Day FORTY

I know I promised no more pictures of corn. This is a picture of morning glories. I'm hoping one of our expert farmer readers will explain why some of the fields we passed today (just a few) had morning glories on the perimeter. Is it some sort of pest control?

Octobarn

Thanks for the special SAG Tony and everyone at Choice One Engineering. I'm now a BFF (Buckeye Fan Forever)

Someone want to take a stab at explaining this one?

You wouldn't believe me or Kevin if we said we got FREE ice cream but who would doubt Kiwi Rick plus Lester reads the Bible and Larry's a Morman. Robb's just along for the ride. Thanks Cathy!

Mutual admiration society of Pam, Girard, and Joy after a great ride.

Wonder how long it took them to come up with that slogan?

How firm thy friendship…OHIO!

Didn’t realize that Richmond is right on the state line and we were standing at the Ohio sign shortly after sunrise all hoping that we’d have a good day on road because 100 miles can be miserable if things don’t fall into place and we’d already had a bad sign when Robb awoke to a hotel flat. I don’t know how it works back home but on this trip when Robb wakes-up the first thing he checks are his legs and then his tires. The forecast was decent except for the 90 degree temps but the early start should help mitigate that and it was a beautiful start with a bright sky, golden sunshine, and misty layers of fog hanging over the fields as we wound through back roads past small farms.

I don’t know what Lester was doing this morning but he was pulling his Houdini trick occasionally appearing only to disappear again. Robb and I chased down high-spinning George. I’ve decided that George actually rides as fast as I do but he spins so high that he has to frequently rest his cranks to keep them from overheating. During those periods we slowly creep-up and overtake him. But I like riding with George because it helps me clean-up my act when I’m riding with a rabbi plus he stops for good photos. We all stayed together until the first SAG where we were met by an ABB alum who had laid out homemade brownies and ice pops as a special supplement. Things are looking good and they’re about to get better.

During the off day in Indianapolis we’d met Tony’s wife, Joan (also Wade’s mom!) and his daughter Marla. They reappeared at mile 50 with a huge group from Tony’s engineering company that’s based nearby. They had set-up a special SAG with GIANT home baked chocolate chip cookies, cold drinks, ICE, hot dogs & brats. I love hot dogs but not in the middle of a century so I passed on the barbeque but was thankful particularly for the ice that helped get me to the second SAG. I’m really sorry that the photo with Tony’s mom didn’t come out because she’s a live wire.

We were all on our own spread over the landscape but the riding was great. A few miles from SAG #2 I managed to chase down Kiwi Rick and Chief Larry who had just finished another on-the-road TV interview for his blood donor effort. We found Kevin licking his wounds at the SAG. Seems the big dogs had used and dropped poor Kevin (and he was surprised??). We were happy to have Kevin and George join us for the final 30 miles. Together we were a formidable group where separately we would have struggled.

And the best is yet to come. Most of you know my standard MO when I arrive in a new town. I look for a pretty mom with a couple kids and ask about the local ice cream situation. Almost never fails but the moms must have all been at lunch so a couple construction guys directed us to DQ on the other side of town. A couple blocks later we noticed a storefront, Farm Stand Creamery (I’m gonna stick with the moms next time). Unfortunately the place looked closed. The door was open but all the chairs were on the tables and a guy was vacuuming.

He came out and said we’d come to the right place because he was giving away ice cream. EXCUSE ME…where’s the hidden camera! Amazingly it was true. They had lost their air conditioning and apparently the freezers couldn’t keep the ice cream cold enough so the board of health told them they couldn’t sell their inventory hence they were giving it away. How’s that for ending a day that started with a flat!

Today’s ratings: (the higher the better or easier)

Scenery: 8

Road conditions: 8

Grunt factor: 4