Day 17--Rantoul, IL, to Lafayette, IN

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Well, here I am in Lafayette, Indiana at the home of George and Kate Patrick. George and Kate are not Warm Showers people. George is a Purdue Ag Econ Professor Emeritus and his wife, Kate, is a  mental health therapist. The two are friends of Damona Doye, one of our Payne County Audubon board members. When I was stuck for an overnight in Lafayette I put out a plea to my bike club and Audubon friends. Thank you Damona for connecting me with this delightful couple!



Kate and George Patrick in their lovely living room

I was very lucky with the weather on today's nearly 80-mile ride. I started at 8 a.m. in bright sun with a strong SSW tailwind which stayed with me through most of the route. I was on IL-136 and IL-119 for the first 32 miles before entering Indiana. When I entered Indiana the time changed to EST, so I gained an hour. I really made good time, however, arriving here about 3.



These always look like dinosaur skeletons to me

Saw many of these mailboxes today; I think the farmers must get a free one when they buy the real thing

All along my route today frogs sang in the ditches, two different kinds, I think, judging from the different songs they sang. Made me smile every time I'd pass a frog chorus. The route was flat to gently rolling through more vast plowed and planted fields, until I reached Attica. Then there were a few hills and right at the end of the day there were hills, too.

I stopped about 20 miles out at a convenience store and drank a coffee power drink. A storm was to the south of me, and for a good part of the route I was in cloud cover. At noon, however, I was under the heat lamp and beginning to overheat. So, I stopped in Williamsport at the Warren County 4-H Fairgrounds and took a short nap on the bleachers. After crossing the Wabash River, I stopped in Attica, IN, for a Subway sandwich and a cold lemonade. My final stop was only 5 or 6 miles from the Patrick's house. I sat in Arni's, a little pizza restaurant, and called George to tell him that I'd be arriving in about 45 minutes. The place was air-conditioned and I cooled down for a half hour under the AC with my second tall lemonade of the day.



Took a little nap on these bleachers; the breezes blew in through the open door

George met me in his driveway a tall glass of ice water in hand, and then showed me my room, complete with towels and a shampoo and moisturizer just like a hotel. Kate was home by the time I'd showered and the three of us enjoyed a delicious meal of lentil soup and great bread served in bowls and on plates that Kate had made. They were wonderfully asymetric and earthy.

Kate and I ran to the grocery after dinner, she to buy groceries and I to buy toothpaste and sunblock. I slather the sunblock on each morning but on long hot days it doesn't protect me all day, so I'm going through a lot of it.

Bed is calling so I'm done with this post . . . yawn. Tune in tomorrow.

Day 18--Lafayette to Wabash, IN

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Thank you George & Kate Patrick for putting me up for my night in Lafayette and also thank you so much for your generous and unexpected donation to the Judith Karman Hospice. Say hello to Damona for me, George, when you see her in a couple of weeks.

Whatta day!  I'm giving Indiana and Lafayette an "F" for its route signs . . . or perhaps I should give myself an "F" for route-finding. I got off at 8 a.m. or maybe a little earlier I think, but got mixed up in Lafayette because there were no signs for 25-N. I rode eight miles and backtracked a bit before I found myself on high-speed four-lane 25-N (Hoosier Heartland Highway) toward Logansport.

Haven't a clue as to why I took this innocuous photo of a stretch of 24-E

The road got better with a small shoulder about three-quarters of the way to the Logansport bypass.  At the Logansport Bypass, I encountered another “Where's the sign?” situation. I wanted to take four-lane, divided 24-E to Wabash, but nowhere did it say “Wabash.” Eventually I found that 24-E went left while 35-S continued to Kokomo, so I hung a left and cycled to Wabash, never once until I was there seeing a sign that said "Wabash."

A photo taken yesterday of the Wabash River near Attica, IN; note the cloud cover.



Another photo of the Wabash River taken yesterday; note the piers from the old bridge.



