People bicycle ... to visit points of interest, to be healthy, and because it’s fun (77FR39927)

Ever since I was young, I wanted to do the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure, or GOBA for short. After my mom got even more into long-distance cycling, I had always hoped that we would be able to do it together some day. But I let life get in the way. When GOBA came through Mansfield in 2014, I made a pact with myself that I would complete the ride with her beside me in spirit. So when I found out I would be doing home leave alone with very few obligations, and it would coincide with the 2017 ride, I took it as some sort of sign -- and signed up, even though I had limited experience with multi-day, long-distance cycling.

I squeezed in as much training as I could before my bike was packed out from London, but still, I set my expectations low: I just wanted to be able to make it through the five days of mandatory riding, 40-60 miles each; I wouldn't beat myself up if I didn't feel up to doing the optional loops on rest days. After all, I wouldn't have anyone pushing me through, as I registered not knowing a single soul who would be participating. My only friend at the beginning of the week was a horse in the barn adjacent to my tent in Findlay (left). Throughout the week, I pretty much rode by myself, but nonetheless, by the last day of the event, I had made some great non-equine friends (right).

I had anticipated a lot of the ride's aspects, particularly in terms of sore body parts, but I wasn't prepared for the sheer amount of food I would be eating. The morning of the first ride, I filled up on Chris's Cakes (left). I quickly realized I don't like riding on a full stomach, so for the rest of the week, I popped a granola bar for breakfast, saving my major fueling for the rest stops. During the first optional loop (yup, I ended up riding every day, for a total of around 350 miles), I discovered exactly how delicious a popsicle can be (right).

The rest stops are remarkable for the refreshments -- I think I ate four shredded chicken sandwiches over the course of three days -- but they are also hallmarks of the camaraderie of the ride. Plopping down on a playground picnic table with your hard-boiled egg, you're soon engaged in conversation with an interesting person (left). But if you need a break to get back in gear for the final stretch, you can sip your electrolyte drink as you admire your surroundings (right).

If you get going early enough, it's pretty easy to finish the day's ride with plenty of time to spare to visit some tourist sights. I never got up before 6:30 a.m., but I never made it to the day's destination later than 1:30 p.m. Lots of attractions, such as the American Civil War Museum of Ohio in Tiffin, accommodated riders by opening on off hours (top left). And of course, there are plenty of sights along each day's route; we crisscrossed the rain-flush Sandusky River quite a few times (top right). The Pottersburg covered bridge provided passage not over the river, but over Big Darby Creek (bottom left). Photo ops were a great way to take a break after climbing hills. I decided to take this shot of Mount Tabor after, earlier in the day, I unknowingly sped right past Campbell Hill, the highest point in Ohio, just outside Bellefontaine (bottom right).

My first order of business once I got to town -- after showering, anyhow -- was to set up my tent. Before I got too tired or distracted, I wanted to make sure I had a place to crash. Most days, camping was first-come, first-serve on grassy spots at county fairgrounds. Some locations were more campground-like, such as Hedges-Boyer Park in Tiffin, where I read like two pages before passing out (top left). Often, you were close to your neighbor, but I didn't really mind the cramped quarters, especially during a rainbow in Tiffin (top right) or a sunset in Upper Sandusky (middle). I especially preferred them to sleeping indoors, which we did the last two nights, at Bellefontaine High School (bottom left) and at the Hardin County Fairgrounds (bottom right), because of forecast then actual heavy rains.

 

Most cities provided evening entertainment for riders. As the first (and final) stop, Findlay hosted a participant parade through downtown (top left) that led to an opening ceremony, where awards were handed out for the best costumes related to the ride's Wizard of Oz theme (top right). In Tiffin, we didn't even have to leave camp to hear some tunes because musicians set up in the park's bandshell (bottom left). At the fairgrounds in Upper Sandusky, the venue wasn't as scenic, but the band, Grape Jam, was better, as was the adjacent beer garden (bottom right). In fact, I preferred it to the musical acts at the town's community street festival. But by far, the entertainment award goes to Kenton for its food-truck festival and the Elks Lodge's open performance by Uncaged.

For the most part, though, I entertained myself during the afternoons by hanging out with some fast and forever friends. Familiar faces from Logan's Irish Pub in Findlay reappeared at the Clover Club and MST (Madison Street Tavern) Pub & Grub in Tiffin. By the time I showed up Shotzy's in Upper Sandusky, it started to become clear who I would be hanging out with from then on. By the end of the week, my priority -- sometimes even before showering -- was to find out which bar everyone was going to. The first night in Bellefontaine, we gathered at Brewfontaine (left). But the second night, would it be 68 Grill or the Pincrusher Pub at TP Lanes? (In fact, it would be both.) Not even the weather would stop us in Kenton (right), where after riding about 30 miles in non-stop downpours, I couldn't have been more ready for some suds with buds at Skinny's Tavern.

