I took my time drying the tent this morning and cruised on into Indianapolis around 2:30.  I found a public library in a shopping mall on my way to Ken & Kathy's house, and I spent an hour on the computers there, though they had no maps.

Indianapolis has a few good rail trails and more in the works, but many of the roads are ill-suited for biking.  None of the drivers were rude or hostile, though, unlike in Cincinnati.

This morning I stopped at the park office on my way out and asked about the bike routes mentioned by the Atlas and Gazetteer.  The staff member most knowledgeable about bike routes turned out to be a little old lady who assured me that there are no off-road paths, but she stepped me through the recommended routes all the way to Indianapolis.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on September 18, 2004]

Hi, folks. I'm writing from Whitewater Memorial State Park, near Liberty, Indiana. I had planned to reach Indiana yesterday, but I'm starting to think that best-laid plans are best laid aside! Get ready for a long and rambling story...

This morning Fran made me a fantastic breakfast of blueberry-coconut-pecan muffins.  Yum!

Today's ride was uneventful; my main goal was to get into the flat country so I could make some time, and I did that... crossed into Indiana at Scipio and followed paved, flat back roads all the way to Whitewater Memorial State Park, near Liberty.

High point of the day was smelling an alfalfa-drying plant... brought back all kinds of Grinnell memories.

Total distance: 47.54 mi

Today was a day when nothing went quite as expected, but everything turned out great!

I left Bill's place in a steady rain that was forecast to last all day long.  I headed for the Ohio River, where a city Web site had told me there was a bike trail.  On the way I slammed into a large pothole that was concealed by a puddle.  Immediately after that, I noticed a pinging, popping sound coming from my front wheel.  I assumed it was the spokes, knocked out of their delicate relative tension by the impact.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on September 16, 2004]

Hi, folks. I'm safely under the wing of my friend Bill, who was my youth director at church 10 years ago and whom I haven't seen since... he's now a minister, and he has a 9-year-old son who is really into geography and soccer.

Bill took me to the library this morning when he went to yoga class, but the library turned out not to have any maps of Indiana.  However, the downtown library is on my way west, so I should be able to stop there tomorrow morning without trouble.

Today was not my day... I awoke to find that one of the campground's feral cats had marked my tent as its territory; then the morning air was so humid that even after an hour of "drying" I had to put the tent away wet.  When I tried to get on the bike path as shown on the map, I found that the trail entrance had been closed to bike traffic and had to ride about 2 miles to the next entrance.

I didn't sleep well last night because a bunch of raccoons -- at least three -- were making a ruckus right outside my tent.  I never heard such noises!  The Dog Dazer was moderately effective at quieting them down for a few minutes at a time.

I left Lancaster a little later than planned because Rob wanted to try to dry out my solar battery charger, which has had condensation in it since Ludington.  He wasn't able to make much progress, but he gave me some suggestions.