Photo of the Wabash taken today from 24-E; note the lack of cloud cover

Oh well,  enough whining. I had a good tailwind for most of the ride, but the heat was on. Just cannot tolerate the heat. It saps all energy. At about 40 miles I began to flag. There was little shade, but what there was I stopped in to cool off and get some energy back.  Per my day into Fayette, my stops became more and more frequent. Because of the bonus miles I accumulated when lost in Lafayette, I pedaled over 80 miles today. The most so far . . . and I hope the most for any of the remaining days of the ride.

B.O.B. hiding out in the shade on a side road

Funny for the day: I'm hot and slowly climbing a long gradual hill on 24-E, half listening to the traffic. I hear a truck slowly climbing the hill behind me. Awhile later I realize that I'm still hearing the truck. It must be heavily loaded. I look in my mirror and see directly behind me on the shoulder a HUGE piece of looming farm machinery. Yikes! I'm being stalked. I pulled onto the grass and the machinery passed, the guy high in the cab waving thank you.

I'm in a Holiday Inn Express which is behind a Kroger's grocery store off 24-E. After I showered and cooled down, I went to Kroger's and bought myself a couple of things for a very late lunch: edamame and chickpea salad and some spicy asian chicken. I also bought a small sweet-and-sour chicken-and-rice TV dinner for tonight's supper. I will cook it in the room microwave later.


Note the strong SW wind

Did a load of wash in the guest laundry, and am now posting the blog. I didn't take many pix today to illustrate it. Sorry.

Exhausting day, daahlinks! Tune in tomorrow to see what fun I can stir up.

Susan

Day 19--Wabash to Decatur, IN

Friday, May 4, 2013

Woohoo! A day to lift me out of the doldrums. I'll have to admit to feeling low after yesterday's long ride, which took all I had and then some. I even thought briefly of renting a car or quitting. Okay, don't panic. Those were only brief, feel-sorry-for-myself thoughts.


This only a mile or so out of Wabash; some farmer is getting $$ for using the side of his buildings for advertising

This morning was all I had hoped for. It dawned overcast and with a SW wind. Yesss! I was heading northeast and then due east. Yesss! And I had only 58 miles. Yesss! And the miles turned out to be rolling and then flat. Yesss! And there were places along the route to stop for water or a cold drink. Yesss! And I had a shoulder on both IN-24 and IN-224. Yesss! Life was good again.

Before leaving my room I filled my water bottles with ice and water and then checked my tires. Decided that the back tire was too low, so got out the trusty pump. (The CO2 cartridges went by the roadside early on. The doohicky I use to hold the cartridges must be defective because when I inserted the cartridge into the holder, the cartridge immediately expelled all of its CO2. Decided this was a fluke, but it did the same with the second cartridge, before I could even get it on the valve.)  Anyhow, back to the pump. Put on my shoes so that I could stand firmly on the foot tab, attached the pump, pushed down and the pump was stuck in the down position. Pretended I was Brad and tried all sorts of common-sense things, but the pump is kaput. When I am through writing this post, I shall check to see if the area has a bike shop.


A cobblestone bridge in a Huntington park. I had to ride through Huntington to catch 224-E. It's a bigger city than Decatur and I should have thought to look for a bike shop.

I left Wabash at 9 a.m., and got to Decatur and the motel at 1:00 p.m., low tire or not. The shoulders were clean today. Yesterday's shoulders were not--full of glass and pieces of radial tire wire. It's a miracle that I didn't get a flat.


This could almost be Tony Perkins' hotel in Psycho

The wind was a great assist today, but in one place where the road curved it played an odd trick on me. Must have been the way it was coming through the ventilation slits in my helmet because the right ear was hearing rising wolf howls and the left ear was hearing Sgt. Preston-like Alaskan wind. Almost transported me back to my grade school days when I'd rush home from school to sprawl in front of the big cabinet radio to listen to Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, Sky King (and Penny), and the Lone Ranger.


Hmmm. Do parisioners wear loincloths and carry spears?

