Bicycle Touring The World: Marysville to Mount Vernon, Ohio, USA

My latest bicycle touring around the world update, cycling across the USA through Ohio. Marysville to Mount Vernon. 54 miles. Early finish today, I needed to swap my tyres around, plus I needed a bit of time to sort out a few bits on my website.

After swapping my tyres around and sorting out the website, which didn’t take as long as I thought, I went down to the bar. I’m in a hotel tonight, which is the first one since San Francisco. All my accommodation, apart from the odd campsite, has been in motels. And they don’t have bars.

Oh my god! What a strange place. The bar/restaurant was outsourced and not run by the hotel. I was the only one in the bar, and I later found out why! A very strange family ran it: mum, dad and two children.

As I sat at the bar with my drink, I talked to the two teenage children who had just come in. Talk is probably not the right word every time the children spoke. They were interrupted by their dad, a big fat bloke sitting at one of the tables. He sat there with a giant open Bible so big it covered the table and was just quoting from the Bible, interrupting whatever the children said. He even interrupted his wife whenever she said anything.

After half an hour, I’d had enough and went to leave, only to be stopped by the dad. He wanted to shake my hand, which was fine. But then he wouldn’t let go and started spouting off some religious mumbo jumbo! I was glad to escape that bar and went out in search of supper.

Why Bother

Walking up the High Street, I came across a posh-looking restaurant. After looking at the menu, I decided to treat myself. Since being in America, I hadn’t had vegetables, and they had some on the menu. Now I’m not a great vegetable eater, but even I was craving veg now, as a change to fried food. What a disappointment they were. They were tinned and disgusting!

I went back to the hotel and thought I’d get a drink before going to my room. I was just about to enter when I spotted Fatty still sitting at his table. And unsurprisingly, he was the only person in the bar! Needless to say, I went straight to my room.

Tour Information

It’s been years since I took this ride, but the memories (and the data) are all archived:

• Photos: See my photos on Flickr
• The route: View my journey around the world
• Videos: Check out my YouTube videos
• Tour page: Ride overview

Follow My Bicycle Touring Adventures

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I continue to travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. If you’re enjoying the ride and want to fuel my next mile, you can always buy me a beer. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I’m also on Flickr, where you’ll find pictures from all my tours, along with regular photo updates that I generally publish each month.

If you want to find out if I’m away touring at the moment and check my location, visit the Where’s Garry page.