The days are starting to blend in together. Someone asked me at the end of the day where I'd started from this morning, and I had to look at my maps to give him the name of my starting point. ^T Wow.
It was yet another hot one today, with headwinds added to make the day even more challenging. I ended the day in Indiana, which is still in the Eastern time zone, but doesn't use Daylight Savings Time. I thought that only half of the state rejected Daylight Savings Time, but it turns out that only two small parts of the state use it, and most of the state doesn't. A man I was talking to in Monroeville (who is an Indiana resident, so he was talking about himself too) told me he thinks no one can figure out how to change their clocks... but I did have to change mine.
I had my first biking conversation at my first Gatorade stop this morning. A guy came up to me and asked where I was from and where I was going - the typical start to these conversations. He had done some touring in the past, but said that he only rides locally now. I'm not sure why he said only, because he told me he usually rides 20 to 30 miles a day. That adds up pretty fast. He also told me he had a rough ride yesterday between the heat and the wind. I was glad to hear that because I thought I was just having general energy problems yesterday. Guess it wasn't me!
I stopped to verify that the road I was on was really state route 637. Every intersection was well-signed until I hit this road, and knowing that I'd added some unwanted mileage a couple of days ago before, I figured I'd stop at a house and ask. The couple who owned the house were really nice, so we stood and talked for a while. That's when I found out that there was a huge motorcycle rally in Fort Wayne, so I shouldn't try to find a place to stay there. I asked about Decatur, IN, and they said that would be a good place to stay. They also suggested Van Wert, OH. I don't really need to ask why it takes me so long to get to my destination each day - it's too much fun talking to people along the way
The ride today had towns every 10 to 15 miles, and every time I stopped to refuel I found new people to talk to. The place that amazed me the most was Monroeville. I knew that the town has an indoor shelter in the city park that they allow cyclists to use, but I didn't realize how much interest in cross-country cyclists permeates the residents. I assumed that Monroeville wouldn't be where I'd stay tonight because I didn't think I'd be able to find anyone in the parks department. Just as I pulled my bike into the gas station / store in the center of town, someone who works for the parks department walked up to me and told me about their pavilion. It's air-conditioned, with showers and a washer and dryer, and it's free for cyclists to stay there. My timing wasn't stellar on this one though, because the entire city park including the pavilion was the scene of a big Fourth of July celebration. He invited me to join the celebration, plus stay in the pavilion, but he also said that he didn't expect the pavilion to clear out until 10:30 tonight. Since it was only 1:30 at the time, and since I felt like I needed to be settled in and asleep before 10:30, I decided to push on. I did think about staying though. But as those of you who know me know - I'm not good with crowds and loud noise, so I did the right thing for me by getting back on the road. I may have been content there for about an hour, but not the entire day. I did stay in town for a while talking to other people.
The one real bad piece of news I got today was that a cross-country cyclist was killed last week just outside of Monroeville - a bad car / cyclist interaction. That just sent a chill up my spine, and I'm sure you have the same or similar reaction. (Sorry folks, I couldn't keep that to myself - it bummed me out too much.) One of the people I was chatting with told me that right after he told me to be careful. I'm always careful, but I guess you just can't stop bad things from happening sometimes. I hope nothing happens to me, but if anything does, at least I'm doing something that I love.
OK, enough of that. Back to the trip. For now, I've decided to stick with the Adventure Cycling route. Larry's route from last summer is a little further south than mine, but it pretty much parallels the route that I'm on. The one diagonal route has quite a few miles on divided highways, so I don't really want to take it. The only problem with remaining on the Northern Tier route is that for the next few days the services (food, campgrounds, and motels) are all off-route. From Monroeville, I headed south and a bit west to Decatur to find a place to stay. I followed route 101 south for 9 miles, then intended to turn west on 224. When I got to the intersection of the two roads, l saw a detour sign for 224 west pointing east. Oh no! I flagged down a convertible and asked if 224 was really closed up ahead. Luckily the person that stopped to help me was a local. He told me that a bridge was under construction up ahead, but he was able to tell me how to get to a local bridge that was one block north of the bridge that was closed. That was easy. I wouldn't have been happy to have to ride backwards at that point in time.
Just as I pulled in to Decatur the sky got dark and it started to rain. Unfortunately that lasted only about 5 minutes, and it didn't cool things off at all.
I continued talking to people once I got to Decatur. I met some people who are attending the motorcycle rally in Fort Wayne, and I had a good conversation with the 2 couples sitting at the table next to me at dinner. They overheard me tell the waitress that I needed a lot of water because I had been riding all day and started talking to me.
All in all it was a very good day - both from a people and a riding standpoint. I do hope that tomorrow is cooler and less windy, or that the wind blows from a different direction!