Several things have happened or I've seen nearly every day but which I forget to relate:

• I get at least one bug a day in my mouth, but manage to spit it out. The bug de jour was fairly large. Yuk!
• Buffalo gnats are gnasty and can fly at least 10 mph
• Many Red Admiral butterflies and Sulfurs, a few Eastern tailed Blue, and a couple of Wood Nymphs
• Every morning at least two Canada Geese fly across my path.
• Bob's flag bends toward the road when I am going east and have a south wind. This is good as it forces vehicles to move farther out and around me.
• Recently the red-winged blackbirds that have nests in the ditch cattails, have been diving at me. This has happened on other spring tours I've taken. These birds are very aggressive in guarding their nests. In fact this morning they ganged up on a crow that was trying to steal an egg. The crow didn't stand a chance.
• Everybody is mowing their lawns on riding mowers, and some of the lawns are huge. The farms sit in the middle of plowed fields and what isn't plowed is mowed right up to the barns and outbuildings. Also mowed for long stretches along the road.

If you look very very carefully, you will see two white specks that are my two Canada geese for the day; they are to the left of the bright white post by the side porch

I got in so early that I don't know what I will do with the rest of my day. I am at a crossroads and not in the town itself. If there is a bike shop, that shall be my destination. Might add a bit later this evening, but for now, "that's all she wrote." (Keep scrolling because I did add a bit after I published.)



This happy water tower was a couple of towns west of Decatur



An intresting 1930s barn, but I took the pic to try to show how the lawns are mowed



This one's for you, Joel. It's pretty, though I don't even know what make and model it is

I'm back. Searched for bike shop in Decatur, IN, and found Rick's Bikes on W. Jefferson downtown. Talked to Rick on the phone and then  headed to the shop. An easy ride on 2nd St. into town. At the north end of 2nd is the biggest RR & grain elevator depot I've ever seen. the photo below gives no idea of the size. There were at least 8 sets of tracks and I had to wait for a train each time I passed. Then I came upon the old house below that was being renovated. It will be fantastic when done, I think.


The grain elevators north of downtown Decatur; this photo doesn't begin to show the enormous size of this depot

This house is going to be magnificent when renovated I think. Wouldn't you like to explore all of its nooks and crannies?

Rick and his employee, Jonathan, provided 1st class service: repaired and oiled my frame pump, supplied me with another CO2 holder and three cartridges, inflated my tires, oiled my chain, and even trued the rear spokes. Thank you Rick and Jonathan! With all these improvements and no B.O.B. I felt light as air.


Rick inflating my bike tires with a shop floor pump; the rear tire was down to 80psi; when inflated properly it holds 110 psi. My apologies to Rick for this dreadful photo!



Jonathan, a Rick's Bikes wrench

After he'd finished with the bike, Rick directed me across the street to The Old 27 Ice Cream Shop in what appears to be an old service station. It had just opened at 11 a.m. today. I had a soft ice cream cone and had one of the employees take my photo with their sign.

Now I'm back in the room and really am finished with today's post. Tune in tomorrow.

Day 20--Decatur, IN to Delphos, OH

Saturday, May 5 2012

Faced with a short day--only 35 miles--I didn't leave Decatur until 9 a.m. It was overcast, thickly foggy and only 60F. My kind of day . . . until I turned east on 224 into the ENE 10-mph headwind.  Oh well, one can't have it all, all of the time. I'll take the cool and headwind over heat and hills--neither of which were encountered today. I turned on my helmet light, put on my jacket, and tucked my camera and electronics into a plastic bag in my handlebar bag. The fog was thick enough to be misting rain.

Morning fog blankets the fields and farms along the route

Just after I got onto US 224-E, Kent of Crankers Bicycle Shop, Lima, OH, called. Heel of hand to forehead! OMG! I had forgotten that I had changed my route so that I could accept his offer of an overnight on May 5--tonight! Kent had called me on the road way back when I was on my way to Nevada, MO.

Kent told me that he'd be working in the morning, but that he wanted to ride out and meet me when I got close. We talked for awhile, and I eventually decided to stick to my original route and turn down his offer. Unless you've done long bicycle rides, you don't know how mental a lot of it is. Last night I had mentally prepared for a short day, did not have the rest of the route to Lima mapped out, and couldn't get excited about adding 15 more miles to my day. Also, I'd had my bike serviced at Rick's Bikes yesterday and didn't need Cranker's offer of bike service. Kent understood and was fine with my not staying in Lima. Thank you Kent for the offer, and my apologies for being so forgetful!

