Day 119, 9/4/10 - Defiance to Bowling Green, OH

Just the Basics: 49 miles - bringing the week's total to 252! (6 riding days and one layover day). It's been a great day and included a ride in a canal boat pulled by two mules and a stop at a farm stand where we ate fresh peaches while we chatted with the farmers.

There has been a big change in the weather - albeit a temporary one. The high today was supposed to be only 70 and it was below 60 when we left Defiance this morning at about 8:45 a.m. It sprinkled a bit in the first hour or so and we were a bit chilly, and when we left our hotel in Bowling Green at 8 p.m. for dinner it was a bit chilly, and definitely chilly when we emerged from the restaurant after dinner. In a few days it's to be back in the 80s - but we feel the breath of fall. With luck, we have 6-7 more rideable weeks weather-wise, and about 1200 miles to go. Pretty tight . . . but not impossible on the face of it.

Today's Photos: (1) Dok Wingo (see below); (2) The Volunteer: The Canal Boat in Providence Metropark; (3) Molly and Sally, the canal boat mules; (4) Lock 44 - see below for the stories behind the pictures.

Tomorrow: 43 miles to Clyde, OH, where we'll stay at a Red Roof Inn - then on to Lake Erie!!!

For Those Who Want More:

Meals: Motel breakfast - 'nuff said! Coffee and pastries at a nice coffee shop in Napoleon. Great lunch at La Roe's in Grand Rapids, OH - we split a Reuben with homemade potato chips and a lovely grilled chicken Caesar salad. Fresh peaches at a farm stand on Kellogg Road outside Grand Rapids - we ate 'em in their skins with paper towels supplied by the farm wife to catch the juice. Very nice Mexican dinner at El Cinco de Mayo Bar & Grill in Bowling Green, with a very welcome chance to speak Spanish with our waiter. Oh Henry candy bars eaten en route in the afternoon.

Encounters: "Dok" Wingo: At breakfast this morning we had a nice chat with "Dok" Wingo (pictured above). He's on a sort of cross country trip of his own - which started in TX. He's headed for MA, then possibly Canada and ultimately OR and CA. Conversation ranged from motel breakfasts to professions to the Vietnam war. Dok has a degree in philosophy and has taught horticulture and run a landscape design (??) business. He is retired and his card reads "I do nothing and I do it with unrelenting vigor. Free estimates. Reasonable prices considering the extreme quality rendered."

Other Encounters: We had a nice conversation with a cycling couple in Grand Rapids, OH - they told us about a trail in Missouri which they said is the longest rail trail there is - we plan to learn more about it. In the Providence Metropark we met a father-son duo doing a quick 3-day local bike tour - et cetera!

Canal Boat Ride: The Toledo area has a great regional park system - Metroparks. Today we visited the Providence Metropark just past Grand Rapids, OH. The park includes an operating mill - both a sawmill, which provides wood for park structures and furniture, and a flour mill which grinds wheat, corn and buckwheat for sale. The mill was also once used to produce electrical energy. There's also a general store and a canal boat ride! All the park staff are in costume as they might have looked around 1880, and in addition to operating the sawmill, flour mill and canal boat they make candles and demonstrate blacksmithing and tinsmithing.

The canal is a restored section of the original Miami and Erie Canal (not to be confused with the Erie Canal in NY). The restored canal runs for more than a mile and includes lock 44, one of the last functioning 19th century limestone locks. The original canal ran for 249 miles, between Toledo and Cincinnati. It ceased functioning in 1913. The Volunteer - the boat in which we rode - was built in in the 1990s and is a bit smaller than the original canal boats were; it is of a type in use in 1876, which is the period the historical renactors use for their roles.

We were told that at that time passage on the boat cost 3 cents a mile and included breakfast and dinner - as opposed to 16 cents a mile with no meals on the dangerous new-fangled railroad! Our two mules were named Molly and Sally; each of them weighed about 1400 lbs. We were told that pulling a canal boat is easier for mules than pulling a plow. Canal boat operators could earn additional income selling muskrat skins to the state for $10 - the meat they cooked and ate!

