June 3, 2025
Today’s ride was a blur as it was, well, a bit monotonous. We got packed up, made our route plans, and then headed out. I stopped at the boathouse to fill my water jug before hitting the road.
So, not many photos today because they would all look the same. Very flat terrain, very straight roads, and very little traffic. Couple that with the problem that there really aren’t many places to pull over without blocking the road. Here are a few typical views of the day.
Oh, yes, the wind. I almost forgot to mention the wind. Almost all of the 300 and some miles that I rode were in a strong wind. My weather app said it was 25 miles an hour. It came out of the south and so with the zigzag course I was on I either got a headwind or a crosswind.. I took it in stride and figured it was a good chance to really learn how to handle a bike in a strong wind. Even when I would get hit with a gust, the bike only moves an inch or so on the road even though I feel like my body gets moved about 6 inches. All of that said, it was extremely tiring. By the time I got to the last hour of the day, the wind calmed down quite a bit.
I did have 2 incidents where I got to test out both my reflexes and the bike’s ABS system. Going down one country road I saw a slow moving piece of farming equipment coming toward me. Behind him a pickup pulls out as if to look if it was possible to pass. It wasn’t but that didn’t stop him. Over he comes into my lane and I go hard the front and rear brakes and feel the ABS pump activate. The guy cut back over into his lane a very short distance from me. WTF?!?!!!
Then, as I was riding through West Lafayette, a woman turned left in front of me. There was no reason for her to do that except for her impatience. Again, I went full on the brakes and, again, felt the ABS pump do its thing.
I’d like to say that this is why I try to avoid riding in cities and stick to two-lanes roads but I found morons in both today.
Instead of just meeting up at the end of the day, we would meet up at each of the charging station although take different routes to get there. One of the stops was at a Meijer store. After the charge she moved the car noxt to my bike and we went to the store.
I had heard of this brand of store and thought it was just a grocery store but when we got inside I saw that it was much, much more. It’s more like a Walmart: food, clothes, household stuff, pharmacy, and who knows what else as I didn’t take the full tour.
We bought a couple of “salad kits” to go with our dinner. While I avoid “convenience food” this things are great and I rely on them many times when I’m traveling. Sometimes I’ll get one for lunch and go find a city park and have a picnic.
We traveled along and I was impressed by a few cities or towns we went through. Pendleton, Indiana was especially nice. To get to the last charging meet up in Spiceland, I came in from the north and went through a couple miles of quite elegant homes, most up on a hill with an acre of nicely mowed grass in front.
I haven’t spent that much time in Indiana over the years except for camping on my way to somewhere else, and I don’t really have that much of impression. I did go through Indianapolis a few years ago and the traffic was what one would expect in a big city. Outside of that the state is heavily agricultural and growing a a variety of crops. The corn is coming up and I even saw what looked like wheat already topped out.
A few years ago I went to San Francisco to hear Fran Liebowitz give a talk for the City Arts and Lectures series. It was great. After the main talk she did Q&A with the audience. She had talked about her opinion of many places in the U.S. and someone asked her which was the worst state in the nation. Without hesitation she said “Indiana, of course. It’s the home of the Klan.”
We arrived at our campground, Whitewater Memorial State Park. It’s truly beautiful and there is a nearby lake that I plan to check out on my run tomorrow morning. We got camp set up and had salads with Cuban black beans with coconut over rice. Quite tasty.
It was a 353 mile day.
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