What a difference a day makes! Today was a pleasant weather day, about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday, and much less humid. And I actually had a tailwind for about 2/3 of the day. That was certainly a nice change of pace. I was off-route at both the beginning and the end of the day since in this section of the Northern Tier route all of the places to stay are off route. I used a diagonal road to get back to the route this morning - US 224 which was a great road for riding. The middle third of the day was on county roads that were arrow straight 2-lane roads with no shoulders and farms on both sides of the road. Still nice riding, except for a short cut through Salamonie State Forest. That road had a really bumpy road surface, but luckily it was pretty short. After Lagro, I opted for US 24 to Peru. It's a four-lane divided highway, but not a limited access road. The shoulder was as wide as a driving lane, so other than the noise of the motor vehicles, it was pretty decent riding. And it was a much more direct route than staying on the Northern Tier route and then cutting down to Peru. All in all, a good riding day.
The change in scenery and terrain surprised me again. The morning was all flat farmland. Then some rolling hills introduced the Salamonie Dam,which is an earthen dam built by the Army Corp of Engineers for flood control. After that I was in a wooded area in the state forest, then back to farms, but with some occasional (pretty low) hills.
Clint came up to me to talk at my first refueling stop. He and his wife are both cyclists, although he said that they don't ride much here. They moved to Indiana from California several years ago. After a conversation about bikes and touring in general, he repeated the "be careful" warning that I got in Monroeville yesterday. He said that this state doesn't seem to be very cyclist-friendly or cyclist-aware. The people are friendly, but the drivers apparently don't always see cyclists on the road. Too many cyclists have been killed here. I find it hard to believe that the drivers don't see the cyclists because the roads I've been on are arrow straight without any blind spots. I'm riding as defensively as I can, and I guess that's all I can do.
Same refueling stop - I tried my first Krispy Kreme doughnut. Chocolate glazed, yum! Wait Denise, you don't eat doughnuts, do you? They're not in my normal diet, but that tasted good this morning. I wonder if it would have tasted that good if I hadn't been riding like a maniac.
I stopped to talk with a woman who I saw who was riding a bike loaded down with groceries - in baskets in the back, and in bags hanging from the handlebars. I haven't seen too many cyclists here, let alone people who are using their bikes as their primary form of transportation.
I've noticed something over the past few days. The houses that have pools in this area either have above ground pools, or man-made ponds. The ponds look very interesting. They all have a gravel edge, and they are pretty large. When I first saw them I assumed they were shallow - but some of them actually have docks on them with diving boards and slides. And no fences! I've never seen anything like that before. I wonder if these ponds are unique to this area, or if it is a common thing in farming areas. The ponds have been in residential areas, not necessarily on farms.
My friends the red-wing blackbirds are still following my route. OK, OK, I know they live here - maybe I'm following them. I've also been seeing another bird since I turned away from the lakes at Huron, OH. I don't know what it is, but it reminds me of a shore bird. They have longer legs than songbirds, reminding me of the birds that skitter around on the beach. They seem to hang out in fields. They have a wing shape that again reminds me of birds I've seen on the water. There is a white line parallel to the back edge of the wing, with several different shades of brown on the bird, including a tail patch that tends toward the orange. I hope I can maintain an image of this one until I get a look at a bird book. For now, it's my mystery bird.
And you wonder why I get confused - how can US 224 West go both straight ahead and to the left?