Since the abdication of President Yanukovych, the new administration has reflected the will of its people (H.Res.878)

Ukraine's Independence Day snuck up on us, so we didn't have any time to plan a trip during the long weekend. But I was glad we didn't leave because it was interesting to see how Kyivians celebrate their freedom from the Soviet Union, won on August 24, 1991. The 26th anniversary was recognized much like in previous years, with a series of military demonstrations on Independence Square (top). But for the first time, NATO member nations, including the United States, also participated. The troops lined the main boulevard, making it difficult to see the action (bottom left). After craning our necks for a while, we stepped on to side streets, where we could see cultural expressions of national pride (bottom right).

The night before, it was much easier to navigate the main drag downtown, even though it was full of people gathered near Lyadsky Gate, which marks the location of one of the city's medieval gates (left). Standing atop the gate is the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Ukraine, who also is perched on Independence Monument. Over the weekend, we saw various people dressed up as the "angel of independence," including while we perused the many military machines on display (right). 

We strolled downtown after attending the Independence Day Concert at the National Philharmonic of Ukraine concert hall, a wonderful atmospheric and acoustic location for a music performance (top). The Wings of Dixie, a U.S. Air Force band, really wowed the crowd with some American favorites (bottom left). They nearly brought down the house with their extra-jazzy extended version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" (bottom right).

 

After independence, the country was led by democratically elected presidents: two Leonids, Kravchuk and Kuchma, then two Viktors, Yushchenko and Yanukovych. Viktor Yanukovych was stripped of his title after he fled the country during the Revolution of Dignity. The public protested against the government for many reasons, including Yanukovych's last-minute refusal to sign a NATO association agreement, but they also were displeased that leaders appeared to be diverting government funds to feed their own luxurious lifestyles. 

A lingering sign of this is Mezhyhirya, the estate where Yanukovych lived until he fled in 2014. The estate was built on the site of a former monastery and is now a National Park. The estate's main building, the Honka, was constructed over two years at an estimated cost of $9.5 million (top). Tours of the residence start through a door in the fitness center, where on display in a nearby window are a dummy of Yanukovych and a replica of a solid-gold bread loaf that was reportedly found in his bedroom (bottom left). The tour, guided by a revolution protester who says he lives permanently on the site, ends at the front door of the Honka (bottom right). 

At the start of the tour, within the indoor four-lane bowling alley, you are instructed to don booties (top left), to help preserve what are billed as excessive expenditures, such as intricate hand-inlaid wood floors (top right). Besides the bowling alley, the fitness center includes an indoor tennis court; a full gym, which houses a boxing ring (bottom left); and a spa area, which includes tanning beds, massage tables, hydrobaths, and even a salt cave (bottom right).

 

The fitness center is connected to the Honka via a convenient underground tunnel (top). The residence includes all the trappings of a palace: multiple big-screen TVs and a media room, walk-in closets, bidets, silk carpets, marble statues, crystal chandeliers, and sweeping staircases (bottom left). Surprisingly, the kitchen was nothing more than a small galley, as food supposedly was prepared in the fitness center's industrial kitchen, which we didn't see. Unusually, the house includes a church, and on display in the main living area is a limited-edition John Lennon piano (bottom right). The guide said Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader who fled during the Battle of Tripoli, had a piano from the same series. Unlike Gaddafi, who was killed by rebel forces in October 2011, Yanukovych's whereabouts remain unknown.

The residence is surrounded by pristine gardens. At the front of the house is a manmade lake, alongside which sits a banya and sauna complex (top left). The rear faces the Kyiv Sea, a reservoir formed by the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in the Dnieper River (top right). We boarded golf carts to get the full tour of the estate grounds, which include, well, a golf course and the Galleon, a reception barge that now operates as a restaurant (bottom left). We also stopped at the Motor Museum, which displays dozens of cars from Yanukovych's personal automobile collection (bottom right).

Far away in the dim recesses of the Carpathians (92Cong.Rec.)

TJ has had his eye on Ukraine's mountains ever since we arrived in Kyiv. However, the main range, the Carpathians, are on the western border of the country, quite a ways from the capital. Getting there takes a good day, so doing a multi-day hike requires more than even a long weekend. So as a compromise, we used the three-day Labor Day weekend for a scouting expedition. We left work at lunch on Friday, so we could get to Ivano-Frankivsk by evening, to use as a jumping-off spot to explore the region. It was a bit of an expedition in and of itself to find our accommodations, Striha Apartment (left), conveniently located across from the train station (right). 

You can take an overnight train to Ivano-Frankivsk, but using public transportation to get to all the nooks and crannies of Carpathian National Nature Park would be difficult. From Ivano-Frankivsk, there are trains to Yaremche, where a park headquarters is located within walking distance of the station. Strangely, the headquarters are closed on weekends, so all we could do was glean some insight from the informational signs (left). We learned that there are lynxes and bears in the park, but we didn't end up seeing anything other than friendly creatures, including kittens and butterflies (right).

