Cannonball day nine: Cincinnati, OH to Oakland, MD

Day nine started out uneventfully, but soon took an upsetting turn that really soured my mood for the first part of the day. After I awoke, I headed out to fill up my scoot and myself, but I had a hard tume finding a place to eat that was open at 6:15 in the morning, but thankfully I found a Perkins that was, and they did a fantastic job of fixing my dinner in a matter of minutes. After paying and leaving a generous tip, i hightailed it back to the hotel for the riders' meeting. After the details of the route had been discussed, I headed back to my hotel to clean up and get reasy to roll again. Now as tired as I was the night before, I didn't realize what an awful pit my hotel room was. The full horror became apparent when I went to take a shower. When I pulled back the shower curtain, I discovered black mold all around the shower, including a major colony all over the showerhead. That, plus a big black body hair on the shower wall told me that it hadn't been cleaned at all before I checked in, nor had the bathroom been cleaned properly in weeks, maybe months! There was more too - a fingernail clipping sitting on the dresser, a faint smell of urine coming from the air conditioner, and no washcloths were provided. I also hadn't been able to get their Internet connection to work on my computer the night before, and their pool was closed, which was the only reason why I reserved the room at that hotel instead of the main hotel where everyone else was across the street - those wouldn't have been so bad, but combined with the deplorable condition of the room simply added insult to injury. I lodged my complaint at the front desk when I checked out, but neither of the attendants at the front desk were willing to refund anything, since the room had already been charged the day before, even though the woman who had checked me in then said that I wouldn't be charged until I checked out. Of course the manager/owner was nowhere to be reached, so I had no choice left but to dispute the charge with my credit card and try to contact the manager the following week. I have every intention of lodging a formal complaint with Days Inn corporate as well, and send them pictures of the disgusting condition of the room they put me in. Hopefully they'll either put the hammer down on them or pull their franchise, so that no more customers have to suffer through the indignities that I did.

Thoroughly pissed off, I hit the road. I had a very hard time calming down after the awful experience, but eventually the road lulled me into a dull feeling of disgruntledness, from my previous incensed anger. The long straight stretches of central Ohio eventually gave way to more twisty curvy roads in the eastern part of the state, as the Appalachians grew closer. After crossing the Memorial Bridge to West Virginia, i took a detour off the Cannonball route to go see my good friends Kev and Julie from way back in the day. It was a real treat to see them and spend a little time catching up on the many days gone by with them over lunch. I arrived in town earlier than I expected, so unfortunately I didn't have a chance to see their kids, Andrew, Gabriella and Matty, who were in school at the time. All too soon, Kev and Julie had to get back to work, and I had to get on my way again. After a quick jaunt through Parkersburg, I was soon moving along the Robert C. Byrd Appalachian Highway System at a nice pace, enjoying the spectacular views of the hills in West Virginia. I passed Kieran again, for the second time that day, after he had pressed on while I had stopped to see Kev and Julie. After passing the next checkpoint, I opened it up all the way, to try and score some more points, after foregoing the previous section so I could stop to make my visit. I was making really good progress for a while, until I got into the twisties near the end of the ride. First, I got stuck behind a group of 20 or so slow-moving Harleys, for a good 25 miles or so. Thankfully their group pulled over eventually and I was finally able to pick up the pace again. However, before long, I caught up to two of our riders following their support truck at a very slow pace, about 35 mph in a 55 zone. It took a while before a passing zone opened up, after which I tried to make up some more time once again. However, my efforts were foiled once again when I got stuck behind a pair from Ohio, riding a motorcycle and a trike with a very narrow rear axle, which seemed somewhat unstable, who were riding at a lethargic 35 mph as well. By the time Iwas able to pass them, I was only a mile or two from our destination of Oakland, MD, where I then arrived, feeling rather tried and frustrated. However, a well earned beer soon took off the edge and I traded stories of the day with the other Cannonballers. We were soon treated to the arrival of Bobo, who had dropped out earlier in the trip, in order to return home to Baltimore, because of a family emergency. The immediate concerns having since been addressed, he decided to surprise us for our last evening on the road by riding the last day's route in reverse, which was a very welcome treat!

A large group of us ventures into town in search of dinner and we came upon a great little local restaurant, which we proceeded to take over with our group, more than a dozen strong. We had a delicious meal which more than filled us up, and received great service from the staff, even though we states past their closing time, so we left a superbly generous We staggered back toward our hotel feeling very stuffed, and a couple of us stopped off at CVS to stock up on things we needed. Then it was time to turn in before our last day of the trip. I checked and filled my tires and did a little bit of cleaning to prepare for the next day's ride. Keiran turned in early too, so that he could get a head start, in order to make the ferry across tge Potomac with everyone else at 11:00 am. It didn't seem like the ride was almost over and there was only one day left of the Cannonball. The last one seemed longer, even though it was nine days instead of ten. But then again, a lot can happen in one day on the Cannonball!