Our guide said that the State built canals to enhance commerce (better transportation than corduroy roads) and to make money - copying New York's success with The Erie Canal. However, the cost of creating and maintaining them eventually bankrupted the state - and of course competition from the railroads finished off the canals generally.

Days 117 & 118, 9/2 & 3/10 - Monroeville, IN to Defiance, OH

Just the Basics: Note, Friday, 9/3/10: We are staying in Defiance today, so are doing one blog for the two days. We've finished our post for the 2nd and may not have anything to add for the 3rd - we're just using it as a day to take care of routine business.

Thursday, 9/2/10: 44 miles, putting us over 3300 total. The day started out wonderfully in Monroeville - see More Monroeville in For Those Who Want More. We then biked on to Payne, OH - see Free Pie in Payne! Next came a lunch stop in Paulding - see Dining at Dannaley's Eats & Treats. Then on to The Cabbage Patch Restaurant on the banks of the Auglaize River and finally into Defiance and across the Maumee River to our motel.

Until we reached The Cabbage Patch (which had good rhubarb pie and a very friendly staff and clientele) the roads were good and lightly traveled. The last 12 miles or so of the day were much tougher.

First: Lots of traffic on a narrow curvy road with sketchy shoulders - so lots of stops to pull off and let traffic pass. At one such stop, at least Riley had a good conversation with a letter carrier - see Rural Postal Delivery, below!

Then: As we got closer to town more and more traffic - but we stayed calm, cool and collected.

Then: A downpour drenched us and we sought shelter under the portico of a building in a cemetery.

Then: Streets were wet, our brakes were wet and traffic was ever thicker, so we did quite a bit of walking and some biking on sidewalks.

Then: The route became less clear, we asked a couple of folks for directions and it became obvious that the motel was a couple of miles farther away than we'd thought.

Then: There was a bunch of major road construction, some of which we avoided by going on a side street for a tiny bit and then through a bunch of mall and parking lot sort of stuff.

Then: We had to slowly make a sort of round-about way across a bridge where the road construction continued, which took a while to figure out.

THEN: On the other side we ended up having to go through no more than 10 feet of mud - and we mean MUD!! Even though we were walking the bikes the wheels got so packed with mud that we could barely move the bikes forward (we have fenders and the mud jammed below them). Riley ended up carrying Becky's bike a few feet at the end - over to a fence.

We leaned the bikes against the fence and picked up sharp rocks and scraped mud off shoes and bikes until it started to rain AGAIN, and, fearing another cloudburst we jumped on the bikes and headed across two parking lots to our motel. We were afraid to use the sides of the pedals that mate with the cleats on our shoes for fear the muddy cleats on the shoe would get stuck in the cleats on the pedals and not de-couple when we stopped - we know someone who broke an ankle under similar circumstances.

We arrived at the motel and were so muddy we had to take our shoes off to go in the lobby.

We got rags and a bucket from the desk clerk. We put our shoes back on outside, wheeled the bikes to the entrance door closest to our room, removed all 8 of our panniers, the tent bag, the sleeping bag bag, and Becky's handlebar bag, again removed our shoes, and stowed our stuff in our room. We filled the bucket with water and got all our water bottles, went outside, put on our shoes, and spent about 30 minutes cleaning mud off our bikes - the shoes we did later in our room!

We left the bikes locked together outside to dry off some more (the rain failed to materialize) - we have now moved them inside but have them on top of trash bags to avoid the risk of hurting the motel rug. WHEW!!

Today's Photos: (1) Speaks for itself; (2) Shirley Flores, Payne, OH's Cycling Avon Lady; (3) Shirley's bike; (4) Marilyn, owner of Dannaley's Eats & Treats, Paulding, OH; and (5) The Maumee River, Defiance, OH

Tomorrow: We will have a layover day here in Defiance.

For Those Who Want More:

More Monroeville: Wednesday morning we loaded up our bikes and locked up the Community Center and headed to town. We returned the CD we'd borrowed at the library - unfortunately, we couldn't listen to it after all; the CD-playing component of the radio didn't work. = ( = ( We then headed for the outside ATM at the bank - as we rolled up to it a bank employee arrived, stopping on her way in to ask if we had spent the night at the Community Center and wishing us a good trip!