I rode along trying to remember if I'd cancelled my reservation with the Microtel Inn & Suites in Delphos, OH. Decided that I had, and hoped they would have a room available.



I'd not seen this "School bus stop ahead" sign. It was in Ohio, though I have the Welcome to Ohio sign below.

About 9 miles out I crossed into Ohio. Ohio is my sixth state, if I've counted correctly. At first I didn't like Ohio drivers--they didn't pull out around me and passed too close. But that may have been morning commuters, because before long most were moving to the oncoming lane on the two-lane road. Or, their closeness may have been B.O.B.'s fault. He was dragging the flag low and directly behind, not waving it out into the road.



Simple welcome sign to my sixth state

I passed through the usual vast fields and farms. Seems that nearly every one has a big pile of clematis around a pump or some other structure. I took the clematis pic below as a representative selection.



Many of the houses I passed today had wonderful falls of clematis climbing some structure or other

When I got to Van Wert, I bicycled to a large McD's for breakfast--no breakfast was available at America's Best Value Inn. McD's was packed, and the orders backed up. By this time it was 10:30 and I wasn't sure how long they continued to serve breakfast. Finally got my order of pancakes and o.j. and took it to the back of the restaurant where the kid's playground was so that I could keep an eye on my bike.

I don't give up easily. Here I am again attempting to show you the large areas that homeowners mow, and not with a farm tractor, either, but with simple riding mowers.

There were a lot of people at the fairgrounds when I passed it later, so I think that this may have been the reason for the backup at McD's. I spent at least an hour in VanWert, and then continued on OH-116S which became OH-697E. What a relief to turn onto OH-115S . . . but I had only 6.5 miles on it.


Texas longhorns enjoying some tall grass in Ohio. Is that a calf on the left? I hope not.
How would it nurse with those horns?

There were some great houses on the way into Delphos--old, two-story brick. The photo below wasn't for the house, however. I took it because of the name of the chiropractor. Too funny.

Grone Chiropractic--the name says it all

When I got to Delphos I asked a guy mowing grass to point the way to the Microtel Inn & Suites. He had his recumbent parked nearby and told of the club ride this morning and the difficulty of riding into the headwind.

I arrived at the Microtel--the only motel in Delphos--at 2 p.m. I asked the front desk if they had a single room available. They were booked solid. Geez Louise. I would have to make a groveling call back to Kent and punch into the headwind for another 15 or so miles to Lima. I asked the front desk to please check to see if I had cancelled. I guess sometimes it pays to be forgetful: I hadn't cancelled my reservation!

I was given a room on the third floor. Had to dismantle B.O.B. and run the bike and then B.O.B. to the room in two elevator trips. As I was exiting the elevator with the bike, a guy stopped me and wanted to talk bikes. Said he had taken his bike out for a ride this morning but when he couldn't get over 5 mph into the headwind, he'd decided not to ride. This made me feel good. I had averaged 9.8 mph into the headwind and my max speed for the day was 15 mph.

Tune in tomorrow. Tomorrow, BTW, will be day 21--the halfway point of the 42-day ride.

Day 21--Delphos to Upper Sandusky, OH

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Lots of pix today, so I'll make the narrative as short as possible.

I had two route options today and decided to take the shortest--OH-30E, a four-lane divided highway with cross streets. Got to the entrance, a mere half mile from the motel, and found that this portion of OH-30E did not allow bicycle traffic. I returned to the motel to use the computer to print my second option, but all in the lobby directed me to ride Historic Lincoln Bypass (old route 30 and the road at the end of the motel drive) all the way to Upper Sandusky. This I did and was very glad that my first choice was thwarted. I enjoyed a wonderful day on the road.

I'd gotten into a bad frame of mind, thinking only of the miles I had to cover and my destination. I was dismissing the best part--the day's ride! So today I told myself not to worry about when I got in. I had all day and I was going to enjoy the ride . . . despite another 5-15 mph headwind.

