Southern Ohio Run

Today was sunny & bright. Temp at 68 degrees. Overall clear with no rain on the horizon. A perfect day to ride. My son Jericho & I left Newark to ride into distant lands. We traveled east on St. Rt 16 to 146 into Zanesville, where we picked up St. Rt 60 South along the Muskingum river. The ride along 60 was quite enjoyable. 60 parallels the Muskingum River the entire distance to Marietta, Ohio. About half way to McConnelsville, we stopped at Rokeby Lock and Dam #8 to give our rumps a much needed rest and to stretch our legs for a few moments. Hard to imagine the volume of water moving down river until you see how fast it travels over the dam (see slideshow or visit website by clicking on slideshow above).

Upon leaving, we stopped to read a state marker that explained about Morgan's Raid and that at a point at Rokeby Lock Confederate General John H. Morgan and his raiders had crossed the Muskingum river to continue their northern raid into Ohio.

We then traveled south on 60 to McConnelsville, Ohio and turned east onto Rt 78 toward the Ohio AEP Recreation lands in search of campgrounds & fishing. What we found was the Big Muskie, which was once the World's Largest Earth Moving Machine. Miner's Memorial Park is well worth the time to stop & visit and puts into perspective the massive scale of strip mining that took place in the region. The view where this park sits is awesome (my son Jericho even remarked about it). I can only imagine the view here in the fall when the leaves are turning colors in October! After taking several pictures, enjoying the view, and taking advantage of the available facilities, we continued eastward on Rt 78 traveling about 10 miles past Reinersville, Ohio. It was at this point I realized I was down to an 1/8 of a tank of gas and the nearest gas station was back in McConnelsville. We then turned around and traveled back to McConnelsville. Fortunately, I have a 1 gallon reserve and flipped the gas petcock over and made it town without incident where I filled up.


View Larger Map After leaving McConnelsville, we crossed the Muskingum river on St. Rt 37 & traveled east toward Junction City. About halfway there, a white truck tailed me closely on 37, which by the way is a joy to ride. St. Rt 37 on this stretch of road has lot's of twisties, sweeping turns, and a couple of straight aways. It was at one of these straight aways near Malta, Ohio that the white Dodge truck passed me and then proceeded to flag me over. Upon pulling over, the driver of the truck, Dan, informed me my rear license plate flew off about 3-4 miles back and he took me back to the area where he saw it depart my Vulcan. Withing 5 minutes of searching, Jericho found the wandering license plate. Dan, a welder, then helped me bolt the plate back on before proceeding on his way. I offered to pay for his help, but he gracefully refused. I thanked him and truly appreciated him being the Good Samaritan and helping us out. I would've never known about the missing plate until I would've gotten home, barring being pulled over my the Ohio State Patrol. Does make one truly wonder at times if God's angels are watching over us when we travel.

After that incident, my son & I proceed home without event and enjoyed a nice run home on 37 to St. Rt 13 north back into Newark. Not a terribly long run, but a very nice way to enjoy an entire afternoon with the company of my youngest son.