We considered ordering the Irish Breakfast at The White Dove - it even included imported baked beans! - but the waitress warned us that the potato dishes start from scratch for each order (we could see a big bowl of unpeeled spuds in the kitchen) so we opted for made-from-scratch blueberry pancakes, instead. YUM!!

Beside us a large group of guys who were probably farmers was having breakfast and joshing with the waitress. They must have heard us talking with her about our bike trip, too, however - the first one to leave stopped by our table and wished us a good journey and God's blessings.

When we got out to the bikes, Lois Ternet, the newspaper editor had come by (the paper is located across the street from the restaurant) and pinned her card with a note on it to our sleeping bag bag, using a Monroeville 150th Anniversary pin (1851-2001)! What a great town!

Free Pie in Payne! We stopped at The Dog House Diner in Payne for some iced tea and great homemade apple pie. A bike was parked out front. When we went in, the sole customer greeted us as "fellow bikers." Her name was Shirley Flores. She's been the local Avon Lady for 32 years - she'll be 70 next spring, but, like Riley, certainly doesn't look it! She has always biked - she said she never wanted to learn to drive and let several Learner's Permits expire as a teenager until she figured out she just wasn't going to be a driver! She also paid for our pie and iced tea, saying that whenever she met cross-country cyclists in town she bought their meal so they'd remember the Biking Avon Lady in Payne!

The mother and daughter running the diner were great, too. We gulped down our iced tea and the daughter came with more from what she said was the "endless tea pitcher." We said that was great for cyclists - she said that when the local Amish farmers come in from the fields for lunch they, too, are really thirsty! The mom is the pie baker - she said lots of local folks have been bringing in extra apples and she's been cooking up a storm with them.

Dining at Dannaley's Eats & Treats: We hadn't planned to stop for lunch in Paulding - we were going to hold out for Junction, another 11 miles on. But we got a bit confused with the directions in Paulding and wandered around a bit and by the time we saw Dannaley's we were still needing to check our directions and were suddenly hungry. We had hot dogs and lemonade and got our directions straight and the world seemed a bit brighter! We also had a nice time chatting with Marilyn, the owner. We'd noticed a sign in the window that said they'd be closing on 9/4 and said we hoped they weren't going out of business. She laughed and said she was just closing for the season - but, in fact, she did hope to sell the place.

She told us she'd grown up in Paulding but her family had moved to Arizona when she was in high school and she'd ended up spending most of her life there, but always thought about returning. In about 2005, she did - and bought the hamburger stand. She created the name Dannaley's by using the last syllables of the names of her three grandchildren - pretty cool!

Rural Postal Delivery: Since most of our route has been through rural areas we have seen a lot of rural letter carriers delivering mail from cars. It looked like they probably had cars with the steering wheel on the right. The cars look like personal cars, not postal service vans, with a flashing yellow light on the top. Today we saw such a car which was a Prius - which is what we drive. Riley managed to catch up with it at a mailbox and we had to stop at that point anyway, to let traffic pass. Turned out the letter carrier was making her last delivery so had some time to talk. He learned the following:

• The cars belong to the drivers.
• Her car did, in fact, not have a right-side steering wheel but some letter-carriers do have them. He gathered that you can't get a Prius w/a steering wheel on the right in the U.S.
• She also mentioned that you could get a Subaru with one, but that it wasn't approved for driving in the US.

Fire-Fighting Ponds: In the last few days we've noticed that many rural homes have near-by ponds which clearly look man-made. Some have fountains in the middle, all have rocks around the sides, many have a little beach. Some have diving platforms, many have little docks, some have rowboats or little jet skis, etc. We wondered why they were there and guessed that they might serve as reservoirs for firefighting. We have yet to actually ask an owner about this, but did some online research and spoke with a NY firefighter staying at our motel today and think we're on the right track. We even found a book for sale online which includes instructions for building such ponds, with a photo that looks like what we're seeing, and a fact sheet from Ohio State on constructing a "dry hydrant" which fire department water trucks can use to get water from such a pond.

