Cyclist recalls long trip's stop in Tiffin

TIFFIN — More than 50 years after a cross-country bicycle trip brought him through Seneca County, Fredonia native Tim Woodbury still thinks about the people he met along the way. Woodbury, now retired, recently retraced the route he and his friend Duncan Wood biked as high school juniors during their 1974 Easter break — only this time by car. The original trip took six days, he said, carrying the duo from Fredonia, New York, to Kalamazoo, Michigan, traveling mostly along back roads that had been mapped out in advance. One of the most memorable stops, however, came while staying just east of Tiffin. After a long day riding into the wind, cold and damp, the pair stopped along U.S. 18 and asked a couple out for a walk if there was a motel nearby. Instead, the couple (Alton and Lillian Hickman) invited the two to stay at their home for the night. "They were a very nice retired couple," Woodbury shared. "We drank a lot of their milk, they fed us ham and eggs, and we watched TV with them." The following morning, the Hickmans sent the cyclists off with breakfast before they continued their journey west. Their journey, at the time, did not go unnoticed — Woodbury shared a 1974 Advertiser-Tribune article describing how the cyclists were "impressed with the hospitality" they received in the area. The connections lasted well beyond that night, with both Wood and Woodbury remaining in contact with the Hickmans for years and eventually even reuniting. Looking back on the trip today, Woodbury said the kindness shown in Tiffin left a lasting impression. "We were treated very well, and it still seems like a very nice place," he said. "After 52 years … I just want to say thank you to the Hickmans, to Tiffin, and rural Ohio in its entirety."