Day 23 & 24 - Danville, IL to Anderson, IN to Troy, OH

Hey there 3 states in two days - crazy isn't it? We had taken up 5 days to cross Montana!! OK, I have to start out with an apology - typically I'm a HUGE postcard writer - I usually send at least to 8 different households when I travel - I will admit that I have picked them up - except for a few states - BUT I haven't written them - sorry! I may do it and I may not. I even send them to myself - it's cool to look at them over the years. So, if you don't get one I may just hand it to you later! :-)

Yesterday, Day 23 we did 113 miles with only about 1,000 feet of climbing - fantastic! It was a fun day and I have felt great the last few days! My legs seemed to have recovered a bit and with a little tweak to my pedaling when I climb - alls well!

All day today I had the song "Gary, Indiana" going on in my head it made me giggle. I also kept thinking "Hi Scott & Tara's folks - wherever you are". I didn't realize that Indiana was the white washed barn mecca. It's so cool to see so many of them and so different than the typical ones that you see. The terrain today was pretty flat and we were in Indiana very quickly within the first 6 miles. I thought maybe some different scenery - nope! Guess what? More corn and soybeans. I rode with Paul, Mark, Susan and Dale for most of the day and we just kinda took it easy with a few times going a little crazy. We had great roads today too, which Mark was very impressed with, since he's from Muncie, IN - he said there can be terrible ones.

We passed a few little cute towns and had a great lunch as usual! Michelle and I ate at the Ruby Tuesdays later than usual, (they have an amazing salad bar) as I had an hour massage - I tell you I don't know how I'm going to go back to not having my every few days massages!!

Day 24 - Into OH-IO we go

Guess what?!! Last night I got my first full 8 hours of sleep on this whole tour!! I was rearing to go and felt better mentally than I had in a week. This is not only taxing on your body but your mind can get tired. Not that there's much to think about, you have the routine down and all the things you have to prep, but you just get tired. So, I felt like a million bucks! It's funny but I play with the mileage expectations in my head, if we have 136 miles to do, then after the 36 is under my belt I think - we only have 100 left that's easy, then I break that down into thirds - so who couldn't do 33 miles, and so on, it makes it easier to digest.

I came out with my luggage to find Paul had already got his on the truck - he's been paying attention! So, off we went - there were clouds in the sky but the rain hadn't started yet. As we rode out we had Mark and Susan and we caught up with a few others. Dale left for 'real life' today - yuck real life!
When you ride in a pace line you forget to look around and enjoy the views - I try to pay attention to the wheel in front, looking for hand signals to tell me what to expect (holes in the road, roadkill, whether the person is going to stand on the pedals, etc.). So, today I was determined to stop and take more pictures and catch up later. Well, I did take more pictures and my group would soft pedal til I caught up. So, I have a few more but not much.

We rode through some residential areas today that where nice and I saw even more white barns. Everyone seemed to be in a really good mood, knowing that we had a super short day with only 85 miles and barely any climbs. As we were riding Lon came by us and rode with us for a little bit then started to leave us - well as I mentioned - I felt great - so I moved up the line and gently eased our group faster and faster til 'we' almost had Lon back til I looked back and Paul was saying 'Vikki - settle down' - what!? I didn't want too, I should have stuck with Lon til lunch to burn off my excess energy but I acquiesced and took my place back in line. Only for Paul to say to me - and this is from Paul - Mr Nice guy - 'You're like a mare in heat" WHAT!!! I told him they must not have powerful independent women in Australia! And that I'm surprised to hear what comes out of his mouth (he had said the same to me the day before) He did apologize but it was all in good fun. Just about 9 miles before lunch we got rained on a bit, nothing like before though, thank goodness! We also saw a big sign indicating Amish the next 19 miles but I never saw any darn it I wanted to take a picture.

As we came up a small hill I saw a cyclist in the street and a car - my heart sank and I warned the line that there was a situation up ahead. As we came up the person on the ground stood up and the car left. It was Cynthia - the car was blowing the stop sign and didn't see the cyclists - thankfully she wasn't hurt. She fell when she slammed on her brakes - since it was raining her brakes were wet and they don't stop as easily. I'm not mentioning this to scare anyone but I am mentioning it to say, please pay attention when you are driving, put down the cell phone, don't text, look around and up and down for things that may not be as high as a truck or car. I was so glad that she was alright I gave her a great big hug!

We got in super early today at around 2:30. As I was coming into the hotel I spied with my beady eye a Nail and Tan salon - can you say pedicure!!?? Oh yes, I was so elated that I shot to the shower, got cleaned up and headed over to the spa. When you do this type of thing you are very hard on your body, it just gets abused! So, I needed to pamper my feet a little bit and my toes where getting chippy and I can't stand chipped up polish! It was pure heaven, complete with the massaging chair (not nearly as good as Jonathon) with compression and kneading - ahhh, and super hot bubbly water! She did an awesome job! As I was sitting there, not expecting anyone to know me there - I hear "Hey Lady" Janae had come over too and got her toes done - so cool.

Now, we are looking at where to go for dinner. At 7:00 there's a dvd and ice cream social - yippee!!! AND maybe, just maybe I'll get to bed by 9:30 tonight again so I can tear it up tomorrow!!! I mean rest up for the days in Virginia (2 days in a row of 105+ and 9k of climbing - shudder to think of them)

Day 23

Susan and Rebbecca(Lon & Susan's daughter) cleaning up from lunch

Surround yourself with Shady Characters - looks like this one may have been struck by lightening or got a bad hair cut!

This is hilarious - a sign pointing out a HILL at first I groaned but look at the hill in the back - not much!!
Cute downtown

A seemingly innocent flag and cone, but it has the Pavlov's Dog affect on us - it's where the stops are with water, food, sunscreen, and my very favorite --- Chamois Butter!! (no that's not something you eat!)

Indiana state sign - Paul has the one with me in it, but your probably getting sick of seeing those!

Morse Reservoir in Indiana - hey it's not a corn or soybean field!! Typically there are tons of sailboats but since it was a Monday the poor saps where probably at work!!

Day 24

Cov, me , Susan and Paul - we're in OH-IO, look at the "0" sign, zero miles.....

1st stop Greg (far left) Jonathon in the back, Jerry and Jim

I thought we were in Indiana not Kentucky!

Cynthia (recumbent), Tom, Ann, Stan (look at the farm house, their entire set up was white, barn, corn cribs all of it!)

A White Barn - so cool, they are everywhere - anyone know why they are white?

Middletown Dietrich Memorial Park - big artillery gun

Janae and I at the spa - look at those sparkly toes!!!