2009 Bike Tour Day One

MESA

Rotary District 6600

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2009 Bike Tour Day One (Return to 2009 Tour Archives)

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Pre Ride Journal Saturday July 11, 2009

Well, the 2009 Bike Tour for MESA is Underway.

Bikes have been packed and folks have traveled across the district to join us in St. Marys. We haven’t left on the road yet but the first round of celebrations was held on Saturday evening. The St. Marys Rotary Club, host club for the tour this year, treated most of the riders to a pre-tour banquet, filled with wishes of good luck and good riding. Special thanks to Frank Murray for the excellent preparation of the meal.
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Day One Journal for Sunday July 12, 2009

St Marys to Lima, Ohio with stops in Celina, New Breman and Wapakoneta

Day One got off to a nourishing start at the St. Marys Community Library.

The local club hosted the riders to a fine breakfast of gourmet omelets, sausages, homemade sweet rolls and fruit. President Gary Newton sent us off with more wishes for safe riding so his club could greet us all on our return on Friday.

The group grew in size from the original 16 to a whopping 26 riders to start out from St. Marys. A police escort led us to the edge of the city and then we were officially off on the 2009 Rotary Tour for MESA. It didn’t take long for the crowd to thin out from a long single strand to a well spread out line broken into a number of smaller groups. Read or Download Complete Article

Bike Tour for MESA Discussion Forum

Photo Album for Day One

You Tube Video From Lima Stop

Thanks to Tim Vondrell
Visionary Video Productions LLC
Lima OH
419-224-9305

Thank You

To the following individuals, groups and businesses for their hard work and support to make this day a success.

St Marys to Lima, Ohio with stops in Celina, New Breman and Wapakoneta

Day Ride Coordinator - Linda Vogel

Pavement Route Marking

Becky and Jeff Waggamon

Pre-Ride Social Event (Saturday Evening) Hosted By: St. Marys Rotary Club

Frank Murray - Evening Meal

Gary Newton, Club President

Breakfast, Ride Preparation and Sign In Location : St. Marys Community Library

Mid Morning Refreshment Break Hosted By: Celina Rotary Club
Mahammad Khokhar - Holiday Inn Express, 419-586-4919, 2020 Holiday Drive, Celina MAP

Karen Ryals - Club President

Lunch Stop Hosted By: New Bremen / New Knoxville Rotary Club
Tour of The Bicycle Museum of America, 7 W. Monroe St., New Bremen MAP
Neal Brady - Coordination

Steve Hartwig - Club President

Kimberli Rompilla, Rotary Distict 6600 - Newsletter Editor

Early Afternoon Refreshment Break Hosted By: Wapakoneta Rotary Club

The YMCA, 1100 Defiance, Wapakoneta MAP
Ruth Knous - Coordination

Jon Wade - Club President

Post Ride Snacks & Fellowship with the Lima Rotary Club and
Steiner Stock Farm, 2050 Bellefontaine Rd, at St.Rte.117, Lima MAP
Harold Bischoff - Coordination

Evening Meal (Tour Riders) and Nights Lodging
Metro University Housing, 3125 Ada Rd., Lima MAP
Becky Waggamon - Accommodations

Route maps can be downloaded from this link.
Route Maps for the Tour Day One

Get Ready to Ride
How to Prepare for the MESA Bike Tour

What Exciting Events are Being Planned for Day One?

Pre Ride Get-Together
Saturday. July 11 – St.Marys. In 2007 the Elyria Rotary Club started a tradition that will be continued this year as it was lat year in Fremont. This is the Pre-Ride get-together during which many of the cyclists who will be riding most of the week get together with the host club and their members for a nice social event. It is a time when the riders can express their appreciation for all the hard work the host club puts into the tour. It is also a time when the riders get to meet each other. Many have been part of the tour from the beginning but each year we gain a few more and it is this time when we all re-orient ourselves to the tour, the route, the challenges we’ll face and some of the clubs we’ll meet.

St. Marys is the host club for 2009 and they have promised us a social to remember. St. Marys is also the home club of the new District Governor Jim Heinrich. Jim may not be best known for his party-going but his club will make up for all that. From our experience of visiting St. Marys last year we know the St. Marys Rotarians share the same friendliness and positiveness expressed by Mr. Heinrich.

Day One Ride
Sunday, July 12 – St. Marys – New Bremen – Wapakoneta - Lima – 60 miles. We’ll start out our day at the park by Lake Grand St. Marys with breakfast and more fellowship with the local Rotarians. Then after fueling up we’ll head out westward on the rail-trail that follows the north side of the lake and head on into Celina. From Celina we’ll go south, following the lake shore then turn eastward and drop down to New Bremen. In new Bremen we’ll meet briefly with the Rotarians of New Bremen-New Knoxville then tour the fascinating Bicycle Museum. This museum has hundreds of antique pedal cycles from eras long gone. One can usually find a copy of a bike on which they learned to ride as kid in this museum. We could stay there for hours but we’ll too soon head on out for the remainder of the day’s journey.

The next seventeen miles take us to Wapakoneta for a brief stop and visit with some of the Rotarians there. Our trip is only two-thirds done at about forty-two miles.

From “Wapak” we head mostly north on a road that parallels I-75 for about ten miles. At the outskirts of Lima we find Heritage Park and ride a rail-trail a ways then the trail turnsmore north and crosses the Ottawa River. At this point the trail becomes The Rotary Riverwalk, a proud project of Lima Rotary some years ago. This paved trail follows the river all through town for a little over five miles. Before we reach the end we leave it and head down to our day’s destination, the Steiner Ranch. It is at the ranch where we’ll meet with the Lima Rotary and celebrate the first day’s conclusion. Our lodging that night will provided by Ohio State University – probably in college dorms.