Day 34 - Champaign, IL to Crawfordsville, IN
79.2. miles official miles
5:04 bike time, 16.0 mph
Well today we crossed another state line. These Eastern states seem to come and go quickly. We will be in Indianapolis tomorrow and then only one more day in Indiana. Ohio here we come. As we say in biking I can smell the barn. This is the expression we use when we get about ten miles away each day and essentially start picking up the pace as we get closer to the finish. Remember the earlier analogy of bikes being horses.
We did have a funny happening today. One of the riders thought he left his heart monitor in the hotel. Two riders in the past thought they had done the same thing with their wallets, only to discover they had left them in their luggage bags. Well anyway, this person calls the driver of one of the vans who calls the other van and the second van turns around to go back to the hotel. After a while, the rider with the “lost” heart monitor calls in again and declares that they have found their monitor after all. It is around their belly as it has slipped down. Now I would never have told them that. Maybe, “oops, it’s in my jacket pocket” or something. Perhaps even that a giant bunny was seen running across the road with the monitor and you stole it back. But not that. This situation called for a good story, fib or downright lie. We do have a saying that “what goes on in the van, stays in the van”, but this was too funny and it happened outside of the van, so it is fair game to publish it. We’ll just call the rider, “he who must not be named”.
I took a nap today and would have slept through dinner had Mack not awoken me. They weren’t surprised that I missed route rap, but they knew I wouldn’t miss dinner, so they rung me up. It was a fine dinner topped off with German chocolate cake, so don’t be worried about me not eating. I’m sure I’m now gaining weight. Check out the pictures. Also, I can always stretch or reformat the pics to make me look skinnier.
Well I am up to about six products now for my bum on a daily basis. Surely something will be lethal given the possible combinations. I feel like I’m in an extensive consumer products test-an adult baby, testing products for the behind. Instead of saying goo goo to products I like, I just say ouch and darn a lot. This is a family site. Oh and Barry Jeffries, butt butter DOES NOT work. One of the riders decided to go cold turkey today. I thought he was quitting smoking (none of the riders smoke), but instead he has sworn off salves, lotions, creams, concoctions and potions. The next thing you know he will swear off goo. I think I will post a picture of all the various products I use for the legs and bum.
Now for Indiana. Indiana has trees and Illinois doesn’t. I thought it was Washington who chopped down all the trees, not Lincoln. Now this is a surprise. Still, we had lots of corn today and some soybeans and lots of trees and a few hills. Hillsboro, IN wouldn’t qualify as Hillsboro in Missouri. If it did, every town in MO would have to be Hillsboro.
Today, we stopped for an hour and ate lunch at The Bus Stop. It is really cool stopping in these really small towns and eating with the locals. The town had a population of maybe 100 or so. We were a novelty. These men with shaved legs and spandex and headsweats (picture Santini here). Bunch of sissy boys I’d say. But they never say that out loud.
For today’s history, Crawfordsville is where the novel Ben Hur was written and appears as number 43 in the top 100 small towns to live in. It is home to Wabash College an all male college. I am missing the concept of an all male institution somehow. It is very scenic and pretty and is only 47 miles from Indianapolis. A good place to live, I’d say. Leslie might think otherwise.
Signing off……..