Enlarge this if you can, and read; explains that the Lincoln Hwy was America's first transcontinental auto route. 

Wildlife report for the day:
--When crossing the new bridge described in the photo above, I found a road-killed fox kit. It was a red fox, I think, and so small and cute. Generally foxes have more than one kit, so I hope mom and dad and the rest of the kits are well and alive somewhere.

Ottawa River

--My Canada geese for the day emerged from a field on my right, and right behind them a pheasant.
--I saw two woodchucks today, one in the road and one in a field. They are funny when they run because they are built so low to the ground and are so wide, but run they can. Saw one running what seems eons ago now on the Katy Trail, too.
--I  love to pass horses because they lift their heads and stare out of curiosity, some even coming to the fence to see what kind of contraption is passing. I find myself talking to them. Today I passed two shire horses or whatever breed is the big work horse with feathered feet. They were about 15 miles apart and  I'm thinking that one had a foal that was sold to the other owner down the road.

Shire horse on the right. It seems so small in the photo, but was much larger than the other two horses.

--Saw two Red-headed Woodpeckers today. They were together. One was on a telephone wire and the other on the pole. These birds are husband Jeff's favorite woodpeckers. We had a family in our ravine woods for a year or two and then the Red-bellied Woodpeckers drove them off we think. Pileated Woodpeckers also enjoy the ravine woods. The photo below is from the Internet credited by the American Bird Conservancy in 2011 to Greg Lavaty.  

--I used to keep bees, so was interested in the hives below. Mike, this beekeeper, not only kept bees and sold the honey but raised and sold bees. Those small boxes in the foreground are nucs, boxes for raising queen bees.

Bee hives with small queen nucs in the foreground

I got to Upper Sandusky at 2 p.m. and got to my motel at 2:30. When I arrived in Upper Sandusky, I stopped to take a photo of the Upper Sandusky city sign (see below). Suddenly the hotfoot I was experiencing in my right foot became unbearable. I took off my shoe and was standing wincing in my sock foot when a white car pulled alongside.
 "Are you all right?"
"Yes just having a spot of trouble with the nerve in my right foot."
"Well, I own the bike shop in town. If you need anything, I'm here."
"I'm good. But I could use some directions. I'm going to the Comfort Inn way on the other side of town. Can you tell me how to get to Wyandot Road?
 "Sure. Two blocks to the right hang a left and you are on Wyandot."
I thanked him and followed his directions.

When I got to the motel room I found that my sister, Sarah, wanted me to call. She had arranged for a female massage therapist to come to my room for a chair massage and some work on my feet and hands. Great news! . . . but it fell through. The only available massage therapist couldn't make the appointment. Her husband had arrived  home on leave from the military. Their reunion was more important that a massage anyway.

That's all for today. Be sure to scroll through the pix below, and tune in tomorrow when I ride to Norwalk, OH, and spend the night with the parents of a Warm Showers host . . . he cannot be there because he, too, is off on his bike.

Gads, this seems like a steep price for worms that anyone can find at night on their own lawns after a rain. Maybe they are special worms and not nightcrawlers

A beautiful brick farm building in its death throes.

Today I passed through Beaverdam and Gomer. I think the sunshine people need to refurbish their sign.

Another funny name. This is not a good pic of the building but it is an old schoolhouse converted to the Owlsburg Saloon. It was at an intersection  in the middle of nowhere, so I don't know what kind of business it draws.

A wooden farmhouse in its death agony

This was where I stopped to eat lunch from my lunchbox--tuna and crackers--the only place for miles that I could find  to sit down. The sun wasn't a problem because the breezes were cool today.

My cockpit. Note the hospital sticky bandage holding my rearview mirror in place; the electrical tape and rubber washers over the computer button on my left handlebar (so that I can turn the computer on and off but cannot inadvertently push the button and turn off the computer); pinned to my handlebar bag my low-tech compass, which I love; headlight; computer at 30-something miles; and clipped to my brake cable on the right, my map in a plastic bag. I need only flip it up to see my directions.