Rainy Day Cyclin' Part 2 + What I make of Indiana.

We left Grand Rapids, OH Monday morning with a large order on our plate - 115 or so miles into our next town. Oh, we thought we'd be ready with the flat terrain and beautiful, clear weather, but that seemed to change for the worse as things went on. At our lunch stop in Paulding, OH we ate at a small pizza chain store that was serving up a buffet for 2.99. It was too good to pass up and I nearly passed out from the sheer volume of "Chicago-style" slices I managed to stuff down. On the way out, it started raining, and stopped again, but without getting rid of that foreboding look in the Ohio skyscape. James got a flat, the route took a detour and Indiana didn't give us a welcome sign of any kind except for changing road signs and gravel roads. A postman driving in the passenger seat of his station wagon gave us candy and directions, and we got into our rest stop later in the afternoon than we had planned on. From what I hear, our team got a lot of strange offers for accomodations in that town, so we high-tailed it west into the darken horizion in front of us. At 80 miles and about 6 o'clock in the evening, it began to rain. It began to pour. I have a rather rudimentary rain jacket but it offers little in the way breathability, so the sweat stuck my skin to the inside of the jacket and offered little in the way of insulation to the cold. We ran a double paceline at about 15 mph and I had to pull into the wind for a couple of miles. That having put me in debt, I got tired quick and still had a ways to go. I hit 100 miles a little after the 7 hour mark, but at that point, I would be pushing my boundaries until we stopped. I started losing it, slurring my speech, and wouldn't be surprised if my core body temperature had dropped a tiny bit. Fortunately I made it up the hill to our town wet, cold, miserable, and satisfied and peeled off a lot of wet clothing and bundled up in some warm ones. According to wikipedia I didn't get hypothermia but I guess I could have, so it's something to consider when biking in the cold. The United Methodist Church in Huntington, IN had dinner ready when we got in, so that was good for recovering from the day's work. I set up shop underneath the dinner table and fell asleep reading Kerouac.

Tuesday was a well-needed rest day. My natural clock woke me at 5:55 in the morning, and naturally I got up and bumped my head on the table above. Cursing myself, I fell asleep until breakfast and a team meeting where we went over a few key issues surrounding our mornings and general team conduct. The day before I had started eating before I was supposed to, but hadn't heard we would now be eating together, at the same time, instead of at everyone's irregular rhythms of waking up and getting packed. I was afraid I had set off one of our teammates in particular, but was told not to worry or feel bad about it by our team leaders. It was all said and done and I left it at that. I've been pretty much living up to the idea that my needs and everyone else's individual needs are subordinate to the team's in order for things to operate smoothy and in a timely fashion, especially where it's key that we start out early and avoid the hot of the day or other conditions that may make cycling a pain or difficult. That's just how we need to roll.

I went to the local Y where I took a much needed hot shower and played bumper pool for the first time ever with Dan. I beat him after nearly being defeated. That may or may not be the last time I play bumper pool on this trip. I then bought a bottle cage to replace my broken one and my favorite kind of patch kit. In the afternoon I took care of laundry with Brian and Andrew and visited the local Walgreens for more sunscreen. I realize I should have took a picture to send to the folks back in Hinsdale, but there are something like 5400 stores nationwide and in Puerto Rico. Later I watched the Fountain with the folks who had rented it and I have to say it is one of the better movies I've seen recently and something I can appreciate post-film class for all of its structural and argumentative devices. For more on that, see previous posts. Like the ones that are not about bikes. I managed to screw up my rear deraileur after removing and cleaning out my cassette. It began hitting the spokes in the inner-most position, but after messing with the tension and high/low stops I got it working properly again. As a note to myself, I should probably stop messing with things that don't need fixing in particular. I should also mention that this has worked well for my tires, which haven't given me a problem after a long period of blowouts and pinch-flats. I nearly missed dinner and fell dead asleep watching Casino Royale.

Today we got a start into the chilly morning with me wishing for a long-sleeved something to go over my thin cycling jersey. The sun was out and the terrain was cornfield, so warming up wasn't a problem. We rode quick and non-stop for four intense hours before getting into town. Despite my best efforts, the riding became increasingly tiring and after a while, it became a pain to keep spinning at high cadence, but you could say I've seen the light and the benefits of staying in the small ring rather than powering through the strokes and hoping for the best if you need to accelerate. In town we talked with the locals outside our lunch stop. One of them had driven into town to do bike work at the hardware store, but none of us needed anything done. He still gave us free tire levers which was a nice gesture. If I'm ever in Peru, IN I'll stop by Breakaway Bike Shop.

We set up camp outside the Fellowship Baptist Church in Winamac, IN. I promptly fell asleep for a few hours inside one of our tents. Waking up, I was recruited to cook dinner and did the best job I could cutting green peppers. They had two side-by-side kitchens so cooking dinner was done with machine-like efficiency. I realize I don't have a meal kit and hope that whichever sibling of mine had one didn't give it away.

I'm now blogging on the computer inside the youth room of the church. Everyone is lounging around and I suppose I'll be joining them when I finish blogging now.