Ten Stops, Two E-Bikes, and One Columbus Birthday

For my Columbus birthday, we did not choose one attraction. We connected ten stops by e-bike and let the city become the celebration.

Thursday, August 13, began at our apartment in Franklinton with a route ambitious enough to feel like an event: River & Rich, Scioto Audubon Metro Park, Schiller Park, Brown Bag Deli, the Book Loft, the Ohio Statehouse, Goodale Park, The Oval, Ohio Stadium, and finally home.

Ten stops. Two e-bikes. One birthday.

By 3:00 p.m., we were back at the apartment after completing every stop. That finish time is the simplest measure of how well the e-bikes worked for this trip. In a few hours, Columbus changed repeatedly around us—riverfront, wetland, brick streets, downtown government buildings, city parks, a university campus, and the Horseshoe—without any single transition swallowing the day.

Stop 1: River & Rich

Our lodging near 431 West Rich Street was more than a place to sleep. It was the anchor for both of our major Columbus rides. We could roll toward the Scioto, reach downtown, or connect with the Olentangy trail system without beginning every outing in traffic.

The morning photos show the unglamorous but important part of an e-bike day: getting ready. Batteries, bags, clothing, water, route checks, and the decision to finally roll out the door. A bike trip is built as much from those small preparations as from the landmarks at the other end.

Stop 2: Scioto Audubon Metro Park

Scioto Audubon was our orientation point. Just south of downtown, the park opens space around the river and gives the skyline room to appear. It was the right first destination because it let us understand Columbus before entering its tighter street grid.

From an e-bike, riverfront parks are not isolated attractions. They are connectors. The Scioto corridor became our low-stress route into the city and, later in the trip, part of the longer system that carried us north.

Stop 3: Schiller Park

Schiller Park changed the texture of the ride. German Village gathered around us in brick, mature trees, older homes, and shaded streets. The park felt like the neighborhood's green living room—a place to slow down rather than simply pass through.

That slowing down is one of the advantages of traveling by bike. In a car, neighborhoods become a sequence of turns and parking decisions. On the bikes, the transition itself was part of the experience.

Stop 4: Brown Bag Deli

By lunch, we were ready for food with substance. Brown Bag Deli delivered more substance than either of us was likely expecting.

I ordered the Brown Bag Special. Kellie chose the Mohawk Stroller without basil pesto, adding vegetables and cream cheese. She also ordered the peanut quinoa. The total was about $50, and both sandwiches were big, filling, and tasty enough that we carried leftovers away.

This was not a delicate mid-ride snack. It was a proper lunch, the kind that can either power the second half of a route or convince you to cancel it. We chose the first option, although the e-bike motors certainly helped.

Stop 5: The Book Loft

The Book Loft is less a store than a maze with books in it. Room leads to room, stairway to corridor, and every turn offers another reason to lose track of time. Our photo archive confirms this as one of the most thoroughly photographed stops of the morning.

That makes sense. The Book Loft rewards wandering, and wandering was the operating principle of the trip. The difference was that we still had half a city and a northern campus ahead of us, so eventually we had to find the exit, find the bikes, and keep moving.

Stop 6: Ohio Statehouse

From German Village, the route turned toward downtown and the Ohio Statehouse. The shift was immediate: intimate brick streets gave way to the civic center, broad facades, public art, and the geometry of downtown Columbus.

We did not need a long interior tour for the Statehouse to serve its purpose in the ride. It was a visual and geographic hinge—the point where the southern neighborhood loop became a northbound city route.

Stop 7: Goodale Park

Goodale Park offered another reset before Ohio State. In the original route design, it was the place where we could decide whether our legs and batteries still agreed with the plan. On the actual ride, we kept going.

That decision says something about e-bikes as travel tools. They do not remove effort or fatigue, but they widen the day's possibilities. A park that might have been the turnaround point became a pause on the way to the campus.

Stop 8: The Oval

The Oval gave us the classic Ohio State view: an immense green axis framed by campus buildings and foot traffic. We slowed down, took photographs, and let the scale of the university replace the tighter scale of downtown.

The Land-Grant stop from our first night had already introduced the Buckeye connection. Its founders met at Ohio State, and the brewery's name came from the university's land-grant identity. Riding into the campus brought that thread back into the trip in physical form.

Stop 9: Ohio Stadium

Ohio Stadium was the northern climax. Even without a game, the Horseshoe has the kind of presence that organizes the landscape around it. Reaching it by bike also made the arrival feel earned. We had come from Franklinton, followed the river, crossed German Village and downtown, paused in parks, and ridden through the heart of campus.

A destination feels different when you can trace every neighborhood that led to it.

Stop 10: Back to River & Rich

The final stop was home. We returned to the Airbnb around 3:00 p.m. having completed the entire route, and the next item in the log is wonderfully direct: time for a rest.

That rest was not surrender. It was the dividing line between the birthday ride and the birthday evening. Cobra, dumplings, dan dan noodles, German cake, and a cream puff were still ahead. Columbus had more planned for us; first, we needed to stop moving.

Would we explore Columbus this way again?

Absolutely. This route worked because it did not reduce Columbus to one district. It connected the city’s different scales and personalities in a single continuous experience.

It also taught us a useful lesson for e-bike travel: build the day around meaningful pauses. Parks created breathing room. Brown Bag gave us fuel. The Book Loft provided indoor wandering. Goodale Park became a checkpoint. Ohio Stadium supplied a clear goal. The river and trail network tied it together.

Anyone adapting this route should verify current trail conditions, construction, and bike-access rules, and should be prepared to walk bikes in busy pedestrian areas. Distances and battery range will vary with detours, assist level, and where you begin. The important part is the shape of the day, not copying every turn.

For us, the shape was perfect: start close to the river, ride south before turning north, eat well, make room for curiosity, reach the Horseshoe, and return tired enough to know the birthday had properly begun.

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Our ten-stop Columbus route
River & Rich → Scioto Audubon Metro Park → Schiller Park → Brown Bag Deli → The Book Loft → Ohio Statehouse → Goodale Park → The Oval → Ohio Stadium → River & Rich

Next in the Columbus birthday story: happy-hour dumplings at Cobra, dan dan noodles, German cake, and the cream puff that became my birthday dessert.