Our last morning in Indianapolis! We thought we'd get an early start, beat the heat and traffic and all that. Then I looked outside, saw fog and drizzle, and decided just to let things happen; maybe we'd be off by 8 or 8:30. Since we were planning on stopping 30 miles earlier, and going 30 miles more two days hence, it really didn't matter time-wise, and heat wise, there seemed to be no problem. So off we pulled at 8:40, after saying good good-byes to Cheryl's parents, getting our last licks at the motel breakfast bar, and a final fling in the swimming pool.
Shaine, Will, and I did the first six miles along 4-lane Rockville Rd, suffered a flat on the rear tandem wheel, moved a mile north to county roads, and motored on into North Salem. When Bikrutz (the RV) caught up with us, we went into "Liz's Country Cafe", had pie ala mode (felt sinful at 11:15 AM), and started out again, Cheryl replacing Shaine. Half mile, another flat. The first one had been due to a slit in the tire, which I'd booted with a double strength PowerBar wrapper. Well, they work for 45 psi mountain bike tires; guess 130 lbs on the tandem is too much for them. The PowerBar wrapper had a slit in each layer, the tube pinched out, and got ripped. We sent Will back for a new tire, put it on, and headed out towards our Milligan meeting point with Cody.
Milligan was one of those places with one sign and the name on each side, so Cody went right past, and waited for us 3 miles ahead. After about 45 minutes, we both figured it was time to move on, so we went West and he went East, and we met in the middle. Ann got on, Cheryl got her single, and off we went to Turkey Run St. Park. We'd read about the "Olympic-size swimming pool" there (at a State Park!), so we thought that was the place for us. Went to the pool, were told to go a mile further to the Campground, were told there that it was full (starting two hours late and losing another hour at Milligan hadn't helped), and went a mile further to "Cherokee Village" RV park. No one was there except Cody. He'd found a proprietor, paid twelve dollars, and set up camp.
Ann, Cheryl, and I went back to the pool, which was indeed 50 meters long, with extensions at either end and a kiddie pool. We all had fun, got our showers, and went back to hamburgers a la Will and Cody.
Two words about the day's weather: muggy and wet. We got some brief almost torrential downpours. But the most alarming thing occurred about 2 PM, just before the first shower. For five miles, we ran into a giant gnat convention. They were hitting me like a rain shower; felt kind of weird. Cheryl, on the back, was spared, but then I dropped down suddenly and gave her a taste (literally). Once the rain started, it was really hard to tell the difference between the gnats and the water drops. Most of the day, we couldn't see more than a mile, from the haze. Even thought the temp never got above 76 F, we still felt drained, although needed much less water. Attempting to dry towels on the RV awning, per Bikrutz protocol, got them wetter, not dryer, I think.
Miles: Will, 62; Al (All Tandem), 62; Cheryl (Tandem & single) 38; Shaine (Tandem) 24; Ann (Tandem) 12.
Total Miles: 1212
-Al Bikrutz