We stopped in Valpairoso, IN for a rest day after 7 days straight of riding (our longest stretch)but a bunch of us wanted to experience Chicago so we finished the ride for the day, showered and headed into the city on a train. Tired from over 600 miles in 7 days-NO CHANCE! (well ok I was very tired but I was also motivated by a certain someone that I was meeting up with in Chicago). Chicago was an amazing time and we made the most of it, by going out and sleeping very little. The next day I slept right through my alarm and I’m sure if you read the blogs of some of the older riders you might detect a hint of irritation as they describe waiting for the irresponsible college kids to get their act together. In my defense it was the only day I’ve slept through my alarm on the trip, but I did wake up at 7:07, exactly 7 minutes after we were supposed to be leaving and along with some other guys made the group wait 10 minutes until I could get my bags on the truck. No one can leave until everyone’s gear is loaded. I missed breakfast of course, but Catie and Rachel stopped with me at McDonalds and I ate some breakfast sandwiches to get me going. I woke up around mile 30 of this 110 mile day, but luckily the girls were feeling pretty out of it as well so we took our time the whole day. Thats an understatement. It took us 11 hours to finish this ride. In addition we went through a time zone change so we didn’t finish the ride until 7:30 at night but now we’re officially on East Coast time- I’m almost home!!!!! I really felt like we were just a few short steps away as soon as we crossed into our last time zone. As we were riding along an ambulance went by and cheered us on via the loudspeakers. At least he cheered Catie and Rachel on who were riding a good half mile ahead of me as I tried to wake up (early morning still). When the ambulance passed me the guy shouted into the microphone “pick it up, you’re falling behind, go go go”. It was pretty funny and I’m sure that he had no idea that I was trying to save some energy for the 90 miles remaining at that point. At 4:00 we exited the restaurant where we had been chugging coffee and realized we still had 40 miles to go. No Big Deal. We made it into camp in time for dinner and had a great time sharing our day with the other riders. Its pretty interesting to talk through the day with other riders because everyone has a different experience. We all talk to different people at the various restaurants we stop in, whiz through certain stretches and crawl through others, and enjoy different parts of the country. There isn’t one day that I have wished that I wasn’t doing this trip, or one time that I have wished I was doing it with other people. Even on a hard route there is always something fun to see, fun people to bike with and even truly terrible food still tastes pretty good.
Indiana Stats: Valparaiso to Kendallville 111.2 miles, Kendallville, IN to Napoleon, OH 70miles.
I hope to have more time to post before this trip ends, but no promises!! Love to all!!!
