It was a beautiful day to be out on the open road. I do wish, however, that the open roads here in Ohio were a little more bike friendly. Now, admittedly, I am not on the prescripted Adventure Cycling circuit, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't be able to get places in this state on a bicycle. It's not like I'm on the Interstate highway -- that would be crazy (and illegal). I can't always be on truck routes, and yet no matter what road I take in this state, I have noticed 3 things:
1) there are a lot of semis,
2) there is rarely a shoulder, and
3) there always seems to be a headwind (regardless of what direction I'm going -- kind of reminds me of PA where it was uphill no matter which way I turned.)
Seriously, forget "Birthplace of flight" (North Carolina practically co-opted it anyway with its "First in Flight" tagline); Ohio's license plate should read "Road shoulders optional." This mental trajectory led me to fantasize about how I might change the license plates of each state I have passed through, with an eye to cycling:
Maryland -- We're sorry about Baltimore
West Virginia -- A hill for every hillbilly
Pennsylvania -- Land of 1,000 hills
Connecticut -- High property taxes mean nice bike paths
Massachusetts -- Our drivers are jerks
New Hampshire -- Beautiful scenery to distract you
Vermont -- You can't get there from here
New York -- Uphill both ways
You think I could land a job designing vanity plates with these alternative slogans? Maybe bike license plates. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to design one for Ollie: "Washington or bust."
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Your license plate slogans made me chuckle today as I biked on a shoulderless road to Baltimore, of all places. Although as a Pennsylvanian, I take offense that you only gave us credit for 1,000 hills. My Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill had at least that many.
ReplyDeleteWe're sorry about Baltimore. Nice.
ReplyDeleteNow that you've made it through Goshen, any slogans for Indiana?
ReplyDelete