So it rained, and rained, and rained on the GOBA riders all through Friday night and still raining in the morning – over 3 inches. The Elementary School doors opened at 5am and the lights came on in the gym at that time – wake up! The halls quickly filled with riders dressed in soaking-wet cycling attire. Local groups were set up selling breakfast items and everyone was waiting til daylight to decide what to do. Bless the woman with the clipboard at the front door who was trying to coordinate volunteer drivers with riders who chose to go back to Van Wert by car, her lists were changing by the minute. — Putnam County hospitality – cars were pulling into the school offering to drive who-ever, where-ever they needed to go. Some locals had come to the school on Friday night offering spare bedrooms and one guy even said he going out of town but offered his house to anyone who needed lodging!
We were only 20 minutes from home and could have rode home, called home for a ride, or rode on to Van Wert to finish GOBA – we wanted to finish. We waited til 7:30 to take off and followed a group of 10 riders out of Ottawa towards Kalida (the A.M. break) in pouring rain and a light wind, thinking we could turn north at anytime and ride back to North Creek. We quickly found that riding north wasn’t an option – the wind was so strong it would have been easier to walk, we were fortunate as the wind was at our backs for the direction we were going. We lost count of how many times we rode through water across the road. Kalida High School gave us a warm welcome even though we were dripping on everything. The riders were told the route to Ft. Jennings had changed because of high water and Kalida people were also offering rides to Van Wert for anyone who couldn’t go any farther. Thank you Kalida for your hospitality!
On to Ft. Jennings (24 mile mark) – it was raining harder and getting more windy. At Road 19 and State Route 224 we saw a large group of cyclist who decided to take the most direct route from Ottawa to Van Wert by going on 224. American Legion Post 715 was hosting the lunch stop at Ft. Jennings and had a live band for entertainment however route conditions were quickly deteriorating this wasn’t a normal lunch stop. They announced two buses were coming to take anyone back to Van Wert who wanted transported; then it was one bus was coming as the other bus was being sent to Middlepoint to pick up the riders who had made it that far – the route had been closed there due to high water. A GOBA official finally announced that due to weather conditions, GOBA 2015 was ending at Ft. Jennings, no one was allowed to leave on bicycle, all riders would be bussed to Van Wert (woot-woot, we finished!!). A quick call to the Swagers and we had transportation to Van Wert – thank you! Ft. Jennings made a series of phone calls and they were able to arrange for two school busses to help transport the stranded riders back to their cars. The weather conditions wreaked havoc on events that had been planned for months in Putnam County today, through all the chaos they took good care of the 1900 GOBA riders, welcomed us, and helped us – thank you, we greatly appreciated all you did!!
