Tandem GOBA riders in costume during festivities in Greenville, OH.
Or, do they always dress like this when riding??
GOBA Re-Cap
By Julie Van Winkle
The Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure has concluded for the banner year of 2003. With celebrations honoring our 15th year, Bob Evan's 50th anniversary, 100 years of powered flight, and the 200th birthday of our state, each day brought an exciting array of activities. Greenville led the way with a fantastic bicycle parade and Island-themed welcome party (complete with a bevy of hula dancers on the town square as we bicycled past). Troy was a really superb 2-day town with ice skating, a downtown party, and a highly efficient shuttle system. Their mayor made sure that all doors were open to GOBA.
Xenia performed a beautiful repeat performance (they hosted GOBA also for 2 days in '94), and hosted the GrandPrix bike races and a blues concert. And to live up to their rubric as the "Hospitality City", the mayor invited everyone (!) to his house for coffee and promised that the police would issue no tickets to GOBA riders during our stay.
Middletown put us up in their shady and spacious Smith Park. The whole city got into the act...the police even brought out a paddy wagon to help riders haul their luggage from the hotels. Brookville put the perfect cap on a truly delightful week. Their bountiful food court right in the campground next to the entertainment ("music in the air wherever you went", says Cheri) was a special treat. The elementary school kids put up 250 welcome signs around town...and they worked!
Tandem GOBA riders in costume during festivities in Greenville, OH.
Or, do they always dress like this when riding??
The week started with 3,165 registrants (compared to 3,145 in 2002). Rider counters in Greenville counted 3,034 riders leaving on Sunday morning. Counts from our rider counters in Brookville have not been received yet. 1,818 of our riders were male; 2,553 were from Ohio; 369 were COP members; 43 states were represented as well as Canada; 471 riders were age 15 or under; 59 had ridden all 15 tours.
Some of the special arrangements we made this year include: free 2003 registration for riders who were on their 15th year (the "all-year" riders); an additional "2-day" town (Troy); a Wednesday optional route that followed primarily bike path and took cyclists on downtown streets in a major metropolis; a coordinator dedicated to the car campers; a tote bag-backpack memento for each participant. Our Wednesday 50-mile optional route took cyclists on bike path through Green & Montgomery counties, through MetroParks, to the site of Inventing Flight (coming in July), the Wright Cycle Shop, and Carillon Park. The bus shuttle gave participants the option of going to the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum, and being able to make additional free bus connections to the same sites as the cyclists.
Weather was on our side all week. All around us was major flooding, to the extent of closing some of the GOBA route, BUT not on the day we were coming through. We were very lucky! Daily highs were mostly in the 70's with a couple days up to about 80. Nights were generally in the 60's with 2 nights in the low 50's. A couple of days had high humidity, but later in the week the air was very dry. We had scattered showers a couple of times, but no one got very wet.
Most favorable comments heard over and over again were about the 2 layover days, a first for GOBA. The other positive comments were in praise of the tote bag memento and the free ride for the all-year riders.
Once again, I've enjoyed working with the best volunteer crew, a combination of veterans and newcomers, who worked hard and worked hard together to make this the best GOBA ever!
Julie Van Winkle is the GOBA Director.