Bed, Breakfast & Bike Midwest (Cycling Tours) If you think the Midwest is nothing but flatlands covered with cornfields, then you need to hop on your bicycle and rediscover the startling diversity and beautiful scenery of the states of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Thanks to this indispensable book, you can select a B&B as your base of operations and set out to explore the countryside using the maps and cue sheets for at least two rides that begin right from each inn’s driveway.
From the unexpected highlands around Marietta, Ohio, to the beautiful emerald necklace of Cleveland’s urban parks, from the woods and lakes of Michigan to the quintessential small towns of Indiana, there is a destination for you in Bed, Breakfast & Bike.
The lodging choices run the gamut, as well. You’ll find restored Victorian mansions, rustic lodges, sprawling farmhouses–even a vintage sternwheeler moored in the Muskingum River! The authors have personally selected each of the 27 inns and B&Bs in these pages, and provide you with a thorough description of the accommodations and dining options. To help you remember your trip, there’s a chapter full of recipes culled from the inns so that you can replicate that stunning breakfast that fueled you up the first hill.
Customer Review: Perfect R&R For Cyclists: Midwest B&Bs
“You enter Ivy House through a screened-in porch, where you can while away the time relaxing after a ride, reading, visiting with other guests, or simply enjoying the peace and quiet. Proceeding into the living area, you’ll find comfortable green wicker furniture beneath a ceiling fan that diffuses the fresh breezes off Lake Erie.” (Ivy House, Marblehead, Ohio)
Such carefully crafted descriptions abound in this recently published guidebook. The authors, a Toledo-based couple, lodged, dined and biked at 27 bed-and-breakfasts throughout Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. What resulted from their adventures and strict attention to detail is a very thorough and thoroughly interesting guide to the best of biking and lodging in America’s Heartland.
The Midwest, especially Ohio, especially, have a tradition of friendliness to bicyclists. It is only fitting, then, that Ohioans have created this latest addition to the Anacus Press Bed, Breakfast, and Bike Series. Co-author Theresa Russell has written frequently on bicycle touring and is currently completing a guide to cycling Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
The truth about the Midwest is that much of it is not flat. Accordingly, the Russells cover inns and nearby bike routes in lands of giant hills (Southern Ohio), valleys, rolling terrain, lakefronts and, of course, plains. One bike route even includes a ferry and an island (Kelley’s Island in Lake Erie).
While the appearance and menu of each inn are described in perfect detail, biking content for each is plentiful and handy. Lodging rates reveal many inns that are pleasing to the purse as well as the eye. All of this information is critical for those planning weekend bike getaways but not planning on any surprises.
What does pleasantly surprise the reader, however, is the variety of accommodations (one is a sternwheeler riverboat, for petesake) and the listings of not one, but two, suggested bike routes from each inn. Most routes are comfortably under 50 miles.
But the most pleasant surprise is the final chapter listing 18 recipes shared by inn hosts along the way. Culinary delights range from “Blueberry-Walnut Coffeecake” to “Hash Brown Quiche.” Treats for the palate, yes, but also excellent fuel for a hearty morning of Midwest bicycle touring.
Customer Review: A Tasty Read
While my big behind has never been balanced on a bicycle seat, I thoroughly enjoyed..and benefited from..my reading of Bed, Breakfast sand Bike Midwest, by Robert and Theresa Russell. The Russells have combined descriptive prose with precise information in their well researched work. When I visit the Midwest in the fall, I will be well armed with all the facts I need to make considered decisions in re: my accommodations. And, between now and September, should I be overtaken by the spirit of the winner of the Tour De France, (highly unlikely), I will be well apprised of routes to take, locations of bike shops, landmarks, sights to see, and all other information required to expedite a safe and engaging bike tour. On the other hand, should “the spirit” elude me, (highly likely), I will know just where to go to get a tasty breakfast of “Dutch Babies” and other goodies. All in all, a tasty read.
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