Just outside of Yaremche, attractive Hutsulshchyna restaurant sits alongside the Prut River (top left). It is part of a complex that has built up next to perhaps the area's most popular wet attraction, Probiy Waterfall, which has turned a bit too touristy for my taste. If you look upstream, it appears to be a calm natural retreat (top right), but the falls themselves are crawling with visitors (bottom left). The highest waterfall in the park, Trufanets Waterfall, also attracts its share of onlookers; it took some effort to get a photo without people in the shot (bottom right).

 

In fact, the natural wonders in the region that are the most significant are the least likely to draw much attention. The ancient beech forests on the UNESCO World Heritage List stretch across 12 countries. Right near our first campsite was a sign indicating we were smack dab in the middle of Ukraine's swath (left). Unfortunately, we didn't see one of the 16 wooden churches on the UNESCO World Heritage List, but we saw more modern versions built with the same horizontal logs and octagonal cupolas (right). 

 

The churches date to the Orthodox and Greek Catholic cultures of the 16th to 19th centuries. Even before that time, the area was home to Hutsuls, a hard-working and fun-loving bunch descending from the Romanians or Slavs, depending on who you ask. The horse-drawn wooden wagons certainly reminded me of those used by the Romani gypsy culture (left), which has grown to the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania today, after first entering the region during the 13th-century Mongol invasion. And the Hutsuls' woven goods seem to stem from a Slav-like resilience in cold, damp climates (right). 

 

Speaking of damp, the first campsite we used, in Kvasy, was sunny when we arrived, providing a nice vista of the Tysa River valley (top left). But the next morning, after 8 straight hours of rain, the same valley was full of puddles and mist (top right). The mountain fog made the abandoned military building next to the soccer pitch where we pitched our tent seem even more foreboding (bottom).

Before the rain, we enjoyed a respite in the village below. On our steep descent, we stopped to wave to the train headed to Lviv (top). Once at the bottom, we popped a squat at a picnic table associated with the original Tsipa Brewery (bottom left). The outdoor seating actually was more the purview of Hutsul Pizzeria, from whom we ordered a pizza and some "Hutsul ravioli," which were pelmeni with a cream sauce made from locally gathered mushrooms (bottom right).

The next morning, we set out to explore Ukraine's highest mountain, Hoverla (left). There are many paths leading to the peak, but we investigated the trailhead near Vorokhta. Some people hike from the city, which is connected by train to Lviv, but you can also catch a mashrutka a little further, to the turnoff toward Zaroslyak. Along that 6-kilometer-long mountain road, there are many pulloffs where you can picnic or camp (right). Since we had a car, we drove to the end of the road, where there is a small tourist complex with a chalet; from there, it is a 3-kilometer off-road hike to the summit.

Because we had Sage, we didn't hike to the top. Instead, we enjoyed a snack, then headed out to look for another campsite. We saw many good ones right near Hoverla, but it was early in the day, so we decided to push on toward Kosiv. There were quite a few spots right by the road near the Vorokhta Skijumping Center, where we stopped for coffee before driving toward Hoverla (left). We weren't sure if the jump was closed for the season or simply not even usable anymore, but the lift to the top was operational (right).  

 

After a long scenic drive and some backtracking, we decided to camp at a developed picnic spot right next to the river outside Verkhovyna. But by then, the rain had begun again, and as we waited it out in the car, hail started to hit (left). With already soaked gear and little motivation to spend another night in the rain, we opted to check into Art Koliba, a complex of tourist cabins down the road. Sage supported our decision 100 percent (right). 

Not only did Sage enjoy the comfort of a cozy cabin, but he made some friends with the complex's dog pack: a corgi, a shepherd mix, and her two puppies. The mama dog was a particularly good host, showing us to our door and guarding us on the balcony through the night (left). The next morning, during a walk with the pack, they tried to persuade Sage to cross the river to the banya, but we wouldn't let him follow on the unstable wooden bridge (middle). They got along so well that Sage didn't even seem to mind when one of the puppies snuggled up with the resident cat right outside our door (right).

  

Throughout the area, there are many signs reading "koliba," which indicates a traditional wooden hut that likely once was used for both room and board but now is more specifically an eating establishment, with sleeping cabins perhaps nearby. There were more mushrooms than men at the evening meal at our koliba. We started with a "hot" salad of mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, oil, and cheese (top left). TJ had a pork steak with a mushroom sauce; I had mushrooms in smetana, a delicious fungi pudding; and both of us had potatoes mixed with butter, mushrooms, and other vegetables (top right). We enjoyed them so much that we decided to buy a kilogram (a little over 2 pounds) of freshly picked mushrooms from a roadside babushka on our way home (bottom).