Donuts, Dinner and Beer in Defiance: Donuts: As you may gather from above, it took us forever to get through Defiance, and when we reached the road construction area we weren't even sure if we could get across the overpass to our motel on the other side. We stopped at a gas station to ask directions, then left our bikes there and went and spoke to the construction crew and found we could cross but it would be tricky. Tired and a bit discouraged, we went back to the gas station and had donuts and milk, bought a map and used the restrooms. Much encouraged, we went ahead!

Dinner: Regular readers may have gathered that we've had a hard time finding enough vegetables on this trip - it seems lots of small town restaurants don't serve 'em. We eat a lot of bar food (a frequent recourse as many towns don't even have a restaurant). We've eaten a lot of salad (and more iceberg lettuce than you can imagine!), but except for the occasional canned green beans or canned peas and carrots, not much else. Tonight, however, we ate at an Asian buffet and had tons of lovely crisp vegetables and fresh fruit along with decent Asian food and even some nice Sushi. = ) = )

Beer: Later in the evening we walked out to a bar and grill and had a beer - like most restaurants we've patronized in the Midwest, no alcohol at the Asian restaurant. We'd actually planned to eat at the bar and grill, but Ohio State was playing and the bar was overflowing and it was only the first quarter and the hostess told us that no-one was likely to leave until the game ended! (They won.)

Day 116, 9/1/10 - Markle to Monroeville, IN

Just the Basics: Note, Later on 9/1/10: We have added more on Monroeville to the end of this post!

33 miles, all paved, very few hills and very little traffic most of the way. Probably we encountered the most traffic in Hoagland. The town is only a few blocks long but we were pulling out from our lunch stop just as school buses started rolling up to the school on the edge of town and we kept having to pull off the narrow 2-lane road to let them pass. We counted 11 in the elementary school parking lot as we passed it!

We gather that the local school board is going to be closing some schools in the area - the towns of Hoagland and Poe were full of signs about a meeting concerning school closures.

We had a picnic lunch today, sitting on a wall in front of a church - see For Those Who Want More for details.

Tonight we're staying in the Monroeville Community Center in the town park - see below for details!

Today's Photos: (1) The Antioch Lutheran Church in Hoagland, IN; (2) Lois Ternet, Editor of The Monroeville News.

Tomorrow: About 44 miles to Defiance, OH, where we will stay at a Super 8.

For Those Who Want More:

Picnicking at the Lutheran Church: We pulled into Hoagland but saw no sign of a park so Becky went into the Antioch Lutheran Church on the corner of Hoagland and Minnich to ask if there was a park in town. The pastor appeared and confirmed that there was, but that there was no place near it to get food. Becky told him we planned to picnic and he offered the church yard as an alternative spot, noting that it was much shadier. He also refilled our water bottles with cold water, let us use the restrooms, and sent us across to his own yard to a trashcan where we could put our trash - the church and the parsonage share a trash can.

We sat on a wall in front of the church and made and ate our peanut butter sandwiches on raisin bread, along with much of a local melon we bought in the morning in a convenience store in Markle, and some cookies and the church's cold water. As we were finishing, a man who had been attending Bible Study at the church came out to chat. He's also a cyclist and told us about a very nice trail in Fort Wayne and also knew all about where we are staying tonight - see below. Then the pastor reappeared and gave us a very nice little daily devotions magazine of the sort that has a Bible citation and a brief homily for each day - we read the one for today and liked it very much - the citation was Luke 14: 15-24 and verse 21 was quoted: "Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame."

Staying in Monroeville: Monroeville, a town of only about 1200 folks, does a wonderful thing for cyclists. Two Adventure Cycling Routes - the Northern Tier, which we are following, and the Great Lakes - go through here. The town has a nice little park and a very nice community center. Since 1975 or 1976, they have allowed cyclists (only) to stay inside the community center. There are bathrooms, a shower, a kitchen (with some basic utensils), and even a washer and dryer! There is no charge - although you can make a contribution.

They didn't start keeping records of visitors until sometime in the 90s, but since then at least 1300 cyclists have stayed here. They have had cyclists from all but 3 states, and from 16-17 foreign countries! Our map had a name and a phone number to call - we called and it was Warren, one of their park commissioners. He met us at a cemetery outside town and guided us here in his car, showed us around, and gave us a key, which we are to leave locked in the building when we leave.

