After a good night in Monroeville, I headed in to Fort Wayne to see about my bottom bracket, which had started making some noise the day before and I assumed was a little loose. I was excited to ride the Rivergreenway bike paths into downtown, but about 2 miles in the trail was closed for another year to expand the path network. Unfortunately I had to ride along the roads. Quickly I understood why the bike paths were necessary, no berms, skinny roads with no place for bicycles and slightly impatient automobile drivers. Fort Wayne is not a bike friendly place.
Bottom bracket declared DOA and was replaced. Thanks to the Summit City Cycles mechanics for changing out the BB and letting me hang out and learn.
A few more errands, including a jaunt to strip mall land to replace my cell phone, which stopped holding a charge a few days before. I have to say that I'm not a fan of AT&T, not only for their strip mall stores, but also because I've gone through many dead zones already.
A late start out of town and then a flat tire (3rd one), and finally when I really started bicycling I made good time but there wasn't much time left in the day and I was trying to make it as far as possible before the dark descended. A little more than an hour before the sun we went down I stopped into a gas station along the road and asked about camping possibilities. They suggested the state park. As I was finishing my snack, a woman stopped, having overheard my asking about camping, and suggested another possibility. It was close to the state park, so I headed off to see if it would work out. I had just started up the road when she came back and said that I could camp in her side yard, drew me a map to her house and formally introduced herself. I ended up spending a lovely evening with Anita and Jeff Krider.
Thank you, Jeff and Anita, for your wonderful hospitality!
A bit of garden meditation (weeding) in the morning and then off towards the Indiana Dunes. A hot, humid and sunny day, corn, soy and wheat fields, a few more hills than I thought Indiana had, and Amish and Mennonite farmers.
A sight I had never seen, really large green bales. Later I passed a flat bed truck with some stacked on the back.
A really random sight near a grain elevator.
Some other highlights from the road: A random Amish or Mennonite produce farm from which I bought some green beans and fields of mint among corn fields (Just imagine the scent on the wind. I couldn't convert it to a picture.)
I was racing against a front coming from the west. A few miles outside of La Porte, someone stopped by and told me that the front was coming in less than an hour, enough for me to get to La Porte but not to the Indiana Dunes.
I got to the library right when the storm hit. I guess the tornado sirens had just gone off so we sat in the basement and waited for the storm to pass. Thanks to the librarians who allowed my bike to come inside.
As we were waiting, I was figuring that I would be stuck in La Porte for the night. I talked with some of the librarians and they said that a second storm was coming. They suggested for me to spend the night at the Relay for Life.
After the storm passed, I wandered around trying to get some groceries, but the Kroger was closed from a power outage. I had passed a Chinese buffet a couple of doors down, so I went back. I really wanted to write a twitt at that time "eating lukewarm food in a dark chinese buffet, stuck in la porte, hmm what to do".
I ended up at Relay for Life, which had moved from the track into the high school. Quite a carnival atmosphere. Another crazy moment: Watching cloggers in khaki shorts and dark purple t-shirts tap dance to pop songs like Beyonce's Single Ladies. Not so smooth.
I went down to the fire station right when the second storm hit. They had no power but they put me up in a room.
No comments:
Post a Comment