Day Thirty-six

Brother and sister Joe and Rose ride a segment of the tour every year so they have two left. They're leaving us in Indy and we'll miss them.

Robb and Lester have a well-deserved reputation for going the wrong way.

Mardie and Scott going in the right direction.

One more sorehead in Hillsboro.

Thanks for a great day Craig and Mardie.

There's no way Phil wanted to wear this. He's a good sport!

Semper Fi

Well folks it wasn’t easy but the Marine Corps stayed true to their mission and delivered their man late last evening to the hotel in Champlain. What started as a routine reverse ride from Crawfordsville, IN to Champlain, IL turned into a nightmare of reroutes around dirt roads, riding the better dirt roads, eventually breaking a back wheel, and calling a bike shop after hours to rescue our people and allow them to ride today. They don’t give-up easily, in fact, they just don’t give-up.

It was 9pm when I finally met Craig Bays who was accompanied by the famous Italian guest rider, Mardie DiCarlo. They had spent their entire day on the road and still hadn’t eaten but promised to meet us for the 6am luggage load and breakfast. Like all good Marines, they were 10 minutes early this morning and we were ready to rock and roll.

My goal was to stay with Mardie and Craig with typical USMC bravura was unafraid that he was going directly into Phil’s lair. Phil suggested that we all pedal easy and “take a lot of pictures” so we wouldn’t outrun the SAG at 30 miles. Despite his suggestion the last time I saw Craig and Phil was about mile 2!

Mardie was super kind taking it easy on me and we had a fabulous day on the road as the miles just rolled underneath our wheels. Before I knew it we had a straight ½ mile shot to the finish and I challenged her to a sprint. She shot off the front but I managed to grab her wheel and hung on for dear life. After a few seconds I saw my chance and blasted past her to an easy victory with arms outstretched blowing beautiful kisses to the sky. Only later did I find out that she couldn’t shift to her big ring and was left high spinning the middle ring. Hey, a win’s a win and I was way overdue to outride a woman.

I couldn’t wait to learn about the bloodbath between Craig and Phil. They had left everyone in the dust but the clear winner was old man Phil. It’s time to recognize Phil as the true point leader of the tour. There’s only a couple weeks left but plans are already being laid for the next sequel. Don’t want to say much here because this is clearly a bigger job than any of us thought. Phil is a spinning stud!

Maybe the best day of the tour for me and everyone is really excited about tomorrow because it’s a super easy 62 miles to Indy with lots of fun side trips. And hey it’s a new state AND we’re back it our time zone. I feel you getting closer baby! xo

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

Scenery: 6

Road conditions 8

Grunt factor: 8