We had arranged for our friend Barb to forward some mail to us here - when we went to the post office the clerk immediately asked if we knew about camping in the community center - as did the librarian when we went to the library. We are overwhelmed by the town's hospitality.

Note: A quick look through the log suggests that Riley, at 70 is the second, oldest cyclist to come through (some don't state their ages, but most do) and only 7 listed are 63 or over - Becky's will be 64 next week!

More on Monroeville: Here is what we wrote in the guest book at the Community Center, slightly augmented:

We are utterly amazed - and delighted - by Monroeville! The fact that this wonderful community center has been available to cyclists for more than 30 years is incredible. That it has so many amenities - shower, restrooms, kitchen, air conditioning, laundry facilities, TV and even a radio/cd/tape player - is amazing.

The welcome we had from Warren of the Park Commission, Carla at the Post Office, Chis and Judy at the library, Lois at the paper and the folks at Whippy Dippy (ice cream) and The Pour House (finally, that martini!) has been wonderful. We were delighted to share the community center with the cheerful ladies of the home ec club - who arrived at 6 and are still cleaning up at 10! - and sorry we didn't get to the Historical Society meeting, to which Warren invited us. We can hardly wait to try the Irish Breakfast at the White Dove in the morning. Finally, we are about to listen to some classical music - something we have really missed on this trip - on a CD which we checked out from the public library on "the cyclists' library card."

We almost missed talking to Lois Ternet, editor of the Monroeville News. Warren, of the Park Commission, told us she'd be at the historical society meeting, but we missed that. We were at the library before dinner and came back later - Chris, the librarian, told us he'd let her know we were in town and she had probably gone to look for us at the Community Center - but we were trying to stay out of the way of the home ec club meeting, so if she went there, she missed us. He told us she has a "Cyclists Hall of Fame" on a wall in her office - she tries to photograph as many cyclists as she can. He suggested we drop by the office - which would probably be open even if she wasn't there - to see the photos. We did go by - she was there, and now our photo will join the others. One group was photographed on the steps of the Methodist Church and was huge. We asked where they stayed and were told that the Methodist and Lutheran Churches had both opened their doors to accommodate the overflow - what a town!

Nature Notes: We continue to ride past fields of corn and soybeans. Somewhat to our surprise, they vary quite a bit as far as how close they are to harvest. In most places the corn is in some stage of drying but many soybeans are still very green and lush. Today we biked in a spot with dry corn to the left and dry soybeans to the right. The wind was blowing and the two sides of the road rustled quite differently!

Day 115, 8/31/10 - Peru to Markle, IN

Just the Basics: 51 miles, with some REALLY big hills, but all and all a good riding day, by and large on quiet paved roads. We are at the Super 8 in Markle.

Our route today took us along the Wabash River and through the Salamonie State Forest and over the dam at Salamonie Lake.

Today's Photos: (1) Morning glories beside a corn field on the Paw Paw Pike near County Road 300E; and (2) Scene on the road through Salamonie State Forest.

Tomorrow: We bike about 35 miles to Monroeville, IN - which will be our last town in Indiana and the last of this Adventure Cycling Northern Tier Route Map - the next map takes us through Ohio, a corner of Pennsylvania, and part way across Western New York State.

For Those Who Want More:
Peru Encounter: As we cycled along 3rd Street through Peru another cyclist came alongside - Aaron on his way to work. He told us about a new rail trail in the area which sounded great - although it wouldn't work for us. It is so exciting to see all the new trails that are cropping up, even during this difficult economic time. He also told us about a coffee house in town that sounded great - fair trade coffee and lots of locally-sourced food, some of which is obtained through barter. We were sorry we'd already had breakfast and that it was enough out of our way that we didn't feel we had time just to go for coffee!

Martini Report: Nope. We had pizza in the room tonight so we could watch the president's speech. The pizza place didn't even have beer. They told Riley the town has only 3 places with a liquor license - 2 bars and a liquor store. Riley rode into town for wine to go with the pizza and got an interesting bottle of red (not many choices) . . . . the search will continue!

