zigging and zagging

We had a buffet style breakfast at the Valparaiso University Cafeteria, and it requires all of my willpower not to dive in to the pans of food and eat a whole lot. If I were to give in to this temptation, I'd have a seriously difficult time bicycling, so I try to keep breakfasts pretty small so I won't be too full to bike. On days with hot breakfasts like this, it's very difficult though!

Due to the way we had to build up the outside of my right cycling shoe so that my legs would be the same length, it's rather difficult to actually walk in that shoes. So I usually carry my flip flops with me to walk in and put on my cycling shoes only when I'm getting on the bike. So, as per usual, I went to breakfast in my flip flops and carried my socks and cycling shoes to breakfast with me. After breakfast when I went to put on my cycling shoes, I realized that I had somehow lost a sock on the way to breakfast. I cycled back along the path between the dorm and cafeteria in search of it, but to no avail. So I cycled the day looking like a complete goofball with just a single sock on.

Today was our second longest day at 109 miles, but it actually wasn't all that bad. Somewhere along the line here, things have gone from really difficult -- I would wake up each day pondering if I'd live to see the end of it -- to really amazing -- I now wake up each day looking forward to another adventure, day of cycling, and hanging out with my new found friends. It's been an amazing trip, and it's starting to dawn on me that it's not too long before it all ends. Perhaps if I don't think about that, it won't actually end? Denial is at least worth a try, right?

Today I rode with Kenny and Kathleen for most of the day, and we had a lot of fun. In the morning, we rode along through the sunny Indiana country side singing songs and telling our favorite jokes. I think my favorite was one that Kenny told...
Q: What's a pig's favorite karate move?
A: Pork chop
... which obviously isn't that funny on its own, but it was the way Kenny told it --like it was the most funny thing in the world, and the karate chop hand motion he managed to pull off while on his bike, and how hard he laughed about it -- that made it hilarious. It was one of those jokes where you weren't sure if you were laughing at the joke, or at the one telling the joke, but you just knew that you were laughing.

We also observed a new feature on our cue sheet today -- an upcoming "zig zag". Really it was just a few bends in the road, but we spotted it at mile 69.9 on the cue sheet, and eagerly anticipated it throughout the day. When we got there, we threw our hands in the air (ok, those of us who were capable of riding without hands -- I decline to state whether present company is capable) and screamed as we rode along the zig zag, like we were riding the world's fastest roller coaster. Much to our delight, there was also a zig zag at mile 77.4, and we repeated the same procedure.

We road through more farm land today (again, mostly soy beans and corn from what I can tell), and it made for a beautiful ride. We also passed through several other Amish and Mennonite communities, and we decided that on the scale of exciting things in our lives, getting the Amish riding by in carriages to wave is more exciting than getting a train to honk. The buggies move along fairly slowly, about 10 miles an hour, and we're able to pass by them, which is always a nice ego boost. :o) Interestingly, the buggies do have license plates.


Today we passed a road called Smilax, which naturally struck me as a combination of the words "smile" and "relax". I've decided smilaxing is my new life philosophy. :o) <-- That only encompasses the half of it, I'll have to think on what a relaxing smiley face would look like!

A few hours after lunch, we stopped at the Charlie’s Sweet Corn food stand by the side of the road and had a snack of blueberries there. We met an interesting character who worked there, a little old man, who started telling us about how America had, in fact, lost the war with England in the American revolution. The way he tells it, England was fighting to get rid of America, but we didn't want to take it. America lost, so the Americans over here had to keep it. I suppose that is one interpretation of those events... I got the feeling this fellow had an interesting interpretation of a lot of things.

About 12 miles out from our final destination for the day, we spotted the Humpty Dumpty Ice Cream Parlour in Wolcottville, Indiana. There simply was no resisting. Brian, Kat, Daria, and I sat around for a good amount of time, sampling quite a few of their of their many ice cream flavors. The sign they had on the wall raises a good point...


As we rode into Kendallville, I stopped at a drug store because I had an idea. I've been feeling quite masculine lately -- I spit, I eat bugs, I wee in the woods, I sweat all day, and I generally smell like a rotten fish. This summer, I am, for all intents and purposes, a boy. So, in a fit of feminine rebellion, I decided to buy red fingernail polish. I can't do much about all of the manly behavior, but I figured the least I could do is continue to do all those things while having red fingernails. When we got into camp, I painted my fingernails and toenails red, and I think I must have been on to something, because six other girls on the trip came up and asked if they could borrow it to paint their nails too. By the end of the night, there were six of us running around with painted nails. I'm feeling much better about myself now. :o)

We crossed into our final time zone, the Eastern time zone, today which means that we lost an hour. We camped at the Bixler Lake Park in Kendallville, and the Park Association provided a dinner of BBQ pork sandwiches with all the fixins'. It hasn't been too hot at nights lately, which has made for comfortable camping and restful nights.

Also, a few more excerpts from Daria's blog (she did so much great research and documentation that I'm snagging a bit [with permission of course :o)]) about today's ride...

Apparently, Indiana has an interesting history regarding its time zones. Although the Standard Time Act placed Indiana in the Central time zone in 1918, there have been disputes about what was considered the “official time” within the state since then. Currently, the state is split into two time zones, with the both the far northeastern corner (where we started our day) and the southeastern corner in the Central time zone. The rest of the state is in the Eastern time zone.

The Interstate Commerce Commission divided Indiana between the Eastern and Central time zones in 1961, but the time zone line has not been consistently observed. The state’s counties varied in observing different time zones in the 1960s and 1970s. In January 2006, the US Department of Transportation announced a rule that changed the clock for eight of 17 Indiana counties seeking to move to the Central Standard Time. Five of those counties returned to the Eastern time zone in November 2007. At that point, 80 of Indiana's 92 counties were in the Eastern time zone, while the other 12 were in the Central time zone. However, a bill was approved by the Indiana House committee in January 2008 for a referendum to allow residents of any county located near the Eastern-Central boundary to vote the time they wanted to observe. It is likely that the Indiana time zone issues will continue in the future. Many argue that the entire state should move to the Central time zone. I would vote for that today as riding 110 miles and losing an hour makes for a very long day.


I rode by a field of Longhorn cattle, not something I expected to see in Indiana. Apparently, they have been there for quite a while, over 150 years, so they are clearly there to stay. It was the home of Plainview Longhorns, a family-owned and operated forage producer and cattle breeder with an unmatched reputation for providing the highest quality, dry hay products and breeding cattle to the best bulls in the industry. They are a high-profile name in the agriculture community for their commitment to the production of organic hay products, and in the cattle industry for top-quality beef. They have also been featured in the Smithsonian Magazine as a Century Farm.