Winding Roads to Wellsville

One might not think much of purposely going to Wellsville, Ohio, located on the western edge of the Ohio River. But, on May 31st I had planned a ride southbound on OH-170. It was me, Tiny, and Goldilocks. Bryon's clutch hub went bad, so he had to stay home. Stay home? Not me, no way!

Well, the three of us headed out in the beautiful weather. Down through Lowellville, and out of there along Washington Street or something which I was supposed to take Lincoln or something, but Washington was a lovely tree-shadowed road leading to OH-224. It's a nice way to go if you want to avoid bumpy roads in Campbell and Strutters along OH-616.

We finally got onto 170 south and scooted along that road, which is really nice with sweeping curves and smooth asphalt. I don't ride crazy or fast by any means, but those curves can make you do things. One of my favorite feelings is that of accelerating out of a curve. Bryon always taught me that when you can see where you are going, you can put more throttle into it. Sometimes I imagine leaving everyone in my rice-filled dust! I almost did when we took a right turn when I saw the Mail Pouch Tobacco billboard on the left. I did a dumb thing and pulled across the opposing lane and stopped off the road in the gravel. Why? Because Tiny likes to take photos of his bike with Mail Pouch signs! He had pulled off on the right into a lot wondering what I was doing, so I flagged him to ride over, and then told him it was a photo op. He obliged. And what a cool photo!

At Calcutta, we stayed on 170 to get to OH-7 south. Our food destination was the Riverside Roadhouse in Wellsville. We made our way there, taking a left down the mostly dirt, bombed-out road paralleling railroad tracks and the river sandwiched with the highway. It wasn't what we hoped for, and it was still take-out only, so fuck that, we turned around and went back toward the town.

The alternative I had in mind was the Someplace Else by the Paddle Wheel restaurant. As luck goes, Tiny spotted a sign in the window that said they were open, and there were cars in the parking lot. So we quickly made the decision to go there. What a great decision! The front of the restaurant is along the main street with parking on three sides. They are doing that thing where you enter in one door and leave by another, so we entered and took a table that had three seats. The waitresses were really nice and helpful. There were plenty of other people there (at every other table). We got our menus, ordered drinks, and looked over the list.

Along with my coffee, I ordered the chicken fried steak. Goldi-locks ordered half a sausage sandwich. Tiny ordered the meatloaf dinner. We weren't expecting what we got: it was so effing delicious! Huge portions! A biker's food paradise! The hunk of meatloaf Tiny got was huge, Goldilocks' sandwich could have been two, and my fried steak was smothered in a perfect white gravy! You have to go there sometime. They have one pound burgers too.

Looking out the restaurant windows, I noticed a bridge that crosses a stream, that in turn deposits right into the Ohio. I suggested we go for a walk after eating; it was still early in the day. Well, it it an old bridge that has sidewalks and the town has hanging flower baskets hung along the way. (Notice Goldilocks' name on her red hoodie sleeve; she was Mrs. Tiny before she earned her Goldilocks road name).

On the other side of the bridge was something unexpected, and even now I don't really know what the structure is, but it's a bit like a building or a bridge tresses or something. Anyway, the town at some point invested money into making it a work of art with a massive mural that is located on both sides of the main road. Don't let the bricks fool you - those are all painted on too! Hard to believe from a distance.

 

I liked the train station painting, and others. Each represented some aspect of local and American culture. I found it amusing that it looks like you can sit on the brick ledges, so I had Tiny take a picture of me in front of the Standard Oil gas station painting. I squatted down like I was sitting, it looks pretty darn real I think. Well, that started a trend.

One of the things that we didn't understand was the Saint Rocco's Festival mural. Just why is this dude lifting up his robe to show off a cut on his thigh? And why is everyone gawking? Who was Saint Rocco? (Nice leg, by the way). Apparently he gave up his good life to help the poor and is said to have been a curer of the plague in Italy. Well, we have plenty of plague to go around nowadays too, or so they've said. Maybe people should be dressing as St. Rocco instead of a plague doctor. 

After all the mural excitement, we walked onto the raised boardwalk that leads to a river overlook. Goldilocks noticed shards of broken plates in the water, and I believe Tiny said he had looked at a map of the area and there was a manufacturer of plates upstream and that the shards may be trash from the plate facility. 

We ended up taking some winding roads toward home, staying on side roads until we got back to Calcutta. I wanted us to ride OH-170 back, and I'm glad we did. Ohio has a lot of nice roads when you head to the southeast section. I don't know much about the Ohio routes west of Akron and Cleveland, so if anyone has any tips, I'd like to hear them. Always looking for new places in this great big nation. 

May your life be solid, solid as a rock.

- Holly