Day 114, 8/30/10 - Logansport to Peru, IN

Just the Basics: Only 13.5 miles today! We had a lot of errands and such to do this a.m. - we needed to map out the next few days, which will be mostly off-route, and both of us needed watches, toothbrushes, combs and shoelaces, etc. In addition, based on the location of places to stay and eat for the next few days, a short trip to Peru seemed the best choice.

Photos: None today.

Tomorrow: We ride about 45 miles to Markle, IN (pop 1100)

For Those Who Want More:
Watches: Riley has gone through FOUR watches on this trip - all the same kind and all broken in the same way: One end of one of the receptacles for the little rods through the strap at wrist breaks off. The 1st time we figured the watch had just aged-out. Because Riley basically liked the watch, he bought another just like it, then another, then another - every one broke in the same way! He's switched brands . . . .

Becky always has problems with watches - she likes the contemporary electronic type but it's hard to find one that fits her extra-small wrist. We typically cut off much of the strap or it would almost wrap around twice. A couple of days ago the cut-off strap broke off at the last hole. She has gone back to an old-fashioned women's Timex.

Google's Bike Route Mapping Feature: Because we are currently somewhat off the Adventure Cycling route and lack both personal local knowledge and a highly detailed IN map, Riley has been experimenting with Google's new bike route mapping feature. It worked pretty well today and we're using it again tomorrow - stay tuned!

Encounters:
The DQ Guy: We keep forgetting to tell this story: 3 days ago as we approached our motel in Rensselaer we were happy to see a Dairy Queen almost next door to the motel - a shared DQ banana split is one of our favorite biking snacks.

As we rolled up a family was standing outside laughing - the man was holding a GIANT cone - the ice cream looked 6 inches high. He said he'd asked for a large but had no idea HOW large that would be. One of the women in the family was taking his picture with a cell phone. They asked about our trip and he insisted on having her take his picture with us - we were as big a novelty as the giant cone!

Passing Driver: Today a woman drove by, stopped, and asked the usual questions and had the usual response - delight, congratulations, good wishes and a God Bless You.

Penney's: We like shopping at Penney's, and went there today to buy watches. Becky's family have been customers forever and when Riley was a kid he remembers that his mom liked Penney's because she understood that they treated their employees well. We like their merchandise, but, particularly, the typically warm, helpful staff. Same thing today.

We chatted about this with Jennifer, who sold us the watches. She reported that they DO treat their employees well - she said it was the best place she'd ever worked. We asked if they got special training in Customer Service - at that point she spoke to a woman near by and said "Are you hearing this?" Turned out she was the manager - she says they interview for friendly, highly service-oriented people, then treat them well to keep them there.

They were also really interested in our ride and, when told about our blog, asked for the URL so they could follow it!

The Great Martini Hunt: Ever since we hit Mile 3000 we've intended to have a celebratory martini - but that is easier said than done in this neck of the woods. In our experience, family restaurants in small towns in the Midwest typically don't serve any alcohol - and if a motel has restaurants nearby they are likely to be family restaurants. Motels are often surrounded by fast food, but most fast food joints are also alcohol-free - unless they sell pizza or Mexican food, in which case they'll have only beer or, occasionally, beer and wine. Bars have cocktails but (a) We are sick of bar food - often the only place to eat in town is a bar and most of the food will be fried; and (b) We haven't seen any bars lately, either. Mile 3000 was several days ago but we have yet to find that martini (Bombay Sapphire gin, very dry, olives, rocks). = ( = (

Day 113, Rensselaer to Logansport, IN

Just the Basics: 6:48 a.m., CDT: Hot Off the Presses - An Update for the Day: We are headed for a motel in Logansport tonight (about 55 miles), instead of about 55 miles to camping in Fletcher. Riley got to looking at maps and possible routes and the locations of motels and figured out that we could go to Logansport today and then Wabash or Huntington tomorrow and then back onto the main route at that point. Part of today's route will be guided by Google's bike route mapping feature. See ya' tonight!

