Started the day on Hwy 120, also known as Toledo Street, with my sights set on reaching Toledo by evening. The morning was road riding through small towns and wide open farmland. It was flat, hot, and monotonous, the kind of day where you just settle into the saddle and keep spinning. I threw in some headphones, queued up a few podcasts, and chipped away at the miles. About 30 miles in, I reached Montpelier and hopped on the Wabash Cannonball Trail. The surface was mostly crushed limestone, shaded in parts, and stretched for over 60 miles toward Toledo. The trail follows the former Wabash Railroad corridor and is one of the longest rail trails in Ohio. It was a relief to be off the roads and away from traffic for the bulk of the day. Rolling into Toledo, I realized I had spent much of the afternoon pedaling through what was once the heart of the Toledo Strip, a narrow piece of land that sparked one of the strangest territorial disputes in American history. Back in the 1830s, Michigan and Ohio both laid claim to this area, and tensions rose high enough that each side mustered militias. The conflict, known as the Toledo War, never turned violent but came close, with a few arrests and some strong posturing. Eventually, the federal government awarded the land, and the city of Toledo, to Ohio, while Michigan was given the Upper Peninsula as a consolation prize. It’s wild to think that today’s quiet roads and cornfields were once a contested border. By the time I rolled into town I was toast. Nearly 100 miles in the heat took it out of me. I grabbed a room and crashed hard, looking forward to a fresh start in the morning.