Indiana for daysssss

Greetings from Indiana!

Team Portland has spent the past three days cycling through Indiana, and today we crossed into the Central Time Zone! A cheer rang out when someone noticed that our phones had changed times.

Indiana has had three main themes for us:

1. First Baptist Church.  We had three overnight stops in Indiana.... and stayed at three First Baptist Churches. They have been so nice to us!
2. Flat.  Flat land all day every day... yay!!! Unfortunately, also a lot of flat tires.
3. Cornfields.  So. Much. Corn.

Our first day in Indiana, we rode from Eaton, Ohio, to Muncie, Indiana. The ride was very difficult, following our century the previous day. It turns out that a century is easy: it's easy to get on your bike and just keep pedaling until you've done 100 miles. What makes a century hard is the next day. It was so hard for us all to get back on our bikes that morning. Every muscle and joint in our bodies was stiff and we were still exhausted. But we were very excited to move on to a new state (another flat one, at that), so get on our bikes we did. 

Much to our dismay, Indiana did not welcome us! We were on back roads when we went over the state line, and there was no sign :( We were very disappointed we couldn't get a picture with it... So disappointed that one of our riders made her own.

Julie and Dave posing with their homemade sign.

Indiana has their stuff together when it comes to bike trails. They have a wonderful trail called the Cardinal Greenway. I can't imagine where it got that name:

The state bird of Indiana is the Cardinal. I see what they did there...

We got to be on this trail for a solid 40 miles of the route. The trail is perfectly paved, shaded, straight, flat, and away from traffic... need I say more? It was great! The trail ran from Richmond, Indiana straight into Muncie. 

Teammates sitting in the shade of the van eating snacks at our water stop.

While on the trail, one of my teammates Gina had an interesting encounter with a squirrel.... read about it on her blog here.

Team Portland girls swarming an adorable puppy we met on the trail

In Muncie, we stayed at the First Baptist Church. This was the first host of the trip that I had set up. A family friend, Barb Percy, set this up for us as her husband is a pastor in another part of Indiana and had this connection. She was good friends with my parents before I was born (and still is, but we moved out of town when I was 1). I've only met her once or twice that I can remember, but she was so nice in also arranging showers for us and driving an hour to bring us a bunch of fruit and Gatorade. I got to visit with her for a bit.

Members of First Baptist Church cooked us a great dinner, and breakfast the next morning. I talked with the couple who organized the meals, Nina and Bob, whose daughter is undergoing treatment for leukemia for the second time. They were really nice and funny and reminded me of my own grandparents. 

In the morning, Team Portland set off for Rochester.

When I looked at a map to plan the route beforehand, I thought it was strange that the Cardinal Greenway seemed to exist in bits and pieces. 

The green line is the trail...note the random gap!

Talking to some people at the church, we found out that it's because a farmer in the small town of Gaston refuses to sell his land, even though the state has tried very hard to buy it. Therefore, the trail has this sad-looking gap. An example of a random interesting fact that we learned from talking to locals!

Despite the strange gap, we did get to be back on the Cardinal Greenway for a bit, as well as another trail going into Rochester. (Thank you, Indiana, for your wonderful paved trails!!!) 

Julie posing at our water stop right before the trailhead

The ride was 90 miles -- quite long, but it didn't feel that long at all. I was with a fun group that had a relaxed attitude all day, and the miles just rolled on by. We were in no hurry and took our time talking and taking in the scenery. Which, of course, consisted of cornfields on cornfields on cornfields....... hashtag Indiana.

Water stop in the middle of nowhere! We are always so excited when we are in the middle of nowhere and suddenly catch sight of the water van up ahead.

Our typical scenery for the entirety of this state

My group got in at 3:30, having thankfully had no trouble with flats or getting lost! I was very happy that we finished 90 miles by that time. In Rochester, we were welcomed by amazingly generous hosts. We had been invited to a weekly community dinner that the church serves, which was amazing:

It's been a while since we ate on real plates with real silverware. This was a treat!!

They were expecting our arrival and were thrilled to see us. We were really spoiled with great food and the church volunteers actually waiting on us at our table like a restaurant. Members of the community were very interested in why there were 25 sweaty, uniformed guests joining them, and were very supportive of us. After dinner, members of the church were kind enough to take us to their homes to shower, since the church didn't have showers.

The next morning, we set off for our third day of riding in Indiana. Legs were still sore and feeling stiff! We had 80 miles to go until Chesterton.

Before leaving, we got our picture taken for the Rochester Sentinel, a local newspaper. The photographer is also a cyclist and helped some of us adjust our seats to make them more comfortable.

Teammates getting interviewed for the paper. Yay publicity!!!

Luckily, it was another day of flat riding. I had a great riding group, but we encountered a lot of setbacks. First, I had an upset stomach starting out, probably due to the McDonalds we ate for breakfast... I stopped at a random house in the middle of nowhere and asked to use their bathroom. We then had four flats over the course of the day -- none of them mine, but we all wait with each other when we get a flat.

Meredith and Dave taking a quick nap while Chelsea changes her flat. After this picture, Gavin sneakily poked Dave with a stick and Dave shrieked, thinking it was an animal.

Our water stop was located in mosquito central. This is Ashley taking precautionary measures against the ferocious pests:

I got 10 bites :(. Luckily, we got some bug spray at today's mail drop so we will be using that liberally if we pass through any more high traffic mosquito areas.

Today's ride felt a lot more tedious than yesterday's, even though it was 10 miles shorter. I think we just have good days and bad days and sometimes it just depends how your body is feeling, along with other factors. Due to our setbacks with flat tires, my group had a pretty late lunch and were hangry (hungry + angry) upon arrival to the food van, even though it was no one's fault that we were hungry. We pressed on and had a 4:30 pm (central time!!) arrival at the host. When we arrived we immediately dove into the packages that had arrived for us for our second mail drop!!

Team members sorting through the pile of packages

My care package from home :) Items on the right are bubbles, stretchy frogs, a water gun, and a huge container of water balloons.

...Team members beware.

Future Dr. Chelsea Robinson super excited to have received this light reading material.

Our host tonight is yet another very generous First Baptist Church. The church members weren't able to come and meet us, but they did leave us these nice letters attached to homemade granola bars:

We took showers at a local health and fitness center, an arrangement I set up just yesterday after I realized today's host didn't have showers. The center had... drum roll please... real towels, a jacuzzi, a sauna, soap, shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, and hair dryers. It's amazing how the little things can make you feel more like a real person and less like a nomad. :)

Today, in addition to venturing into the Central time zone, Team Portland passed another important milestone: We have officially completed 1,000 miles together as a team!! This means we are about a quarter into the trip. It feels like we've been on the road forever, but at the same time, it's going so quickly!!

Tomorrow we will cross our fourth state line and get to Chicago, which I'm SUPER excited for! I was just in Chicago in March for Spring Break -- Read my blog post about it here. Considering the average temperature was 20 degrees when I was there and it was still a great time, I am excited to see the city in a more livable environment. I'm going to make sure my teammates get Garrett's Popcorn. Our route in Chicago looks tricky, as it's an urban area, but it's pretty short. 53 miles, 30 of which are on trails. Going into Chicago we will be on the Lakefront Trail...which I went running on while I was there in March... to train for this ride :) In Chicago, we have a dinner with the UMD Alumni club in the suburbs tomorrow, followed by a much needed REST DAY on Saturday! 

Stay tuned for my next post on A Day in the Life... coming up later tonight!

Xoxo,
Mary