ran into the MOB bike club secretary, who is camping in the big general camping area at the fairgrounds. After unloading and parking my car, I got one of the chairs from the Knight's Kingdom.  I set it up next to my tent.  I sat down.  I couldn't get up.  After my knee replacement surgery last winter, I do not have full range of motion in my knees. I can't get enough leverage to push up out of the chair.  One of my fellow campers came by eventually and, although I was embarrassed, I asked her to help me get out of the chair.  I took the chair back to the "headquarters" of Knight's kingdom and looked for one of the chairs specifically made for heavier people.  My weight is just around the standard chair limit, so I thought perhaps an oversized chair might work.  I asked the young woman manning the booth if I could sit in one they already had set up as a trial, explaining that she might have to help me up.  No good.  I could not stand up out of the chair.  She had to help me.  She was very thin, and looked a little weak, and I wasn't sure if she could get me out.  (I later learned her name was Rose.)  But with just a small boost from her, I was able to stand up.  I went back and got my own camping chair out of my bag.  I was really glad I brought it.  The seat is not so deep, and I can rock forward as I rise, so I knew that it would be the chair I would use for the rest of the trip. 

Being an overweight cyclist in a camp full of 1100 other cyclists, most of whom are very athletic, I have to spend time and energy on things that they don't give a thought to.  Like what chair to sit in. 

 I rode into town looking for a bite to eat.  

 The town of Jefferson is holding its annual Strawberry Festival.  This is held at the Depot Village, a cluster of historical buildings dating from the late 1800s.  I rode in search of the festival, hoping  to find a food truck. 

On the way, I nearly ran over a cell phone lying in the street.   I picked it up so that it wouldn't get run over.  I found the Depot Village, and was immediately struck by the aromas emanating from a food truck serving smoked and barbecued meat, which I can't eat any more since my stomach surgery.    

The next thing I saw was the restored train depot.

The inside held mannequins who were dressed in reproductions of 1880's fashions.   I was entranced, as this is very similar to what Katy Kelly would have seen as she embarked on her trips to teach sock knitting.  

The museum held photos of the employees of the train station from 1890's, and a railroad map.

  The docent was very knowledgeable of the railroad history.  The mobile phone rang While I was speaking with him.  I answered and told the owner where I was and that he could pick up his phone at the train depot.  He wanted me to bring it to him-really?  The docent agreed to give the phone to the owner and put it in a drawer.  They were having strawberry shortcake in one room.  I chose not to partake, and wandered through the rest of the village.

There was a general store. More 1800's fashions were displayed, as well as a reproduction Sears catalog.  I looked for advertisements of knitting machines but found only socks, mittens, and sewing machines. 

The re-enacter in the general store was trying to tune a violin, but broke a string, so instead we were treated to music from a hurdy-gurdy. It operated by turning a crank, like a bicycle or a circular sock knitting machine.

A matchbox keeper was on the counter.  

The bicycle pictured is a called a penny-farthing, for the relative sizes of the front and back wheels.  The reenactor had a reproduction of one outside, which he rides when he's not playing the hurdy-gurdy.

There was a table at the far end of the festival  manned by the local genealogy society.  I took a business card to follow up on a possible connection between the Mrs. Fettig who sewed the clothes in the railroad depot and the Fettig who rented the top floor of the Franz and Pope factory in Bucyrus.

I stopped to have my photo taken at the photo-op spot.  

There didn't seem to be other food options at the festival.

Other options in town for eating were a Mexican restaurant, a diner, a Subway, and McDonalds. There were lots of bikes at all of them, and a line queued outside the diner. I chose the Subway.  

It was getting chilly as the sun went down. I sat on a bench at one of the fair buildings for a while, then I went to my tent. I put on an extra T-shirt and my rain jacket, and crawled inside my sleeping bag.  

More tomorrow