Day 34 Coal City to Valparaiso

Day 34 Coal City to Valparaiso

Essence: Trying not to Hate the BIG RIDE

5:00 a.m. Camp is up and being as loud and obnoxious to our noisy neighbors as we can be. We can't hold a candle to them, but the effort is made with even a few cyclists douing laps around their tents shouting and yelling.

We leave Coal City and are glad for the lack of rain 1 1/2 days of riding in thr rain and the saddles sores are coming back to life and itis uncomfortable. Scott sets a blistering pace for the Scott Train. Kari, Stephen and I fall off the train as He and Alison push on hard after the water stop. Just befroe teh water stop we did meet this guy.




Fortunately the first 35 miles seem to go pretty quickly. We enter into Indiana with zero fanfare. Indiana doesn't even have a welcome sign. Apparently they don't like viistors. The roads are the worst we have seen. Chuckholed beyond belief, not shoulders and narrow. A cyclists dream, NOT! Crazy country road traffic, passing us and upset that we happen to be in the road. We would be happy not to be in the road if we could fly. Otherwise our choice is to be in the road.

Greg finds a roadside sofa for offer and makes use of it and lifts our spirits.



Stephen, Kari and I are worn out. We have ridden 13 of the last 14 days. Almost 600 miles in the last 7 days alone. this is 7th consecutive day. We discusss how we haven't felt strong in weeks. We can't remember the last time we felt really good on the bike. We search for the 1/2 way check point. It is listed twice on our on route guide. We pass the first listing. No stop. We pass what seems to be the next logical place to have it. No waterstop. So we crashout on a lawn and make our own lunch stop. We talk with the local farmer. He gives us some road advice: Stay off them and be careful of hte drivers. Seems to be an Indiana theme.

Back on the bikes after lunch we ride 3 block to the next turn and find the water stop. We are still gald to ahve stopped and met the farmer and had a country picnic feel to our lunch.

This is where we take a "Welcome to Indiana" picture.



After the checkpoint I announce to Stephen and Kari, my new goal - to dedicate teh next 3 hours of my life, to covering the 40 miles left and trying not to hate the BIG RIDE.

Rolling on, we don't get a mile when Stephen has a flat. KAri and I can't help but watch so I lay back on the road and 5 minutes later Kari is telling me to wake up. I was surprised that i actually fell asleep in my helmet and everything.

On down the road, we hit road cnstruction where they are fresh paving the road. They let us through but at the end flagger we have to jump back up on the newly hot-tarred road. So after glazing our tires in warm tar, we get onto another road and lightly frost them with crushed rock and sand. What a great combination.

We make okay progress and time. At 70 miles we have our last water stop which is provided by David Lambert's family who have driven 3 hours from Southern Indiana to come see him. His dad and sister even ride a tendem the last 12 miles with him in to camp.



Just as we pull out of this water stop, my back tire blows out, only 2 feet away from Mechanic Dave's face. The hot tar finally heated up the tired that when I stood the bike up, it just blew out. The explosion of the tire is deafening and Dave and I sort of look at each other shell shocked and feel like we have been gunshot. But no blood. We both have slow motiion visions of the tire exploding and rubber shrapnel spraying o utward. Very surreal.

After a tire change, we are back on the road and surprisingly do survive the last 15 miles in to Valpo.



We have made it. 7 consecutive days of riding.

We check in. We go get Dairy queen. We have dinner in the cafeteria and after dinner we sit around chatting with Larry,
a 1999 Big Rider Alumnus.



It is good to talk with him. He knows. He understands what we mean. He is the guy I wanted to talk to before the ride to find out what it is like. I now see how impossible that would have been. I wouldn't have been able to understand. Now I can hear what he means in what he says. Before I would have only heard the words, but not the meanings.

Larry has been here and shares his wisdom. Wisdom of how it has changed his life. Wisdom of how he falls back on these experiences. Wisdom of what to do, see and think about as we prepare to re-enter normal life and re-engage in a world we have missed for the past 5 weeks.

5 weeks is a long time to disconnect. We are worn and tired. I remember back to training ride weeks when I would ride 80 miles as my max and then would have to rest a day and then pace myself for 40 miles days and had 2 rest days a week. Now we are doing 80 mile minimums back to back with no rest.

It's amazing. It's astounding that 76 year old Bob Jones is right there with the 20 something "kids". We can are are doing this. And now we have been at it long enough to start being able to reflect on it.

That is okay... as long as I don't wind up hating it.


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