#31, 6-8-2025, 115 miles. Rode over to Angola, IN to grab a 24mm wrench from Menards, fits the rear axle nut on the CB500X, then used garmin scenic route to head to Defiance, OH. From there I went through West Unity, OH headed home.
I have ridden and driven by this building for Oh heck 20 years, one guy I knew from a local Ham radio club worked for ATT as an Engineer, this building was the local office from where they maintained microwave towers in a huge radius. Would have liked to have seen it inside before they tore it down. The cold war bunker aspects of some of these facilities was pretty interesting. I remember reading that this building had some kind of "radiation detectors" on the roof designed to let them know Toledo had been nuked maybe. This is what it did look like. This one was built in 1940 so pre cold war but I am not sure how much of it was built then. Some for sale ads have described the white portion as being poured 12" concrete.
Here is how it was yesterday.
There is a huge slip form cast concrete tower SW of me also, there was one not far from where I grew up that may be part of my fascination with that ATT longlines network, and a steel tower like this one even closer to where I grew up.
Sometimes I wish I had a gopro on the bike, saw some "roadkill" ahead at one point, 1/3 of a lane in from the center line but as I got closer I saw it was a female Marmota Monax aka woodchuck and two babies which were very much alive, I counter steered to the left a bit, they stayed right where they were, and all was well. People like to complain about grass clippings in the road but Marmota Monax is WAY more dangerous of an obstacle IMHO.
Here is a picture of one for those who are not yet familiar, they mess around in the road sometimes, I have always suspected that they use the asphalt to wear down their teeth, read somewhere that rodents teeth grow all the time and they grind them down on rocks and other stuff, have seen squirrels screwing around in the road too. They can get pretty big, one of the biggest rodents we have. Punxsutawney Phil is a Marmota Monax. They really do a lot of damage on farms and I have hunted them since I was a kid, if one gets under a concrete floor in a building especially they make a real hash of things :-).
Bill
