Indianapolis to Richmond

I felt well rested after the off day in Indianapolis. I actually had two days off since I rode the van From Crawfordsville because of the rain storm. My roommate Rick and three others hired a van to shuttle them back to Crawfordsville yesterday so they could complete that stretch in better weather conditions. I didn’t join them because my cousin Wade and his wife Eunice were coming to see me, and take me out to lunch and to a bike shop to pick up some necessary supplies.


I had a very nice time with them. We went to the Bike Line bike shop in a very nice part of Indianapolis and I was able to make my purchases. Next door was a Mexican restaurant and they treated me to lunch there. Wade was scheduled to participate in this bike tour with me and had sent in the necessary deposit to secure his spot. Unfortunately Eunice’s Father was diagnosed with terminal cancer so he canceled. Her father passed away in June. We talked about ideas for doing a future bike tour together and compared notes on how retirement is going. Wade retired last year also, but as a Physician he still works part time in an Urgent Care medical center near their home in Indiana. It is very meaningful to reconnect with family friends when being away from my family for so long.

The ABB staff have a day off too when we aren’t riding. They have many other tasks that have to be done on the off days such as servicing the vans and cleaning the water coolers and many things I’m not even aware of. If they have a little spare time they may work on their own bike. I took a photo of Girard servicing his bike. He has a Santana which is constructed of Titanium tubing. It is very light. This bike has couplers on the frame which allows disassembly and packing in a box the size of the wheels. This allows you to check it as luggage with the airlines.

Last night we went to bed with thunder, lightening and torrential rain coming down. The forecast was that a frontal system was moving in from the north and was supposed to move south of Indianapolis by this morning. When we woke and checked conditions we could see puddles but no indication of recent rain on the streets. After breakfasting and loading luggage we departed.

The air was heavy with humidity but we rode the route mostly in the dry. We had a brief rain shower about 35 miles into the ride but otherwise it was smooth sailing. We had a slight tail wind and because of the clouds the temperature stayed cool. It was about 72 degrees on departure and about 80 on arrival in Richmond Indiana. We arrived at the hotel at 1:00 PM after stopping at a McDonalds for lunch on the way.

It felt good to be riding again. Our course followed Route 40 and we rode due East for a total of 74 miles. The next two days will be over 100 miles each.