Bluffton was be a one-day biker's paradise on Sunday (June 21).
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Visitors to town were the 2,000+ participants in the 27th Annual Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure (GOBA).
Bikers started the tour in Van Wert on Sunday and made a 50-mile trip to Bluffton arriving between 9:30 a.m. 2 p.m. Earlier in the week chances of thundershowers were 60 percent, which sent local planners to prepare an indoors "Plan B" for the guests.
The rains never came and Sunday was an enjoyable sunny day.
Bikers left Bluffton early Monday morning on their way to Defiance, where they will remain until Wednesday morning. Then they pack up and bike to Bowling Green for another two-day visit. On Friday they head south to Ottawa and return to Van Wert on Saturday.
The tour is owned and organized by Columbus Outdoor Pursuits, a non-profit organization, for the benefit of bicycle-related projects in Ohio.
In 2014, 2,000 people from 38 states; the District of Columbia; Japan; Taiwan; and Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, Canada, took part in the tour. Included in this number were many families: nearly 20% of the participants are children traveling with their parents, making GOBA the largest family-oriented bicycle tour in the world.
Over the past 26 years GOBA has been instrumental in generating nearly $10 million in tourism revenues in the towns along the route, as well as in providing access to Ohio's rural treasures to people from all over the country.
