Today started out great. But, Hot, Hot, Hot. I drank so much water and kept watching to see if I was sweating. A little concerned about heat stroke or whatever. But I dripped profusely and probably left a trail. It was way into the 90’s.
There was a 25 mile stretch that was absolutely beautiful. Just farmland but looked so nice. This side of Illinois mows every piece of grass along the road. Just really pretty. And the first 50 miles had nice shoulders all the way with fairly smooth pavement. Loved it.
The last 10 miles were hairy. As I entered Lawrenceville, rte 50 that I have been riding for the last couple days, all of a sudden became off limits to bicycles etc. So I had to take the business route into town, found the police station, and explained my dilemma. The officer on duty gave me the ok to ride those last 10 miles on the 4 lanes, just told me to stay on the shoulder. Once on the four lanes, my shoulder was awful. Imagine a white line, 4 inches or less of shoulder, a 12-15 inch rumble strip and then, maybe 6-8 inches of shoulder before it dropped off into unstable gravel. I knew then why they didn’t want bikes on there. So I had to ride on the very edge of the right lane and twice, had to cross the rumble strip and hang on for dear life. So stressful and it was so HOT. And, no place to really stop and wipe sweat. This was my only option into Vincennes so I just said my prayers and persevered. Not a cool way to end a beautiful start to a day. But, I’m in Indiana. Yeah! No picture to prove it for obvious reasons.
There is a huge bike shop in town and I need to have a couple things checked so I’ve talked myself into going there at 10 and riding a shorter day. I will be leaving in the heat of the day which is really not what I want to do. But one does what one has to do.
62.8 miles today. 1283.6 total
BikerAl Across America 2018 