10 p.m., EDT, Logansport: Turns out it was a 61 MILE DAY - our longest to date for this trip, as we recall! The day began with 3.25 miles of loose gravel - very tough riding, even for Riley at times; at one point we had to walk for some distance. After that, either pavement or McAdam for the rest of the day. = ) = )

It was pretty hot today. The high was supposed to be 92 but we saw a thermometer in Royal Center at 5:15 p.m. and it was still 93, so it was considerably hotter than 92 at the peak of the day, you can be sure! Much of the day there was also about a 10 mph south wind so whenever we turned south (regularly) we had to fight some wind. Mercifully, it died down as we did the last 15 miles or so. We are now in the Eastern Time Zone!

See For Those Who Want More for a quick overview - not surprisingly, we're pretty much ready to call it a day!

Today's Photos: (1) Becky cycles on the brand new rail trail between Royal Center and Logansport; (2) A pile of discarded ties along the trail; and (3) Penny Bannon, Riley and Becky, on the outskirts of Logansport (see below).

Tomorrow: About 35 miles to a motel in Wabash, IN - and it's supposed to be a bit cooler tomorrow.

For Those Who Want More: Here's the day in brief:

• 15 miles: A mid-morning roadside break - we split a small cantaloupe purchased yesterday at the Farmer's Market in Lafayette and had little Svenhardt sweet rolls which, with coffee, were the motel "breakfast." (We saved the rolls for the ride and had a nice breakfast at the Mexican restaurant next door.)
  
• 30 miles to Buffalo, the 1st town of the day - the ice cream shop and restaurant were closed (the latter is for sale) so we bought sandwiches, V-8s, an OJ, a brownie and a Butterfinger ice cream bar at the grocery store (also for sale & about to close for the day).
  
• Put on the next round of sunscreen in the park outside the Buffalo Volunteer Fire Dept. There must have been an alarm because all of a sudden guys started pulling up and running inside, one guy came running on foot, one was dropped off, and in an instant 3 trucks were out the door! Later we saw 2 of them returning as we cycled along.
  
• Reached Royal Center around mile 45 (?) and stopped at a convenience store for icy bottles of Starbucks coffee drinks and a shared bear claw.
  
• Just as we rolled into town we had spotted what looked suspiciously like a brand new rail trail. We asked about it in the store and heard that it would eventually run from Winamac to Logansport and that the Logansport end wasn't done - but they didn't know how far it went. Luckily for us, while we were getting ready to leave a guy in a pick-up with 2 bikes in the back drove up to the gas pumps. We wish we had his name and photo because he talked to us for a long time and drew us a map and therefore made it possible for us to take the trail for several miles, which was lovely.
  
• When we got to Loagansport we stopped at a corner to check directions and went over to ask the only person we could see. Her name is Penny Bannon and she and her grandson were coming outside together - we didn't get his name but he was about 2 and cute as a button. Turns out she also bikes and she got us nicely routed through town and sat us down in her yard and served us tall glasses of ice water. Turns out she taught English for 32 years and now works as a national consultant - as you can imagine, we had lots to talk about!

Day 112 , 8/28/10 - West Lafayette, IN

Just the Basics: Last night our dear friends Janie and Ephraim Fischbach drove some 40 miles to Rensselaer to take us out to dinner - we had the best restaurant meal we've had since Portland! We had already taken a motel here in Rensselaer for Friday and Saturday but we left most of our stuff and the bikes in the motel and went home to spend the night at their lovely big house in West Lafayette and spent Saturday together there. Riley and Ephraim talked lots of physics and visited Ephraim's lab; we had a great breakfast in a local restaurant; went to the Farmer's Market; did some necessary shopping; and pretty much talked non-stop about politics, family, world problems, mutual friends, our work, retirement, their recent vacation in Oregon and, of course, our bike trip! We have met lots of interesting people on this trip and had some great conversations and learned lots of things - but there is nothing like spending time with compatible long-time friends.

Today's Photos: (1) Becky and Janie at the kitchen table in the Fischbach's lovely home; (2) Janie, Becky and Ephraim; (3) Janie, Riley and Ephraim;

Tomorrow: 55 miles to a campsite in a city park in Fletcher, IN - if we're lucky there will be a pit toilet and water. During this time we will go through only 1 other town, which is supposed to have groceries, a place to eat, and a post office. The next morning we will have to go another 20 miles to get to a town! Since we'll be camping, we may not be in a spot where we can blog - if not, we'll catch up later.

For Those Who Want More: That's it for today.