Sweating in the sun, sleeping under stars a family tradition

Some people would recoil at the idea of making vacation plans around the vague notion that your destination will have a place to pitch your tent, a spot to draw water and a restroom facility of some sort. Others are dumb enough to make the bet over and over and over again. Two of those “others” are Kristin and me.

This is our 13th go-round on the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure and the spectacle of it all never seems to fade. Each time we’ve made the trip — a week-long trek through some backroads area of the Buckeye State — we come home swearing we’ll never do it again while at the same time concocting plans to make the trip better than ever the following year.

As I write this we are holed-up a cord’s length away from an electrical outlet in a restaurant a good jog from the fairgrounds we presently inhabit. After rising early and pedaling the 58 miles of today’s leg we shared the rare joy of waiting in line for our turns in the communal shower then headed off into town for fun and adventure — and when I say “fun and adventure” what i really mean is and electrical outlet and WiFi connection so we could write, illustrate and send this very column to our editor.

I’m only being half facetious with the “rare joy” part. Typically, at the end of our ride we have to paw through a bus-sized pile of duffle bags to find our own. We then spend the next 2 hours sweltering in the sun while setting up camp. This year’s format had us staying in the same town for a couple of nights and riding loops to distant points of interest. The opportunity to shower immediately after the ride was a luxury previously unknown.

In actuality, the trip has gotten a little easier each time — especially the past few we’ve made as simply a pair of liberated empty-nesters. We began this odd tradition in 1994, by toting 3-year-old Charlotte and 9-month-old Ben around in a little trailer behind our tandem bike. In terms of epic struggle that one topped the charts. We went into the trip pretty much blind with a list of “unknown unknowns” as long as my leg. Still, despite cursing most of our life decisions up to that point, we managed to persevere and all arrive safely (and somehow still happily married) back at home a week later.

Through more than a dozen different configurations of bicycles, pull-behinds and various other pedal-powered contraptions which changed yearly as the kids grew in age and number (baby Sylvia was added to the mix in ‘99), we signed up and rode year after year.

Eventually the years delivered us to that moment where the kids’ summer schedules sent everyone in a different direction and tradition was forced to take a pause.

And now we’re back enjoying the simple pleasures of pedaling the back roads, sweating in the sun and sleeping on the ground in a lumpy fairgrounds parking lot. Life is good — even while working on vacation!

Kristin and John Lorson would love to hear from you. Write Drawing Laughter, P.O. Box 170, Fredericksburg, OH 44627, or email John atjlorson@alonovus.com.